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If the police are waiting for a wake-up call, then this has to be it. Last Friday, a gathering of neo-Nazis came together to light fires at a barbeque hosted by their fanatic guru Norman Lowell.
Hours later, a mere 2 kilometres away Daphne Caruana’s house was torched. It could have been worse they say. Everything could be worse, no one ever says it could be better.
There is nothing to prove the connection, but I will leave it to your imagination to figure out who has the militaristic precision and persistence for such terrorism.
This is terrible. How worse can it get before it gets…
In another country the Police Commissioner would be asked to give an explanation to the public and the press. The Dwejra off Mgarr BBQ was advertised on the Viva Malta site, a meeting point for racists, blind nationalists and extremists. Police in Malta find the time to raid a party in search of an ecstasy pill or a joint on a youngster but the Dwejra partygoers had no police visits. If I was John Rizzo I would have released the crack troops on the Dwejra gathering and interrogated each and every one of them.
You know the police say that crime is on the decline. Does anyone really believe them? The police are in fact appearing as the most disorganised lot: the criminal prosecution of Norman Lowell for inciting racial hatred has been indefinitely deferred (sine die) because the police prosecution did not turn up.
If I do not turn up for a court case I am more than likely to be faced with a contempt of court and warrant for my arrest.
How about that?
And when the Caruana Galizia residence phoned the Mosta police constable, a woman constable asked for her ID card number and then said she would have to tell the sergeant.
The next best thing to do was to phone the Commissioner Rizzo. And then things started moving. The Commissioner should have got out of his bed and visited the Bidnija residence. He did not. He appears to have done this some ten hours later.
The incident at the Caruana Galizia residence is not only an affront to the freedom of the press. It is more than that. It rips apart the infamous slogan of “f’darek bla biza” (in your home without fear). The slogan now should read, “f’darek bil-biza” (live at home in fear).
The one thing that is saving lives here is franka, the Maltese stone. In Germany and France, timber houses simply break apart and turn into an inescapable furnace.
People have died, here we are simply lucky.
But we are running out of luck.
If the Caruana Galizia family had not noticed the fire thanks to their son, the consequences would have been far worse. The police know or should know who is in the line of fire. They can easily visit the editors and newsrooms and ask them who has investigated the immigrants’ issue and could possibly be in the line of fire (excuse the pun).
My sensation is that the police are simply not up to it. I am sure that if we are given the bits and pieces of this jigsaw puzzle, the MaltaToday newsroom would be able to track the perpetrators of this heinous acts.
I have no doubt in my mind that the Prime Minister abhors racism and is not happy with the situation, but he must know that he will find the support of the press if he wishes to take draconian measures and kick ass in the police force. His wake-up call should have been three weeks ago when a car was burnt some doors away from his residence.
The more I think of it, the more I believe that this veil of silence and duplicity has to be taken head on.
The week started off with a homily by Austin Sammut, a columnist who suggested that anyone who had an axe to grind with yours truly should take me to a court of law. How very nice of him. He says this because one of his colleagues, Peter Fenech, and his relative Bertu Mizzi have felt libelled by this newspaper and instituted proceedings instead of clarifying or answering matters.
I am sure people who feel aggrieved would libel instead of facing the angst of our newsapaper. Just imagine if I said that someone who has a number plate with the acronym DVX is a fascist: I would surely be libelled and lose in a court of law.
If I said that Lowell is a menace to society, the same would happen.
Well, here I go, Lowell and his bunch are a menace to society.
It is okay to publish a letter in the Times saying that one should target columnists and not Jesuits, but it is wrong and libellous to call for these extremists to be silenced. It is politically incorrect to ban people like Lowell from speaking out but it is not possible to suggest that people like Lowell and his supporters should be silenced.
The people who present themselves in suits and ties such as Beattie and Degiorgio who attract the same kind of people Lowell does should be not allowed to function as a lobby group and organise political meetings.
Editor such as Frans Ghirxi, Sylvana Cristina, Miriam Dalli, Leonard Callus, Alfred Briffa, Ray Bugeja, Noel Grima, Stephen Calleja, John Zammit, Laurence Grech, Victor Camilleri, Mario Xuereb and myself should not give space or airtime to these extremists groups.
The war should be absolute. There has to be zero tolerance.
Over the last few days I received unbelievable signs of solidarity, many came in unqualified phrases – Dr Sammut’s comment did not. It made it a point to remind everyone that I have biting commentaries. I would have preferred if he had simply tried to be like Arnold Cassola and the Curia and said nothing.
When you wish for the free press you do not suggest for an alternative route via the court of law.
When the new development boundaries were announced this week by a subdued and concerned George Pullicino, I was taken years back to 1988. It was a year after 1987 and the election of the Nationalist Party. Before that building permits were the sole discretion of the minister, and his decision was supreme. In a haste to settle for some common sense in the world of speculation, temporary development zones were declared.
I will not forget Julian Manduca collecting the maps of all the proposed zones, and together we gathered the chaotic green groups and presented our objections.
One development zone that was objected to but was given the green light was Busietta Gardens next to the valley off Madliena. It was a beautiful vista before the bulldozers moved in. The Labour party in opposition rightly opposed the choice of the area. When the development was finally coming to a close, the end result was a garish terrace, a tribute to how best to screw a Maltese landscape.
In 1992, the Labour Party lost the national election and elected Alfred Sant to the helm. Sant has had to suffer John Attard Montalto since the days of Busietta Gardens. As the Labour Party continued to use Busietta gardens as a typical example of government’s bad policy, John Attard Montalto settled down in one of the accommodations at Busietta Gardens.
Sant simply described the episode as a question of bad taste. He was surely irked at JAM’s insensitivity. It was not to be the last time that JAM had or has embarrassed Sant and his party.
Last Tuesday JAM was feasted to an interview and documentary about his life on Bondi plus. Swimming pool, Jacuzzi and other tasteless vistas of his abode were viewed to prove to us that socialists love to live the lives of the people they have traditionally derided. And the Maltese like people who show off their homes, just like they loved watching soap operas such as Dallas and Dynasty in the seventies.
JAM is an embarrassment for the Labour Party and just because he does not seem to like Alfred Sant does not mean he is a better choice. The problem with the Labour Party is that there are so many of these JAM-like characters and as soon as someone like JAM disappears from the scene another one emerges.
JAM has been likened to a phoenix but in truth he is a mish-mash sort of politician. He stands on a socialist ticket. But I am a kind of old-fashioned kind of guy. I cannot connect with someone who calls himself a socialist, stands behind Alfred Sant on May 1 and then lives like a little sheikh.
The last time I interviewed JAM on TV he arrived late – his trademark – in a gold Mercedes owned by one of his Labourite canvassers. They all had pot bellies and you could see that their idea of a change of government had more to do with who was in Castille rather than how better the underclass or working class would get on.
JAM sat down in the studio but suddenly had to stand up again. He laughed and with his contorted and bloated Mick Jagger pout put his hands in his pockets and a stack of twenties and tenners rolled out, folded just like a contractor would fold his paper money in his dusty dirty shorts.
sbalzan@mediatoday.com.mt
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