High government circles strongly criticised the British High Commissioner to Malta Nick Archer because, according to them, he went out of his way to tell the world a couple of weeks ago that the Queen’s visit to Malta on her diamond anniversary was a “coincidence”. According to them, Archer wanted to tell the world Malta was no more important than any other country, despite its EU membership, as the world’s press was talking about the Queen going to Uganda from Malta.
Nationalist Government officials perceived this move as a clear message of Britain’s support for India’s candidate. Consequently, in a letter to the editor published on 9 December, Nationalist Party councillor Edward Torpiano stated that “in view of what is alleged to have taken place in the run-up to the election of Commonwealth Secretary General, allow me to suggest that the Malta Government expel His Excellency Nick Archer (British High Commissioner) from Malta”.
Indeed this is very worrying because such a statement might lead to diplomatic crisis and clashes between the Maltese and the British Government. I strongly believe that the Maltese deserve an explanation on Mr Torpiano`s remarks. Is his statement being endorsed by the Nationalist Party? So far no government or Nationalist Party official has dissociated himself from his comments. People are also asking what the Foreign Minister Dr Michael Frendo`s position on this story is, since he hails from Mr Torpiano`s same political party.
If in the coming days, the Nationalist General Secretary publicly states that his Party dissociates itself from the Floriana councillor, Edward Torpiano will have no other options but to resign from either the Council or from representing his Party.
Josef Cachia
Hamrun
Politicians have been known not to keep their promises. You should know that very well if you live in Malta.
It may also cross your mind that India is now an economic powerhouse and a big trading partner with the UK.
Business is business and as you well know that is exactly how this government behaves when it comes to doing the right thing by the general population or pleasing a few contractors that in reality run this country.
To ask for the expulsion of Nick Archer because the British government did not play ball is a bit of a childish response.
Anthony Borg
Mellieha
The position of a judge or a magistrate is a highly professional one. Even they sometimes go home with nagging worries in their heads about certain highly controversial decisions they have the duty to take in the course of their profession. They are after all human beings like everyone else. So even they have feelings! There must have been times in their profession when they had to take ‘harsh’ decisions, according to what is prescribed by law, when deep in their hearts they knew and wished that their sentence was milder.
So they have feelings; but do they have Constitutional rights, like for example freedom of association? Can a ‘code of ethics’ supersede a Constitutional right? If there is a conflict should it be that the Constitutional right be forsaken or, that the code of ethics be amended? Pressures put on Magistrate Mizzi and Judge Farrugia Sacco to resign from their ‘private life’ voluntary association to help sports organisations can be very unjust.
Such issues can be resolved without such an escalation in inseminating doubts in peoples’ minds. Judges and magistrates know the law quite well. The law forbids blackmail, and upholds peoples’ rights. If these two people resign from their ‘private life’ associations they would be publicly sending the wrong message – ‘submitting to pressure to give up their Constitutional rights’.
A person can be given the permit to possess a gun; the fact that that person can actually use it to kill somebody cannot stop his ‘accepted’ right to possess a gun. A magistrate and a judge cannot (because of a code of ethics???) belong to a sports organisation on the grounds of ‘possible conflict of interest’. This is very similar to saying that they can be guilty, before they did anything wrong. There is a simple fact that absolutely nobody can deny – a magistrate and a judge cannot be chosen unless they are human beings.
This issue, of expecting these two human beings who know the law inside out, to pressure them to forsake their rights and resign has already been allowed to grow out of proportion. Escalating it will make it far worse, especially when other solutions are so simple. Amending a code of ethics is not as difficult, and more justified, than denying Constitutional rights. There are even simpler things than that; like for example asking sports associations not to accept ‘nominations’ of ‘emarginated?’ people. But never compel those people to forsake their rights. The law is equal for all. Nobody can be ‘presumed’ guilty (or potentially guilty) until proven.
Reggie Debono
Attard
Reference is made to the recent articles in the press with regards to the Equal Partners Foundation. A few points of clarification are required since certain inaccuracies have been noted.
