Dom Mintoff’s granddaughter on Muscat’s immigration stance: “The government’s bullish stand is shameful, short-sighted, reactionary and inhumane.”
Cetta Mainwaring
You just have to wonder what Malta Today’s agenda is. Last Sunday, that newspaper had the potential for a massive front-page headline – the one I have used here – and instead chose to miss out on it, I would say deliberately rather than through a poor understanding of what constitutes news value (though that too).
Instead, Cetta Mainwaring’s words were buried on page 8, among the views of “a panel of experts and academics”, and there was absolutely no mention of the fact that she is Yana Bland’s daughter and Dom Mintoff’s granddaughter. Nobody would connect the name Cetta Mainwaring to either of those two, even if they knew that Dom Mintoff’s mother, the moneylender, was called Cetta.
That evening, the top news item on the Labour Party’s Super One News was my text message to Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando (ara x’arukaza what language the puliti use; who would have thought) and not ‘It-tifla tat-tifla tal-ex prim ministru Dom Mintoff tikkundanna l-agir tal-gvern ta’ Muscat‘, which didn’t even get a mention. Of course not.
In any case, Cetta Mainwaring is assistant professor in migration studies at the University of Waterloo, Canada. She was asked to comment on Malta Today’s survey, which found that:
– one in five respondents think that irregular immigrants are invading Malta
– 55% of respondents support pushbacks/returning people to Libya without allowing them to apply for asylum
– fear of invasion and support for pushbacks are highest among the most poorly educated, who also tend to be Labour supporters
– only 28.4% of respondents have had even a five-minute conversation with a migrant
– fears decrease when people become aware of the actual number of (African) migrants in Malta
What follows is Dr Mainwaring’s brief comment, with which I am completely in agreement, except for her observation that this runs contrary to the Labour Party’s ideology. It doesn’t. To its stated ideology, perhaps, but not to its real ideology, which has, since her grandfather’s day, been Extreme Left totalitarian and is now Rightwing totalitarian but kept fairly in check by present-day controls pertaining to EU membership and the internet.
Clearly, many opinions on migration are ill-formed. The survey thus confirms that the response of Maltese citizens is conditioned by the government’s response to migrant arrivals.
The previous Nationalist and current Labour governments have both constructed a crisis around the issue of migration. In their piecemeal responses, they focus on the number of arrivals rather than the number who remain in Malta, ignore other significant forms of immigration and prioritise deterrent policies such as detention, which criminalise and isolate migrants and refugees, while also fuelling racism and fear.
In light of this, it is not surprising that the number of migrants and refugees in Malta is significantly less than many believe: only 30% of migrants arrivals (5,300) have remained in Malta since 1998.
The current Labour government won the March election on a platform of social justice, inclusion and equality. The attempt to score political points domestically and within the EU at the expense of the most vulnerable in our society is shameful and contrary to its own ideology.
Although some of the EU’s immigration and asylum policies undoubtedly need revision, the government’s bullish stand is short-sighted, reactionary and inhumane.
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She got this bit wrong though, which she probably got from her mum:
“The current Labour government won the March election on a platform of social justice, inclusion and equality. “
That she did. I guess it should read “The current Labour government won the March election on a platform of spite, vindictiveness and iced buns.“
But, to her credit, the rest was pretty good.
So she thought Baxxter, as did all orthodox reds.
Yana made an appeal to return to the socialist way last week. Nowhere to be seen on the party’s media.
Notice the peculiar word “reactionary”, which has fallen into disuse everywhere else outside Yana & Family’s circle. Once a commie, always a commie, I suppose.
Baxxter, you are absolutely right. She got that wrong.
Joseph Muscat won the March 2013 election on this platform.
http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Josephs-platform.jpg
Muscat won the election on the platform of IGNORANCE, spite, hate and inferiority complex
Could explain why Muscat issued instructions to give the ceremony held last week a miss.
Not that this wasn’t to be expected from the old guard, more so when Cain’s Europe can be blamed.
Makes Mile End an alien corporation, completely displaced from Macina, unrecognisable.
Again Muscat chose to ‘disassociate’ himself, not really enough, the Malta Labour Party, if it exists, should condemn in no uncertain terms the ‘reactionary’ poison pervading the country.
It’s what every socialist does. It’s a basic building block of progressive thought. Takes courage, vision and succeeds if the proponent can win over the same forces.
In Italy, the left was heavily criticised for letting anti-berlusconism take over its ideology, In Malta, we have in Muscat’s PL a contradictory strain of both, an incestuous conflict.
The Labour apologists didn’t find her ‘attractive enough’ to be worthy of their comments. Now that they know she’s Dom’s own granddaughter, and a prominent person they can connect with, like MS Malmstrom (albeit for different reasons), they should start sending her messages to take the immigrants herself (among the many other things of course).
EU rules stipulate that all migrants – asylum seekers – are fingerprinted and registered at any EU point of entry so that they become the responsibility of the receiving member state.
