Saviour Balzan’s newspaper: can you believe this?
Saviour Balzan’s newspaper, Illum, reported on the Leisure Clothing scandal yesterday. Look at that headline. You’d think they mean the corrupt police official who helped fix visas for indentured Chinese labourers and make sure no investigations took place, right?
WRONG.
They mean the police officer who is suspected of leaking information on the scandal to the press. The police and Illum are hunting HIM down. Illum actually says threateningly, in its story, that both the newspaper and the police know who he is but they don’t have enough proof to nail him (“m’ghandhomx provi bizzejjed biex isammruh”).
They then quote, approvingly and unquestioningly, the reason they were given by the police for their failure to do anything about the situation so far. “This factory has been running under different governments and after all, many ministers were clothed by it.”
I despair. With a police force like this, there is no hope. Now I understand why Police Minister Manuel Mallia, a few days before this story broke, went on a mad rant promising hell to any police officer found to be ‘leaking’ information. Because now it’s not about whistleblowers anymore, is it.
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http://www.illum.com.mt/ahbarijiet/politika/38955/kaa_gal_uffijal_goli_filkorp_talpulizija#.VFd7jmchNCx
Majtezwel nilbsu Bortex hux, Saviour?
Issa oqghod newwah ghax jisparaw fuq l-ghasafar.
Ara vera qed jaghmluk skifuz. Kemm int bla sinsla.
Back in the 70s, I remember my wife (who’s not Maltese) asking me to consider moving the family to Malta. My answer was that with corrupt police/courts/politicians, that would not be a wise option. Since then, matters have not got better.
Courtesy of H.P. Baxxter:
https://twitter.com/baxxterswar/status/529058325477199873
Min ma mexiex, inhexa.
The billboard boys and girls and some of the developers have surely opted for the first part of the popular saying.
Keep your enemies closer?
The police should cover their headquarters in Floriana by utilizing one super giant rug, made by Chinese slave labour of course.
They then can conveniently sweep anything that they pick and choose under this giant rug, with plenty of room for more.
So this is what the current acting police commissioner meant when he announced the launch of an investigation. He’s hunting for the whistleblower and not the people who were paid off to look the other way.
Isn’t he the police minister’s cousin?
What happened to the Whistleblower Act? Was this act a Maoist trap?
In the sixties, after the Chinese Cultural revolution, Mao Tse Tung said: Let a thousand flowers bloom, meaning that he was opening Chinese politics to self criticism.
So many Chinese took the bait, opened up their mouth criticising communism and Maoism. Then when Mao thought that all his critics had stood up, he ordered his police to round them up and execute them.
This is history.
In specific cases they have seen fit to execute a purge before taking office.
The older I get, the more I understand why Malta finds it difficult to move forwards properly and effectively, why it struggles to make a name for itself and why we constantly teeter on the edge of collapse most of the time.
A country does well when its government functions like a machine. As we have seen, many European countries and other rich countries around the world have suffered a crushing economic crisis. They have all seen unemployment rise and difficult choices have had to be made.
And yet they have not descended into chaos and anarchy. Instead they have managed to keep things together, and even get out of the recession.
The reason has been because no matter how bad things get, so long as each and ever estate, institution and ministry functions like a machine, and when it doesn’t, it has been scrutinised over and over again until it explains itself. In those countries where it doesn’t, problems have got worse.
This is still not possible in Malta. There is absolutely no common ground that all Maltese people agree upon. There are different standards for different politicians in every different part of society.
We behave in extremes, being too critical of small details because doing so serves our purpose and agenda, while being nonchalant about great transgressions for the same reason.
In a country where one half of the population lies to one set of politicians, but not to the other, there is no way those in office or in Opposition can possibly be able to create policies that are effective and popular since they are constantly misinformed and misled, with many people toeing the party line out of blind loyalty rather then real conviction.
The effects are obvious and evident for anyone to see. What these will lead to are anybody’s guess. I always thought that Malta’s pro-Europe stance has less to do with the values of the EU and more to do with a complete lack of faith in our system and institutions.
At least, we all say, we have the EU which will keep some people in line at some point.
We need to stop letting our loyalty to a party blind us from the reality of their actions. These things can’t go on.
I voted EU so that when the MLP returned to the seat of power it would be under the watch of EU microscopes and telescopes and subject to EU laws and regulations, especially human rights ones.
That we are funded by t\he EU to improve our lot is secondary to the above.
Time has proved me right, for the nth time.
The next thing the opposition needs to be aware of is electoral fraud, and I seriously mean it.