In 2003 Equal Partners Foundation was awarded a three-year contract to offer a therapeutic agriculture based project called Franco Si. The sum allocated for the duration of the project totaled Lm19,200. As with all projects of this kind, specific outputs were agreed to and contracted for with government. However, after a year it was noted that the agreed outputs were not being reached and that detailed financial statements and other project details were not forwarded to the Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) Liaison Unit within the Department for Social Welfare Standards, Ministry for the Family and Social Solidarity, as was contractually required. For these reasons the contract was terminated in 2005.
This year, following contact between the Department and Equal Partners, the NGO Liaison Unit forwarded an application for proposals for funding to Equal Partners. However, to date Equal Partners have not applied for funding from the 2008 budget allocated to NGOs.
Dr Kenneth Grech
Director Social Welfare Standards
Chairperson, NGO Project Selection Committee
We remember the crowds at the Granaries in the 1980s during PN mass meetings yelling “Sallbu… sallbu…” (crucify him) to demonstrate their opposition and hate for Dom Mintoff.
During the 1987-1996 period, the Nationalist government sent me and a number of my colleagues to Coventry, emarginating and grossly discriminating against us because of our legitimate activities in the Labour Party.
An endless list of Labour Party sympathisers were also sent to Canossa during the time of Dr Fenech Adami.
Recently we saw Charlon Gouder being jeered at a PN activity in the presence of our Prime Minister. Moreover, Parliamentary Secretary Tony Abela, together with a section of the crowd, insisted that Charlon Gouder emigrate after the general elections.
Now Edward Torpiano wants to expel the British High Commissioner for Malta because Britain did not vote for Michael Frendo during the election of the Commonwealth secretary-general (Letters, 9 December, MaltaToday).
With this background who needs ‘spin doctors’ and ‘sound bites’ to expose Edward Torpiano’s protégées for what they really are?
It’s simply incredible!
Charles J Buttigieg
Mellieha
One of the EU’s laws which has affected radically, in a negative way, our judicial system is the European Arrest Warrant. Unfortunately in Malta, despite having many hundreds (or thousands?) of lawyers, except for two or three lawyers, the rest have kept silent on such a dangerous law which could hit any Maltese citizen who travels to another EU country.
The following story of what happened to a young British citizen, Joseph Mandy, is an example to what can happen to Maltese citizens. This young 19-year-old Briton went on holiday with his friends to the Spanish island of Fuerteventura in the Canaries. There, he and his friends were arrested by the Spanish police and accused of counterfeiting four 50 euro notes. As the euro is a novel currency, particularly for British youths since their country, Britain, has decided to keep its own currency, the Pound Sterling, it is quite a job to define real from counterfeit notes. They were accused of passing off the counterfeit notes, one in a bar, another in a local shop and two others were found, one with Mandy’s friend and another in their hotel room.
They were taken to court on the following days then allowed to return home with the warning that they would be contacted by the authorities. In March 2007, Joseph Mandy was served with a European Arrest Warrant, arrested and held in a Liverpool police cell from where he was taken to London where he was arraigned in court. Despite his appeal, on the 18 July he was handed over to the Spanish police on British soil at Heathrow Airport, and taken to Madrid!
There was no protection whatsoever for this British youth by the British court, whose duty is to protect British citizens. This was how the system worked when Britain had its own extradition procedures. Mandy was denied bail by the Spanish court since the court thought that he could flee the country. By then the Spanish judicial holidays were about to start, so Mandy was held in a Spanish prison for two months!
It was not until the 18 of September that his Spanish lawyer advised him that if he continued to plead innocent, he could face another year in prison before facing a trial. He was also told that if he pleaded guilty, since he had no criminal past, he would get a suspended sentence and a small fine. Not wanting to spend another year awaiting trial in a Spanish prison, Mandy did what his lawyer advised him to do – Mandy pleaded guilty. Thus he got a two-year sentence and was fined 600 euros.