If most migrants are eventually leaving Malta it is unlikely that they are returning home or to a non-EU country, and rather less likely that they have been taken in by another EU state through the burden-sharing farce.
Most likely, they are leaving Malta for the mainland illegally, so when/if apprehended they are sent back to Malta.
Statistics going as far back as 1998 cannot be of much use today since the rules have changed. Ms Mainwaring’s comment is not only cheap, it relies on illegality and fails to make a point.
“Most likely”, “unlikely”, “rather less likely”. Are we to expect that governments should base their policies (especially where human lives are concerned) on your prejudiced speculation?
What? You failed to work it out yourself? You really don’t need a study here, Liberal, just use your common sense.
What do fascists like you know about common sense, kev.
There you are. Cop-out labelling is fine as long as you have nothing substantial to say. Prosit, ‘Liberal’.
“Cop-out labelling”? I can smell a fascist from miles away. I was an anarchist in my youth. It’s not like I only just discovered fascism.
Well that explains it, then. An anarcho-liberal is no pushover in the fascist-sniffing business.
That explains it then. A fascist who can’t tell the difference between “was an anarchist” and “is an anarchist”.
Why do fascists have to be such idiots?
Ooh. Kurt wouldn’t have done better.
Kev, reading through your other comments you seem to be a very sophist-icated person. Your only consideration is legality (or the lack of it). Everything else is cheap and fails to make a point.
Your whole world is a Law Court.
Legality, as I see it, is the downfall of modern society, Last Post. Still, Ms Mainwaring, a statist by all accounts, is relying on illegality, knowingly or unknowingly, to make her point.
I’m not surprised you cannot even follow this (very) simple line of thought.
You think you’ve got problems.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23610466
Oh, the Greek border police officers used to poke fun at their Maltese counterparts for taking the procedure seriously. But we are a compliant lot, notwithstanding the image we portray.
Compared to your constant carping, Kevin, Oscar the Grouch was a party animal.
I’d like to compare you with the Moanin’ Lisa, but someone’s already won that prize.
Her analysis is neither cheap nor fails to make a point. It simply is not what you would like it to be.
This whole issue about asylum seekers has been blown out of all proportion tactically to woo people out of the EU. That way Joseph Muscat and co can trample on whoever they may please in realizing their dream of Malta under China rule.
And isn’t it interesting how kev’s comment fits Muscat’s Labour to a tee?
To think Sharon vouched to transfer Frontex and the EU’s immigration offices to Malta, untold millions she said.
Show us the money. That’s all it is.
Without the EU, Kevin would be on the dole, so let’s not be too hard on the man.
Natalie Mallett and Jozef, I’m not into partisan politics, so just suit yourselves. As for Frontex, thawwadtx, Jozef.
My fan Baxxter, hello there. I can assure that this was Plan B, and it came about following the 2003 referendum and election.
What was plan A then? Go on, do tell.
Lanqas xejn pupu.
Donnok nsejt kemm kienet twahwah kemm se ggibilna kuntratti ghal-‘petlor boats’. Kemm kellha esperjenza ta’ kif ‘sippost’ isiru l-affarijiet.
Ghax tghid, it-tpaspir kollu jintesa’.
Tridu timlew ghajn in-nies u kif xi hadd jinduna tizblu.
Toqghodx tikkonfondi bil-principji, ara meta’ qatt kienu legali.
Be assured, Jozef, that you are not just an amateur in what you’re attempting to do, but a clueless one at that. Here’s something for you to do in solitude tonight when the Jozef household is asleep, snoring and farting. Write down the things that bother you most in yourself, then seek their emotional seat and continue up the line to the core beliefs that are giving rise to these emotions.
It’s how people change best, Jozef, and you need it.
Barely an exchange and you’re at it.
Maybe that’s what bothers me most, a generosity of spirit unwilling to give up on a lost cause.
It’s not ego with me, kev, it’s the self-inflicted depressive mentality I see in others that prompts me to help.
Boat people don’t need it, they acted.
Surely you still have your first year notes, the bit where laws cannot be against man.
Ooh, Jozef must have hit a raw nerve. Is that steam coming out of kev’s ears?
I had missed this post, Jozef. Your last sentence in particular intrigued me, given that the rest is too esoteric for my tastes.
You say: “Surely you still have your first year notes, the bit where laws cannot be against man.”
What intrigues me here is not the irony that someone like you should be lecturing a libertarian anti-statist like me about superfluous, tyrannical laws designed to control and oppress whole nations, but the fact that what you say has no connection whatsoever with your earlier blathering.
Nevertheless kev does have a point. Why is it so difficult to come by statistics about what happens with migrants who arrive in Malta? Are they even kept?
Why should it not be possible to get a breakdown of how many have landed year on year, how many have been relocated to EU, non-EU, African countries, how many are not accounted for etc?
If nothing else such statistics can be used to show that immigrants *really* are not all settling in Malta and allay the obvious fears that are going around (and put a stop to the right-wing scaremongering).
