Tender ‘Tander’ Saliba

Alex Agius Saliba couldn’t hide his visceral grudge against Daphne Caruana Galizia. He couldn’t resist revealing his disdain and antipathy towards the journalist even eight years after her brutal murder and over a decade after her biting criticism of him.

One thing is clear – Agius Saliba hasn’t forgiven her. Maybe it was the post on her Running Commentary blog, mocking him for uploading on his Facebook page photos of “my new bedroom”, replete with a Mickey mouse soft toy on his bed at the age of 23. Maybe it was her incisive criticism of Agius Saliba’s nepotistic appointment as the replacement secretary to the Manoel Theatre Board despite his evident lack of any background in music or the arts. Whatever it was, Agius Saliba still harbours deep resentment for the journalist who single-handedly exposed the corrupt road map of his idol, Joseph Muscat.

On live radio, Agius Saliba called the laying of flowers at the Great Siege monument in honour of the slain journalist “toxic”. He equated those acts of remembrance with the routine disposal of those flowers and candles by Owen Bonnici and Neville Gafà. It may have slipped Agius Saliba’s notice that the regular clearing of those tributes to the journalist were condemned by the courts as a breach of the right to freedom of expression.

But Agius Saliba told Andrew Azzopardi, on his live show, that laying flowers at the monument was an act of vandalism. The Great Siege monument, Agius Saliba insisted, is being “vandalised”. Among those laying wreaths and bouquets of flowers in honour of Caruana Galizia were several European ambassadors, including those of the Netherlands, Ireland and Germany. Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, also laid flowers in the journalist’s honour last October at that monument. Was she also committing an act of vandalism according to Agius Saliba? Did those ambassadors also vandalise Malta’s Great Siege monument?

It’s rather odd that for Agius Saliba, laying flowers and clearing them boils down to one and the same thing. Yet, while several foreign embassies and MEPs have condemned the clearing of those tributes, none objected to the laying of flowers in the journalist’s honour.

For Agius Saliba, remembering Daphne at the memorial in Valletta is simply “xenati” – just making a scene. “If the public want to pay respect to Caruana Galizia, it should not be done by creating a scene by placing flowers and then having them removed,” he commented. The most interesting part of his statement is “if” – “if they wanted to pay respect to Caruana Galizia”.

Of course, Agius Saliba cannot possibly understand why somebody would want to honour the courage, fearlessness and determination of the journalist who paid the ultimate sacrifice for revealing the truth.

“Repubblika, Occupy Justice and the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation should apply for a monument for Daphne,” he commented, “they would not be stopped.” The entire country should be grateful to Labour deputy leader Agius Saliba for his wise advice and for giving his guarantee that “they would not be stopped”. How gracious.

Agius Saliba is Labour’s deputy leader. He’s Labour’s lead MEP at the European Parliament. Yet, his behaviour and rhetoric continue to sow division and enmity. His loathing of the journalist is evident in his choice of vocabulary – toxic, vandalised, “xenati”. His participation on that radio programme was an orgiastic showcase of bitterness, pettiness and vengeance.

Alex Agius Saliba’s views and values are not European- Kevin Cassar

“We should not let these things become politicised, as it will do no good to her memory,” Agius Saliba commented. What certainly does “no good to her memory” is the relentless campaign of demonisation of the journalist and her family by Labour’s media machine and Labour’s leadership.

Agius Saliba can never acknowledge the journalist’s amazing work in uncovering one Labour scandal after another. He can never recognise the ultimate sacrifice she paid for exposing Labour’s corruption. He, along with his party, cannot bring themselves to accept that her work uncovered the truth. He cannot understand why she deserves to be honoured, why the whole country should be deeply indebted to her, why the state should follow the example of the European Parliament and honour her memory.

After all, the state was responsible for creating the environment that made her assassination possible. The state has an obligation to atone for its failings. But that will never happen as long as we have people like Agius Saliba calling the shots.

In his partisan hostility towards the journalist, Agius Saliba proves how prescient she was. She highlighted Agius Saliba’s warped and dangerous thinking very early. She exposed Agius Saliba for praising Lorry Sant, a violator of fundamental human rights whose thugs beat people up and who was suspended from his own party.

Caruana Galizia mocked Agius Saliba for commemorating Sant’s death. When Agius Saliba was taken to task for celebrating Sant, he replied: “Did you forget how many sport centres he built? Nobody can forget what Lorry Sant did for his country.” Sant was the young Agius Saliba’s idol. He later swapped him for Muscat.

Indeed, Sant has a monument erected in his honour and a garden named after him. There are even two Lorry Sant Streets in Fgura and Marsascala. But no recognition for Caruana Galizia from Labour’s Malta.

There’s one other strange difference bet­ween Sant and Caruana Galizia – Agius Saliba’s hero, Sant, was never celebrated at the European Parliament. Caruana Galizia has a press room named in her honour. You don’t need to wonder why. The European Parliament even named a journalism prize in her honour. The European Parliament tends not to honour corrupt, violent, violators of human rights – only Agius Saliba and his party do.

Agius Saliba’s views and values are not European – quite the contrary. Caruana Galizia exposed Agius Saliba’s vileness. When L-Orizzont embarked on a witch-hunt against one civil servant, Jurgen Cassar, who was accused of being a spy for sharing a photo with Caruana Galizia, Agius Saliba waded in. “There is a limit to everything,” he commented, “those who want to disrupt should be kicked out… there is no mercy with these people.” Agius Saliba hasn’t changed – still as merciless now as he was in 2016.

His hostility towards Caruana Galizia and his embarrassing antics on live radio confirm one thing – how right she was. She sized up “Tander” Saliba well before he transformed into Alex Agius Saliba.

Kevin Cassar is a professor of surgery.