It had happened in the past, and considering that the current MLP lot are of the same cut and are actually repeating the 70’s years with some variations to the same theme, I expect that if they see their popularity plummeting they would do anything to stay in power, and this for two reasons:
1. Because they are addicted to power
2. If they lose power many will end up in the cooler.
So they would try anything to win an election. They have already tried deleting council elections which are bound to show a drastic fall in popularity and thus a real and strong indicator of things to come. So he PL would not want to be tested before a general election since one would then ask questions as to how one gets re-elected against all predictions.
Errata: 2. If they lose power many PL ministers and their cronies would risk ending up in the cooler.
I think reason Two is stronger than reason One and am in total agreement with you.
I even think the last election should be revisited with that in mind.
Unbelievable. Where’s the Opposition? Malta’s situation is beginning to sound as bad, if not worse, than the Mintoff days.
Simon Busuttil had two pages in The Sunday Times yesterday to make his voice heard. Instead, as usual he walked on eggshells and made half-baked statements such as how the Nationalist Party voted against civil unions but he is trying to win back gay society. Makes me so nervous.
It seems that you are very selective when it comes to the Opposition. This was on today’s TOM:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20141103/local/pn-denies-muscat-claims-on-its-compensation-proposals.542456
“In a reaction, the PN said the PL club in Ghaxaq was one property which the PL had ‘stolen’ from private owners.
It denied that it was asking the government to give it the value of the properties taken over by the PL. Its position had always been that the political parties should be on a level playing field and the PL should return the properties to their owners.
As for Dr Muscat’s reference to the courts, the PN noted that Dr Muscat, as prime minister, had dropped a court caseby the governemnt against the PL over Australia Hall.”
When Labour were in Opposition we used to joke how they seemed to have a direct link with the Police Headquarters.
Have they forgotten how crime news first appeared on l-Orizzont and was broadcast on Super one and then on TVM? Not to mention the amount of details they were privy to.
Imma ghax taghhom ilkoll biss jghod.
What happened to Joe Mifsud? Has he disappeared?
Ghaziz Owen,
Nawguralek fl-isforzi li tnaqqas il-bureau taz-zija ta’ pajjizna billi thassar dawk il-ligijiet li m’ghandhiex bzonnhom izjed bhala l-Ordinanza dwar il-Hammiem, bhala tal-Ghadu Tedesk u dik il-ligi antikwata tal-Whistleblower Act.
Suq bil-galbu gbin u nselli ghalik,
Pablo
Unbelievable. But could it be really, horribly and so unashamedly true?
Leisure seem to have clothed both sides of the political fence, and not just those that have a seat but all those who in some way have a say or a word in what goes on.
Now everyone (but here) is clothing Leisure in drape upon drape of misty cloth that the truth be ensnared and murky to the populace. Break down the wall….
This was not a whistle blower, this was a whole wind band.
Well, well, well, and wonder of wonders.
Maybe Saviour Balzan has cotton wool over his eyes as usual due to his John Dalli fetish? Around five years ago I was involved with ETC and Leisure Clothing came to request an increase in the cap on the importation of Chinese labourers to work in the factory.
ETC was totally against it as it felt that any new jobs should be given to Maltese. The employment minister at that time, John Dalli, over-rode the ETC Board and gave a ministerial direction to increase the cap.
And oh, the lawyer representing Leisure Clothing was Pawlu Lia. And their PR Executive was a certain Adrian Grech Cumbo who has landed an iced-bun as director at ITS.
At my age it is Botox not Bortex that suits me. Had it been the other way round I would have preferred to walk down Savile Row than Merchants Street or Constitution Street for finer craftsmanship and value for money.
The Police Commissioner who obeyed Mintoff ended up in jail.
Will the same happen to this one, if he obeys Mallia?
History, when forgotten, tends to repeat itself.
Frame ups, fabricated evidence, corrupt police officials, minister with the power to fire police officials if they do not perform to his tunes being the last chapter of this saga.
Will Mallia get rid of the Prime Minister if threatened?
As soon as I started to read the article in question I understood that they were looking for the policeman who leaked the information. You do not need to have a university degree. But is it right to leak information? We now have the Whistleblower Act. The policeman in question would have been made a hero. Got it?
Bomb explodes outside police inspector’s home, no one hurt: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20141104/local/bomb-explodes.542548
Tghid ipprovaw jisploduh minflok ma jsammruh?
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-11-04/local-news/Bomb-goes-off-at-police-inspector-s-residence-in-Zurrieq-nobody-injured-6736124903
Could this be the whistleblower? This is the first thought that came to mind when I read the report.
[Daphne – Lots of people immediately thought the same, including me: http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2014/11/is-this-the-senior-policeman-who-is-suspected-of-telling-the-media-about-human-trafficking-at-leisure-clothing/#comment-2642110 ]