If it is indeed true that nobody knows exactly how many immigrants there are and their movements, then we do indeed have a problem that has nothing to do with racism.
Statistics would be easy to collect, and it would be in the interest of government to publish them in detail, if only government really believed such statistics would vindicate its claim that we have a huge immigration problem.
The fact is, we don’t.
Babu, ‘racism’ is the trump card, isn’t it. The cop out to all arguments opposed to the open-doors policy we are being forced – repeat FORCED – to apply.
What’s the alternative to your “open doors” policy, Kev? Push them back and let them drown?
First, La Redoute, I would set the whole continent free of the global corporations sucking off their wealth and resources. I would also kick out the Western intelligence/military network that’s been subverting African nations and propping up one puppet dictator against the other since ‘independence’.
Africa is a rich continent and you’d be doing Africans a great injustice if you think they are incapable of doing much better without their former masters’ masters undermining their every move.
But this is all beyond your political perspective, La Redoute. Just stick to the trash news they feed you on TV.
Bit of a tall order. We’ll ask them to wait on their boats.
“First, La Redoute, I would set the whole continent free of the global corporations sucking off their wealth and resources…”
That’s your long-term solution, kev. Idealistic and unrealistic.
In the meantime, what’s your short-term solution? Push them all back and/or let them drown? Please do tell.
Clever Kevin. And in what position would you need to be to do all of that? I know you believe that Joseph Muscat walks on water, but surely even you realize that world dictator is beyond his capabilities.
It’s the ultra-hypothetical ‘I would’, La Redoute.
I’ve already expressed my opinion on this. It’s Catch22 all the way. We have no choice but to comply to EU and international obligations like the serfs we signed up ourselves to be.
Our best option is to seek as much funding as possible for logistical purposes, and push for changes in EU regulations, especially in regard to freedom of movement of migrants – I mean, if we’re forced to let in any number of migrants why should their freedom of movement be curtailed – is it not a single market after all? Let them move on to richer pastures, I say, Italy, Germany, Scandinavia…
Agreed.
Now to do that, Muscat could have chosen to have his Al Jazeera interview sitting amongst these people, letting them talk and putting nationalistic hypocrisy to shame.
But that, I believe doesn’t tally with the alliance’s fabrications.
Ah kev, then I think I must have missed the bit where you strongly condemned your dear Joseph’s push-back policy.
“I’ve already expressed my opinion on this. It’s Catch22 all the way. We have no choice but to comply to EU and international obligations like the serfs we signed up ourselves to be”.
I take this to mean that if we weren’t “serfs” and hadn’t signed up for international obligations, kev the fascist would send all Africans back or let them drown.
Am I right, kev?
No, Liberal, it means that we have to comply with EU laws and international obligations, full stop. There are no ifs, because my ifs take a turning that’s up your street… Establishing causes is not something you do without the right facts, you see.
As I said, the best solution in the circumstances is to allow the asylum seekers to choose their ultimate destination. Frontex should be the agency to manage the registration, holdings and resettlement of migrants. Giving extra powers to the EU is not my cup of tea, but there you go.
Correction: “…that’s NOT up your street.”
Wonderfully evasive, kev. I’m not interested in knowing what you think is the “best solution”, which is hypothetical and subjective.
What I was referring to was whether – as implied in your post I was commenting on – you disagree with (and perhaps strongly oppose) our current international obligations (that according to you, make us serfs) to rescue people in our own search-and-rescue zone, and to respect people’s right to apply for asylum status in our own country.
What should it be, kev? Willingly respect our international (moral) obligations and respect the right to apply for asylum, or push-back/let them drown?
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-08-13/news/enar-condemns-hate-speech-against-malmstrom-ngos-in-malta-2320105472/
Well done to Dr Mainwairing for her factual analysis. The whole issue has been so blown out of proportion that the majority of people appear to have the impression that Maltese will soon be in a minority.
I am constantly surprised by the people who are suddenly declaring that Malta is full up and that something must be done, people who used to pride themselves in having a social conscience and make me feel like a rabid rightist (because I declared my opinion that people should not be looking to the government to finance their ever expanding families but should seek to limit their families to what they can afford). I keep telling them that the numbers of immigrants have actually gone down but I always get a look of disbelief and a “you would think/say so” as an answer.
Muscat’s words and actions have created a dangerous situation which could very easily explode in our faces. And then we will witness more backtracking on his part.
Net TV should invite Ms Mainwaring on as many programmes as possible. She should also be invited to speak in conferences organised ad hoc by the PN. Bring her over from Canada and give her as much exposure as possible.
I do not think that Media Today are interested in selling papers. As Lou Bondi once said, the newspaper only serves as a medium for personal envy.
Now that their goal of removing Gonzi has been achieved (a personal goal of Roger, Saviour and Dalli), the new pursuit is to take over all the PBS airtime previously allocated to Where’s Everybody (personal goal of Saviour, while Dalli does not care since he has placed himself comfortably elsewhere where he can bear the fruit of his new position by lying low).