This story fell in the lap of MP Frank Dobson, since Mandy resided in Dobson’s constituency. When the Hon. Dobson spoke to parliament, he pointed out that Mandy had not personally been found in possession of any counterfeit money, and various other inconsistencies in the procedures of the Spanish judicial holidays. And that hence he would have to spend two months in prison before his case could be heard.
Due to the European Arrest Warrant, poor Joseph Mandy has been through hell and back! The only defence by the British government in response to MP Frank Dobson’s speech, was provided by the Parliamentary under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, Meg Hillier, who said: “We have to have faith in our European partners”!
Not only Joseph Mandy, but all those in the EU who realise how EU Law has relegated national parliaments and judicial systems to irrelevance, a this festive time of the year, should be singing an adaptation of Bing Crosby’s immortal song: “I’m dreaming of an EU-free Christmas, just like the one I used to know…”!
Eddy Privitera
Mosta
Dr Michael Asciak of Opus Dei fame claims to be a scientist and yet from what I have read recently, his reaction to some very pertinent criticism in the local English-language newspapers seems to fit more an individual belonging to some kind of dogmatic Sophist convention for fundamentalists.
Since we mention scientists, it appears to me that Dr Asciak’s method of approach bears an uncanny resemblance to the depraved inquisitors’ method when they arrested and put on trial Galileo in 1623 and who ironically, as every school boy knows, is today acclaimed as the founder of modern science.
The same Roman Catholic Church that arrested Galileo and finally condemned him to lifetime imprisonment was sure that it was morally right, as Dr Asciak claims to be with such certitude, that it stuck to its obnoxious system for hundreds of years after Galileo’s death and throughout which Europe had once again to witness the Catholic Church’s backward march into the future when scientists of the calibre of Darwin and Freud appeared on the scene with their newfound scientific discoveries.
Unfortunately, the situation today is not very different and in spite of the volte-face adopted by the Roman Catholic Church in certain areas, such burning subjects as divorce, contraception, IVF and abortion are still being effectively served the Galileo Ordeal.
Vladimir Cini
Marsaxlokk
I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation towards all the members of the Birkirkara local council, especially Mr George Debattista who is working so hard for the residents’ interest. I am referring to the ‘Flooding protection project’ in Bwieraq Street Birkirkara. Thanks to Mr Debattista this project finally started and will soon end all the troubles we have been facing through all these years, due to flooding in our streets.
Anna Scerri
Birkirkara
This time round I have a short quotation taken from Giovanni Bonello’s Histories of Malta, Volume V page 48.
“In 1784 the kindly and almost enlightened Grand Master Rohan exiled from Malta two small traders – a hawker and a watch repairer – both from Floriana for having grumbled about the cost of living and the lack of price control.”
Got it? The cost of living and the lack of price control were already political issues more than 200 years ago! Don’t we know that prices will start coming down when we start getting younger?
Giov. De Martino
Mosta
When we hear the word “courage” we usually associate it with victims of crime, the death of a loved one or else someone with a terminal illness.
There is another kind of courage, though. The kind of courage that makes a long-standing ardent Nationalist patriot go on TV and declare to all and sundry, precisely on Super One’s Television station, that the Honourable Lawrence Gonzi is not to be trusted.
It takes a great deal of butterflies flying around in the stomach to openly state that as long as Lawrence Gonzi is Prime Minister, Michael Woods would never vote Nationalist again. I must admit that I don’t usually watch “Vici Versa”. Keen as I am on politics, sometimes I’d rather lose myself in the world of make believe watching a good thriller than watching some political debate or discussion. Still, I would rather have had both my arms in a sling than missed watching the Prime Minister’s face go green while listening to what Michael Woods had to say.
