Mauritius pulls out of hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting because it refuses to host Sri Lanka (it wasn’t at this meeting either) and Malta steps hastily in because Labour just loves a dictator and violator of human rights
Joseph Muscat shakes the hand of Sri Lanka’s president, who is responsible for the appalling violence, torture and human rights violations in his country.
The people in control at the Labour Party right now are great admirers of Chairman Mao and Kim Il Sung, Muammar Gaddafi, Romania’s Ceaucescu and all the Soviet tyrants who held much of Europe in a bloody vice when they themselves were in government in Malta.
Joseph Muscat has made Alex Sceberraas Trigona, friend and supporter of Kim Il Sung and architect of Malta’s ‘military training’ agreement with North Korea, our new permanent representative at the World Trade Organisation. But the last time I saw him – in a hotel lobby Saturday before last – he was chatting over coffee with a bunch of Gaddafi admirers from a Libyan company that has been based in Malta since the Golden Years.
But this is about Sri Lanka, and why Mauritius has pulled out of hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting because it does not wish to host the representatives of that country. It is also why Joseph Muscat, a man at home with bloody dictators because he was raised on Mintoff’s friendship with them, who has no problem with murderous dictators who tyrannise and oppress their own citizens unless those dictators are called Lawrence Gonzi, had no problem immediately offering to host the meeting himself.
The situation in Sri Lanka is practically unknown in Malta – why would it be known? – but now that it is topical because we have no problem hosting them while Mauritius does, it’s best to find out a little bit more about the problems so that when you are besieged by morons of all ages and socio-educational backgrounds, on Facebook, you are not at a loss to respond.
Here goes, with something that encapsulates the full horror of the situation.
There was a documentary on BBC World in the last week or so which featured interviews with Tamils who have been ‘reeducated’ and who now live in the UK, where they have been given asylum. Their stories are horrendous.
A woman said she was repeatedly raped – for re-education purposes, no doubt – until she confessed to whatever it was they wanted her to confess. A man was repeatedly branded across his back with a hot iron, and another described how he had a tube containing barbed wire rammed up his anus. The tube was pulled out, leaving the barbed wire inside. This man said that when they pulled out the barbed wire he was ready to admit to anything. He still can’t walk properly.
Nothing I’ve read conveys the horror and tragedy of life in Sri Lanka more than this beautifully written leading article written by a Sri Lankan newspaper editor, Lasantha Wickrematunge, who was prominent in his own country. It was published after his death in 2009; he was murdered in a hail of gun-fire by agents of the Sri Lankan government which our own government will host in 2015.
He wrote it in the form of a personal letter to the Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapakse, about his own murder, which he foresaw. They had been friends when they were younger. Wickrematunge has been dead these last four years, but Mahinda Rajapakse is still there and will be Joseph Muscat’s guest in 2015.
“When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” Wickrematunge wrote to his childhood friend the president of Sri Lanka. “In the wake of my death I know you will make all the usual sanctimonious noises and call upon the police to hold a swift and thorough inquiry. But like all the inquiries you have ordered in the past, nothing will come of this one, too. For truth be told, we both know who will be behind my death.”
You have the links you need, below.
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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jan/13/sri-lankan-journalist-sunday-leader
http://www.thesundayleader.lk/20090111/editorial-.htm
The editorial is simply brilliant and a beautiful piece of writing. At the same time I can’t help but be reminded of the apparent ineptitude of the Maltese press.
Here is one man ready to put journalism to good use in a situation far worse than Malta’s, well aware that it will (and did) cost him his life and renouncing any and all opportunities to escape.
And over here in Malta we hardly hear a whimper when democracy is threatened and when the potential repercussions are so much less severe.
Lasantha Wickrematunge truly puts Malta’s so-called journalists to shame.
The Malta Labour Party feels more comfortable with such people as they have an inferiority complex when dealing with government officials, etc. of EU countries.
