The dying words of a Police Minister: “OK, siehbi.”
Published:
December 6, 2014 at 12:21pm
“OK, siehbi.”
That “OK siehbi” has done for Manuel Mallia. People are in fits. No doubt, the internet memes will begin once people have gathered their wits about them and digested this spectacular bit of weirdness.
His driver rings him to say that he’s shot a man. Two hours later he remembers that the driver is supposed to be looking after his daughter, who can’t be more than eight or nine, and has instead dumped her at his mother’s house while he goes out shooting a man they know as L-Iskocciz. The Police Minister rings back to ask the driver where his mother lives.
Oh it’s all right, the driver says, Pawlu (l-Machine Gun) has picked her up already. And the Police Minister goes: “OK, siehbi.”
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You forgot to include the part where the shooter and the shot-at are both his clients.
[Daphne – I have reworded that bit, because I realise now it wasn’t clear. We know that Mallia knew Smith because he was ‘his client’. But how did Mallia know that it was Smith who being shot at?]
Not sure the question as to where the mother lives wasn’t code for the merchandise.
Have we any evidence that the children were actually there? Another code for merchandise?
“Did you pick up the children?”
“Iva, ser.”
“OK, siehbi.”
[Daphne – Child, not children. Only the daughter was with the driver. We do not know where the sons, who are younger, were. Yes, this is evidence of sorts that the child was indeed with Mrs Sheehan. She was seen by neighbours shouting and panicking in the street because her sons had gone off after somebody “u jien ghandi t-tifla tal-ministru hawn.”]
That’s good enough for me. It’s just that all this lying has made me extra-wary.
@That question still doesn’t make complete sense. Not from a parent.
I’m not questioning whether the child was there, but whether the question put by Manwel Mallia during that phone call was code for the merchandise.
Gzira, Msida: That’s Manwel Mallia’s base and home town. Was that the first time the child was dropped off there? Is the dropping off always done in the absence of Manwel Mallia? Do his back ground checks not entail checking the premises where his daughter would be staying, even temporarily? His children are his pride and joy. He would have known where the mother lived. Even Pawlu the other driver knew.
And what does his wife do?
Probably she was too busy on Facebook.
Paul the machine gun. Where on Earth do they get these people?
You know, I’m all for egalitarian society and all that, but that doesn’t mean standards must be dropped. Part of the problem in Maltese politics is the fear of maintaining a professional distance, and not becoming best friends with people whose nick name is a lethal weapon used on the battle field.
I don’t care how funny it might be to those who know the inside joke.
Joseph Muscat’s dying words will be: F’hix iz-zigg dahhaltna.
It looks like Manuel Mallia knew where his daughter was all along because the acting commissioner asks Sheehan at 21:15 while he was next to Mallia. Mallia probably just asked again at 23:08.
From the transcript:
21:15: L-Aġent Kummissarju Ray Zammit iċempel lil Paul Sheehan u jinstema’ jgħidlu:
RAY ZAMMIT : It-tifla miegħek?”
Għal dan Paul Sheehan qal li t-tifla kienet qegħda għand ommu.
[Daphne – Is there any internal symbol for ‘loss of patience’? Manuel Mallia did not ask where his daughter was at 11pm, and he did not ‘ask again’. He asked where Sheehan’s mother lives. At 9pm he found out that his daughter Carmela was at Sheehan’s mother’s home. At 11pm it occurred to him that he had better find out the address so that he could collect her, only to be told that Pawlu L-Machine Gun had done so already.]
Sorry. I thought we were allowed the odd misunderstanding once in a while without getting chewed up.
[Daphne – It’s just that I spend hours listing all these details and then find they haven’t been taken on board. Kind of gets to me.]
Has it been confirmed that Dr Mallia’s young daughter was present at the scene of crime, at Sheehan’s mother’s house (At her age she should have been sleeping at that time), and had been picked up (in her pyjamas, I suppose) by a strange man?
And if she had been picked up, what car was used (if memory serves me right, the other driver had to pick up the minister to take him to the scene in a second car); how was the second driver at the scene so quickly, without the Minister and without the daughter? Where was the “daughter” taken?
I feel there is something very fishy here and the smell is not pleasant at all.
@Tom Double Thumb: 2nd Para onwards.
Yes. This sort of reasoning is what I’m referring to above.
Irrabjat u ddiskustat u issa ippanikjat u iddisprat. Nithassru miskin.
Nithassru zikk
Are we expected to swallow the big yarn about the Minister and Prime Minister being truly unaware of the real sequence of events when the first public statements were out?
Poor child – being shoved around from driver to driver at night. One driver shoots a man and the Machine Gun takes her home. Home? We don’t know where he took her.
If I had ever treated my young daughter the way Manuel treated his I am sure of one thing.
My wife would have shot two or more times and made sure she hit me and not my car.
Where is this poor girl’s mother?
There is something very strange about this transcript taken from http://maltarightnow.com/news/2014/12/05/dawn-it-telefonati-jikkonfermaw-il-gidba-ta-mallia-2/
“Fil-konversazzjoni bejn il-Ministru Manwel Mallia u x-xufier Paul Sheehan, il-Ministru Mallia jinstema’ jistaqsih
MANUEL MALLIA: “Fejn hu l-indirizz ta’ ommu” .”
Why does he say “ommu” and not “ommok”? Whose mother was he referring to?
“Għal dan Paul Sheehan iwieġeb
PAUL SHEEHAN: “Pawlu, kien hu li mar jiġbor it-tifla tal-Ministru Mallia mingħand omm Paul Sheehan.”
If Paul Sheehan was taking to the Minister, why does he refer to the girl as “it-tifla tal-Ministru Mallia” and why does he say “minghand omm Paul Sheehan” if he was talking himself?
Weird… something not quite right…
[Daphne – “Fejn hu l-indirizz ta’ ommu?”: Manuel Mallia is not talking to Sheehan. He is talking to the Police Commissioner while the latter is on the line with Sheehan. “Minghand omm Paul Sheehan” has now been corrected to “minghand ommi”.]
Well the transcript starts by saying:
Fil-konversazzjoni bejn il-Ministru Manwel Mallia u x-xufier Paul Sheehan, il-Ministru Mallia jinstema’ jistaqsih –
MANUEL MALLIA: “Fejn hu l-indirizz ta’ ommu” .”
So, either the Minister was speaking to Sheehan and asked about someone else’s mother, or Maltarightnow meant to say what you imply (i.e. that the Minister was asking Sheehan questions through someone else).
Damn! And to think of all the trouble we used to go through to find a babysitter. All those missed parties.
That “siehbi” is there as control code for whatever else went on.
What a mess. Just when you think that Labour has hit the bottom. Conrat must be thanking his lucky stars because this saga has relieved some pressure which was clearly showing on his face.
Is it a coincidence that all Police Commissioners under Labour turned out to be spineless and disgraced themselves? Not a good augury for the next appointee.
So this morning the blame beam is steadily focused on the Commissioner of Police because he seems to have been the first to have said ‘warning shots’.
Seems like the Labour Party aka government has made its calculations and decided that the least political damage comes from blaming the head of Police.
Of course there is that little detail of who added ‘in the air’.
What do they care if in order to brush off political responsibility they undermine people’s trust in an institution? Who was it who decided that Zammit was fit for purpose anyway?