Mr Woods, an ordinary citizen in spite of his political beliefs, must have taken a sizeable amount of mud-slinging after his ominous declaration, yet there is no doubt that he had considered it well beforehand. It is obvious that Woods knew what he was talking about on “Vici Versa” and it is no use assuming that the latter was simply portraying that he was a nationalist when in actual fact he was a labourite. All evidence proves that he was. Let us hope that on election day many Nationalists heed the words he had to say on “Vice Versa”: “The Prime Minister is not to be trusted”.
Valerie Borg,
MLP Councillor
Valletta
The factor that made a difference: It was time for a change even after 11 years...
Lawrence Dimech, Sydney, Australia
I was disgusted – to say the least – to read of a very dishonourable speech made in Parliament. An ode to hunters, from none other than Labour MP Joe Abela, who found it expedient to express himself in a way that interferes with the work of the judiciary in what appears to be an ongoing case against a particular hunter. In the process, he also denigrates and brutally attacks one of the most important environmental NGOs in the country as well as being of scandal with regard to the content of his ‘speech’. With his words, he also takes the government to task for its tough stance in its handling of the hunting issue – as if we’re not bad enough as it is!
He claims that he is not a hunter himself – but he certainly is no friend or ‘sympathiser’ of birds – whatever that means – because he sees nothing wrong with these birds being shot down at will, maimed or somehow hurt and left to die in the countryside by Maltese hunters.
He attacks BirdLife’s EU-sponsored pamphlet and questions the reason behind such a sponsorship. Little does this honourable gentleman realize what the European Union really stands for. If one had to take a look at the Eurobarometer, one would find that from among the so many policies of the EU, as well as the stands that it takes on countless issues, one of the most important aspects that the majority of EU citizens really appreciate is the effect that the EU directives have in controlling the environment – and by that, we also mean the natural environment.
And birds, this honourable gentleman must be taught to realise, are an intrinsic part of the environment, along with all other animals that are not there to entertain the human species, even less so to be a natural target for some of us who have no life, literally, and have nothing better to do in their spare (and non-spare) time than to shoot at birds which, after all, are not their property but belong to us all.
Or does this honourable gentleman feel that owning a piece of land means that you also own the birds that fly in the air above it? (How, I simply cannot fathom; perhaps one can tell us how these hunters acquired this land in the first place, when they acquired it, how much they paid or are paying for it, to whom, etc)
Does it also mean that you have lead and pellets coming down over private property and community land such as roads, streets and lanes? Have we monitored in a scientific way the effect that such lead is having on our soil, and its effect on the quality of water on our water table?
What are the ‘rights of hunters’ that this honourable gentleman is referring to? And if hunters have rights, don’t we, the rest of the people living on these islands, have our rights too? Abela denies the fact that people, including tourists, are stopped in their tracks, in the countryside. Perhaps Abela too, along with other MPs in the House, are living on cloud nine!
Who are the ‘environmentalists’ that Abela chooses to denigrate? Are they merely the administrators of environmental NGOs? A very wrong assumption!
He claims that a certain judge should abstain from continuing to hear a case against a hunter. But, with his words, isn’t he, himself, showing prejudice in favour of this hunter? Who shall we believe? And with what moral and academic authority does this honourable gentleman come along, standing up in the House and pontificate about a subject which he should have been prudent enough to avoid? Or does being an MP mean that you have a God-given power and authority to speak about anything under the sun, even if you are the world’s least-paid clown?
He speaks about ‘the people’ and ‘their respect’ with regards to the judiciary. He would do well to leave the judiciary well alone – that is what the more intelligent people in this country want. Certainly, Abela does not speak on my behalf when he attacks this judge and asks him to abstain.
My conclusion: is this speech a reflection of Labour’s approach to the subject of hunting? We, the electorate, demand to hear Labour leaders telling us whether they distance themselves from Abela’s speech or whether, indeed, this is the way things will go if and when Labour wins the next general election. While waiting for such a declaration, the voters who are in favour of having a clean natural environment in our small country, will arrive at their conclusions and know who to vote for and who not to vote for.
Franco Farrugia
Pietà
