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| 'Hail to Gaddafi' |
In February, two weeks after the Libyan rebels took up arms or whatever they could find to overthrow the Gaddafi regime, Charlon Gouder ran this news item on Super One. Click - Ir-relazzjonijiet bejn Malta u l-Libja.
Watching it now is surreal. Just six months ago, when the Libyan desert was already reddened with rebel blood, Gouder went into a delirium of Gaddafi glorification, producing a hagiography of Malta's relations with him.
The Libyan dictator is projected as Malta's saviour and benefactor, the man who brought Arabic to our nation's classrooms.
Gouder even goes to the extreme length of giving PN politicians good billing in his sycophantic ode to the Libyan dictator.
Not able to contain his provincialism even during those historic days, Gouder also throws in a little anti-GonziPN flourish. John Dalli is described as the kingpin in the drive to improve the PN government's relations with Libya. But of course, this is as surreal as the Gouder's Gaddafi glorification. Dalli helping Gonzi? I don't think so.
Most surreal of all is the news item's ending. Charlon Gouder actaully praises the Gonzi-Gaddafi meeting held last November. And this was only six months ago.
It is no wonder that never in these six months has Labour called for Gaddafi to step down. It is even less of a wonder that they mentioned his name only once throughout the conflict - to have his medals unpinned. And even then they only did so after Lawrence Gonzi had announced the move. Perhaps they grudgingly decided that saying somthing like this would not work: 'Take the medals away from a certain Libyan leader whose name we cannot mention.'
Maybe, if at all possible, it would be historically appropriate to bring Gaddafi's medals back to Malta. And pin them to Charlon Gouder's chest. They could do, how shall I put it, the trick in Albert Town.
6 comments:
It is immature to be pointing fingers at each other over who was closest to Muammar Gaddafi. However when viewing this clip on you tube I feel flustered with the level of glorification the journalist opts to depict the dictator. From a political point of view, one might be worried whether the old ties are still inclined towards such leadership styles. When seeing people like Alex Sciberras Trigona who happened to be a minster in the Dom era not commenting on the late Libyan Spring, I wonder if there is something hidden in the closet .
Caruana De Brincat, I'll ignore your patronising opening sentence because you sound like a youngster feeling all grown-up and "mature".
It seems, however, that you haven't grasped the significance of what has been happening. Among other things, the Libyan connection has brought back into focus the 1970s and 1980s, making them topical once again.
The issue is not which party was closer to Gaddafi but which one was literally paid by him to carry out certain services and allowed him to turn Malta into a terrorist hub.
Far from easing up, this discussion is likely to intensify in the run-up to the 2013 elections.
Antoine Vella - topical with people who would vote PN anyway. You're delusional if you think this will be a topic for the elections, apart from the fact that there's still some time to go, you must to realise that the Maltese voter isn't made up of everyone who reads blogs.
If you think that something that happened in 1989 will have any weight on 2013 you really have no idea, sorry to say this.
I'm hoping that by 2013 even Libya would have forgotten about Gaddafi, let alone the maltese voter, of whom a good percentage didn't even the live the 70's and 80's.
Is this how the PN is envisaging to persuade us in the next election?
@anonymous 1 & 2
You might not be interested in what happened in the past, but it would be useful to inform yourselves because the past has a nasty habit of catching up with you. Why do you imagine Yvonne Fletcher's still in the news even though she was shot in 1984 - five whole years before 1989.
Aren't you at least a little bit curious as to what sort of compromise with Libya the PL made in 2008, five full years ahead of elections in 2013? You should be, and here's why:
1. you were around.
2. Joseph Muscat's agreement with Libya binds a future PL government.
3. if the PL in government doesn't honour its agreement, there will be repercussions that will probably affect you too.
Do you know what's in that agreement and how it will affect you? Look to ancient history - the 1970s and 1980s - for a possible explanation. You'll find that it's relevant.
People who "would vote for the PN" are the majority in Malta but there is are fringes who might be tempted to try voting PL because it's has a new leader and tries to give the impression that it's reborn and has nothing to do with the MLP.
For such fringes, this business with Gaddafi is a reminder that, no, the PL is not 'new' but simply the old MLP in disguise.
Regarding the importance of blogs, one has only to follow the Labour media - including Saviour Balzan's website - to realise that the PL is seriously worried about their influence.
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