A man of principle
http://youtu.be/0cED6zA8u4E
From Dying for Journalism: Lasantha Wickrematunge of Sri Lanka – TIME http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1870440,00.html#ixzz2l0FKbDSq
The Leader’s motto is “Unbowed and unafraid,” and it’s a good reflection of its editor’s philosophy. Wickrematunge had worried over the past few days that he was being followed, but that had not diminished his enthusiasm for the next big story. I spoke to him less than an hour before the gunmen appeared, and he was full of ideas. It will be up to the staff at the Leader — including his wife, also a journalist with the paper — to continue that work. A staffer who was waiting at the hospital during his surgery told me a group of her colleagues had decided to go back to the office before they knew whether their mentor and friend would survive. “We have to get the newspaper out,” she said. I can’t think of a more fitting tribute.
BBC World – Sri Lanka’s Unfinished War
See the interview recordings here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24869703
Amnesty International
Commonwealth must stop Sri Lanka stifling human rights efforts:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/commonwealth-must-stop-sri-lanka-stifling-human-rights-efforts-2013-10-17
Mahinda Rajapaksa
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24918281
And Times of Malta has no clue of what happened.
With regards to the Citizenship Sale Scheme I would like to inquire whether the scheme considers a maximum number of potential applicants.
If the answer is negative, then a potential scenario could unfold whereby a non-EU superpower might buy citizenship for its selected citizens in order to secure a majority vote in the Maltese General Elections.
If we take the governments of the U.S.A., Russia and China as possible interested contenders for this scheme then they could easily take over the Maltese parliament with an investment of 52 billion euros. Their “planted” citizens would have the right to form a political party in Malta and to vote in the next general elections.
For all intents and purposes Malta would become a colony of this superpower thereby giving the latter access to the EU for political and economic reasons.
The scheme is capped by the market. There is no official upper limit to the number of applicants.
What you fear has already happened. Labour is in power, buoyed up by and servant to China.
And China didn’t even need to buy citizenship to start up a political party of its own.
Labour cannot get one right can they? This was so patently obvious before the election. Yet they managed to pull the wool over the eyes, not just of their non-thinking supporters, but also of others who think themselves so clever.
Jien naqta rasi li Joey ma fehemx ghaliex Mauritius ma tridx torganizza ic-CHOGM. Dak minghalih li se jaghmel xi bravura.
“But like all the inquiries you have ordered in the past, nothing will come of this one, too.”
It sounds uncannily familiar.
Joseph Muscat shakes the hand of Sri Lanka’s president, and looks incredibly sucky-up and star-struck while doing so. What is wrong with this man?
After decades in Opposition, these guys haven’t changed a tad. This is so reminiscent of Old Labour with one stark difference – things are moving more rapidly and unrelentingly.
Mr Prime Minister, how you raved and ranted during election time about the middle class and you did succeed in suckering a faction of it.
However today after a mere eight months in government, rest assured the middle class is your worst enemy.
I believe that the British PM David Cameron also shook hands with the Sri Lanka’s President. Nevertheless, he said what he had to say, and saw what he had to see.
I do not see the connection with holding the meeting in 2 years time.I think Daphne you are looking for needles in straw.I think for Mauritius it is too expensive to run the show.
The expression is “needle in a haystack”, but it’s not the one you were looking for.
I think this person’s English is the least of his problems.
I think it is people who see only bad in the party they do not support who have the problems. It is so pathetic in this country , one side which we do not support is all bad and the other side all good.Advanced, democratic countries talk and behave differently. I have hope in our young and educated as they are totally different. When one watches debates in Britain for example they do not bring up stupid insignificant subjects. Their debates too are witty and intelligent. Explain to me WHY it is wrong for Malta to host the Commonwealth in 2YEAR’s time ? What has it to do with Sri Lanka’s human rights ? David Cameroon said that it was better NOT to boycott the conference and bring to the world’s attention what Sri Lanka did ( the world had forgotten completely and thanks to this conference that attention has been brought up.) At least say that even countries and leaders have different ways in tackling such situations and not some narrow minded Maltese who sees only negative things in this government.By the way I USED to up to the last election to vote NP AND this election I voted Alternativa as they are the only ones who call a spade a spade and the die hard like some of you lot will never give them a chance so we remain the only democratic ( sic ) country in Europe with 2 parties who do ANYTHING they want for 5 years at least with nobody to control them .