“A government that doesn’t have to fear the people will become a government that the people fear.”
Published:
July 22, 2014 at 8:24pm
Mark Anthony Sammut’s article – a good one. I know exactly what he means about reading the news from Malta when you are elsewhere and getting that ‘down the rabbit hole’ feeling of sheer unreality.
What you’re forced to accept in Malta, largely because of other people’s attitudes which make you feel that you are the odd one, looks properly absurd and totally unacceptable as soon as you get off a plane somewhere where you are not the odd one, but realise that the society you have temporarily left behind is very odd indeed.
17 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
http://www.sundaycircle.com/2014/07/democracy-doesnt-look-like-this/
There is no arguing with the fact that he lacks experience and that that his appointment to the bench is shameful. But there is one thing I don’t understand: wouldn’t his political bias only be an issue if he was to judge a political case?
Do judges get certain types of cases only as some magistrates do? If yes, the Maltese courts could assign him cases which would not usually involve politics.
[Daphne – Don’t you see what you’re doing here? Playing into the problem by finding ways of working round it. Why make an appointment that creates these difficulties in the first place? If a judge is going to start out with problems like this of cases he cannot possibly hear because of ‘fair hearing’ issues, then he shouldn’t be appointed in the first place. Don’t try to find ways of working with something like this – doing that is the thin end of the wedge.]
A judge needs to be impartial. That’s a personality trait, not an acquired skill. Wenzu Mintoff is clearly not an impartial person.
Queen’s English,
Kif qed tgħidlek tajjeb Daphne, dan ma kellu jsir QATT mħallef. Rigward dak li qed tgħid int, anke jekk ma jtuhx dawk il-kawżi li huma politiċi, xorta se jkollu konflitt ta’ interess meta jiġi mogħti xi kawża ċivili u jkun hemm xi Nazzjonalist.
Għidli int kif jista’ dan ikun imparzjali jekk qatt ma kien u dejjem wera kemm jobgħod lin-Nazzjonalisti. Taħseb li xi ħadd se javdah imexxi l-kawża tiegħu, ħlief xi bħaħen li għandhom jiġru ma’ saqajhom?
Joseph Muscat is trying to balance the act and divert attention by meddling in international affairs.
And, may I be allowed to add, in domestic affairs too.
His contribution to the domestic scene, so far, can only be described as amateurish meddling.
Muscat is suggesting more sanctions on Russia – now – while he is in the UK.
But where was he a few days ago, while he was still in Malta and the MH17 tragedy was unfolding? Did he join the other European and world leaders to call on Putin to open the way for the first aid and investigation teams and the recovery of the bodies of those who perished on board flight MH17?
Because quite frankly, sanctions are less of a priority than assisting any survivors (although there seem to be none in this case), recovering the bodies of passengers to be returned to their families, and establishing the facts of the accident which has all the elements of an international crime of war.
Regarding Mark Anthony Sammut : ‘It-tifel jaf x’qed jghid’.
I have no intention whatsoever, Mark, of sounding paternalistic but I could be your grandfather.
Malta needs, and urgently, at least one hundred sons and daughters with your analytical and writing skills.
Before mediocrity prevails and the country goes to the dogs, that is.
Mark Anthony Sammut is 28 but he speaks more sense than our 40-year old prime minister who thinks he’s still young.
Mark Anthony Sammut is more than 28. He is a university lecturer. I love reading his articles every Sunday morning.
[Daphne – I know for a fact that Mark Anthony Sammut is exactly the same age as my eldest son. Therefore he is 28. It is perfectly possible to be a university lecturer at 28.]
I think Persil is confusing Persil and panadol. I mean he is confusing Mark Anthony Sammut with columnist and university Professor Mark Anthony Falzon.
I am 28 and s university lecturer with a PhD myself. Mark Anthony Sammut writes sense here. The whole situation is undemocratic.
Persil, you read Mark Anthony Falzon.
The problem that the fourth pillar of our democracy is facing, apart from the general low-level, almost-servile journalism, is that this government is simply overwhelming the media with its messes.
The media houses are not finding enough resources to cover and investigate a story properly before the next disastrous decision is announced. Mark Anthony Sammut mentioned three in the space of a week. I am certain that by the end of the silly season, all three stories will be dead and buried and will not be brought up again before the next general elections.
Dejjem jekk ikun hemm elezzjonijiet ġenerali.
I read Mark Anthony Sammut’s article – which is very good – highlighting actions of a government that, in my view, fears the people.
Mr Sammut argues that “A government that doesn’t have to fear the people will become a government that the people fear.” I will not contest this argument. However I firmly believe that this government fears the people, otherwise why are all actions aimed at one objective: to control the people’s lives and events? And when the PL won the election with such a large majority?
Why postpone elections? Why appoint a Labour Party activist to the bench? Why conceal information on the Enemalta contract from parliament, even your own parliamentary group, and then use the party whip for a vote in favour?
Why select which journalists accompany you on visits abroad? Why go to bed with with totalitarian regimes? There are numerous more actions, all showing and underlying one symptom: insecurity.
The Prime Minister knows that the 18,000 or so voters who gave him that majority are loyal not to him or to the Labour Party, but to the promises he made, and they can and will switch sides again as swiftly as they did last time.
So he fears them, and he is doing what he thinks is necessary to take control over them and worse still over all other voters, present and future, besides. What he may not know, or at least accept, is that all this will come back to haunt him. Then he will truly fear the people.
“I know exactly what he (Mark Anthony Sammut means about reading the news from Malta when you are elsewhere and getting that ‘down the rabbit hole’ feeling of sheer unreality”
I totally agree as I have to read the news from Malta while I live elsewhere.
But increasingly I am getting the impression that foreigners who get their news from foreign media are making a more accurate assessment of the real situation. Only yesterday I was talking to a complete stranger, an Austrian visiting Romania.
When told that I come from Malta, he first said what a wonderful place it was when he visited the island twelve years ago. Then suddenly the tone changed as he said, “What a pity that all that has changed. Malta is now ruled by the Maltese Mafia whose only interest is to make money with complete disregard of European law. It is such a shame for an EU country.”
How could I argue with him?