This is what the police force had been reduced to by the end of Karmenu Vella’s (EU Commissioner-designate) Golden Years of Labour
Labour Party supporters and thugs were able to ransack the entire Courts of Justice at their leisure while the police stood by and watched. The Nationalist Party had been in government for just a couple of weeks and the police force, either suffering from Stockholm Syndrome or holding back through force of habit, behaved as though Labour were still in government and they couldn’t do anything to stop the ransacking.
Shops were ransacked, too.
And tourists were shot at. Notice how the Labour Party condemns the shooting and says that it couldn’t possibly have been its people who did it, but maintains dead silence about the barbarian hordes at the Courts of Justice, and what was done there.
Notice, too, the deadpan, context-free telegraphic reporting on the state broadcaster. That was the sort of ‘news reporting’ we had to contend with back then – it was considered normal, even for an independent newspaper like The Times of Malta.
I still hold the view that much of what happened then was only possible because the print and broadcast media were completely dysfunctional and inadequate. All broadcast media were state-controlled (Labour government), there was no internet, and the newspapers were either in Maltese and owned by the political parties or the GWU, or completely ineffectual like The Times of Malta, which reserved the front page for foreign news and relegated political murders to the inside pages, reporting them with the same importance as a cat rescued from a tree.
As for the rampant, regular, human rights violations – they got a special section, like cookery.
And none of the rest was investigated or reported on because it was routine, however appalling and absurd and outlandish it was when viewed through the eyes of true normality.
I mean, just look at this: the Courts of Justice are thoroughly ransacked by a political mob working at leisure while the police stand by and watch, and you’d think it was just another day at the office. Perhaps because it was.
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Today we are witnessing same things with a more refined style though.
I have always claimed that Labour’s past couldn’t possibly be more evil.
I remember that black day – as I do so many others earlier, such as Tal-Barrani, the shooting at Rabat, the attack on the PN Club in Republic Street in Valletta (anyone forgot that fattish Police sergeant throwing an iron block) and (the first one, perhaps?) at Qui-Si-Sana in the middle 50’s.
Two things still stand out in my mind:-
The Prime Minister, Dr Fenech Adami, addressing the nation on TV that evening and reporting that the Police Commissioner had admitted to him that “my men let me down”.
The brave efforts by Inspector Harold Harrison and a few of his subordinates trying vainly to halt the rampage – and his own paying dearly for it some time later having a bomb placed outside his home in the middle of the night.
I also remember the cheek shown by one of my office mates telling his buddy the next day that “another one like this and the PN Government is finished”.
I would not wonder that, among the senile recruits now being recalled into service by peter paul the commissioner, some had lived very conveniently with themselves not only before but also on that day itself.
Who was the Labour mp who accompanied the mob referred to here ?
He had to leave all his many possessions behind him – even though criminal proceedings against him were halted on humanitarian grounds, because in the meantime he had been diagnosed with severe cancer.
Lorry Sant
the Deputy Police Commissioner the late Mifsud Tommasi.
Those PL idiots have a lot to be proud of.
Given the chance and circumstances Labour will do the same. Wait when their backs are against the wall.
The first ransacking of the Law Courts happened in tandem with the ransacking of the Curia, in September 1984. Labour was in power at the time; Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici was on a heavy truck accompanying the dockyard thugs. Thirty years ago, but still very clear in my mind.
This is the reason why I never agreed with reconciliation. Unfortunately victims were denied justice and bullies got away with murder, 25 years later we are back to square one.
I agree 100% . Now with Mallia’s ‘restructuring’ of the police and army, this is what we’re heading towards .
Naqbel miegħek perfettament. “Back to Square One”. La tajnihom iċ-ċans. U kemm għandhom arja! Bilfors għax qed jagħtihielhom il-kapo..l-eżempju jkaxkar…jaħsbu li jistgħu jagħmlu li jridu. Ibda mill-kbir u spiċċa fiż-żgħir. Arroganza sfaċċata.Aħjar naħsbu fil-ħażin forsi t-tajjeb ma jonqosx. Nistennew u naraw.
Le Cikku, “hemm bzonn inkunu aktar qrib tal-poplu”, “lesti nahdmu id f’id mal-gvern fl-interess nazzjonali”, u “nitolbu mahfra ghall-izbalji taghna” etc etc.
On that day my parents were amongst those who were to give witness as they were amongst others Nationalists voters from Zejtun who were savagely beaten when they went to vote in the general elections. Before leaving Zejtun the accused took photos with Labour MP and former minister Wistin Abela whose canvassers were those who orchestrated this violence. On being elected leader of the Labour Party Joseph Muscat rather than getting rid of this violent element within his party he called Wistin Abela back and together with other former labour ministers (Joe Grima included) they were given a heroic welcome. Labour thugs who were amognst those being accused on the day (like Edwin Bartolo il-qahbu) are still active within the labour party. And then Joe Muscat wants us to believe that he is liberal and progressive.
No wonder the PN is in the state it is today if you still in the past speaking about incidents that happened in 1987.
[Daphne – I don’t take lectures on the passage of time from a man who hasn’t bothered to see his own children in a decade, and who shows off about this on Facebook.]
U aħna nafu minn xiex għaddejna! Bil-manuvri u pantomimi ta’ kuljum li qed jagħmel dan il-gvern bilfors nitħassbu għax huma mutetti u pantomimi simili ħafna jekk mhux agħar ta’ li kienu jsiru dawk iż-żminijiet li ħallew lil Malta għarkubtejha.Il-Bambin jilliberana.
Tony Bonello,
The fact is that a nation that forgets its tragic past may have to re-live it in the future.
Hekku tafx, Sur Bonello dawk li vvutaw lil-lejber, b’mod speċjali l-iswitchers, ( għax il-laburisti minn ġuf ommhom lanqas jekk ikunu fl-infern tad-dinja ma jammettu li qegħdin fl-infern la bagħthom il-partit tagħhom..qishom la jaraw, la jisimgħu u lanqas iħossu) bilfors li nsew il-passat traġiku li għaddejna minnu, għax kieku qatt ma kellna nerġgħu ngħaddu minn dan kollu! Lill-iswitchers se nibqgħu nafuhulhom.
Tony Bonello voted for Norman Lowell and is proud of it.
Yes, the incidents happened in 1987 and you Mr Tony Bonello has not denied them. You simply acknowledged their happening.
Tony Bonello looks to the future. He votes for Norman Lowell, even though the decrepit old fool doesn’t have long to go.
Norman Lowell isn’t decrepit, or old. He’s just turned sixty.
[Daphne – You’re almost a decade off there. He was born in 1946. Not that I needed to check. We all have a general awareness of who is and isn’t of our generation or thereabouts, and I can tell he’s a generation my senior.]
“He’s just turned sixty”. No, he hasn’t. He’s a lot older, not that it makes a difference, anyway.
Tony Bonello thinks Norman Lowell’s the future. He isn’t. He’s the remote past. Even Arlette Baldacchino knows it.
Whoops then.
So the future is Arlette Baldacchino?
Cringe.
On that day, the Police Commissioner of that time, Alfred Calleja, personally called me and told me to close my surgery in Zejtun.
I had to stay away from work for some days until it was safe for me to return.
My crime was that local people were saying that I “came” from Sliema (sic) and therefore I was a Nationalist.
Feels like it were yesterday.
To my knowledge no one was arraigned on this and many other crimes committed in the 70s and 80s.
There was also a speech on tv by acting President Paul Xuereb on this or some other violent incident.
[Daphne – ?]