We need unpolluted debate

Lawrence Gonzi really could have done without his nephew adding to his problems. I am sure that the Prime Minister disapproves strongly of any organisation spouting fascist and racist propaganda. And the last thing he wants is that the Nationalist Party be seen as embracing the extreme right.

His government last week issued a statement stating that the police had been instructed to prosecute anyone spreading racist ideas. However, since legislation is already in place, why was it necessary for the Home Affairs Minister to give the police "strict instructions" to uphold the law? Do the police need to be "strictly instructed" to "institute criminal action against those violating the law"?

It is such a shame that Alexis Callus, who was a PN Safi councillor and deputy mayor (he has now resigned), seems to have become embroiled with the Radical Right, because he seems a nice young man.

He wrote to me after my article "Elitism and 'high politics' - revolutionary stuff", of January 2, inviting me to visit a couple of Websites connected with the Radical Right. He told me he formed part of "malta'schildren. com" (the name is in Maltese), one of the Websites.

That site now asks for a password before giving you access. I am not sure whether this is a recent addition! I had not tried to access it before Friday.

The other site I had already accessed when writing the column referred to above.

Mr Callus had informed me that the Radical Right is "very vast" and that Norman Lowell was not the leader of the Radical Right in Malta. Views within that movement were not all in accord with Mr Lowell, I was told.

However, I should "not give the impression that he alone has an anti-immigration opinion".

Mr Callus obviously had not fully understood the consequences and implications of his actions, and the extent of the damage to his political career.

He told me "the Radical Right element is found in the two main parties also". Maybe that is why the main parties took so long to do the right thing and strongly denounce what was going on. Although they did finally react to the public outcry, and the MLP declared that Joe Meli, a former MLP local councillor, who was a declared extreme right-winger, would not be allowed to contest as an MLP candidate and has been barred from the party.

I spoke to Jason Micallef, the MLP general secretary, on Friday, and asked him whether he was concerned that there were right-wing extremists in the MLP, who were biding their time and keeping a low profile.

He assured me that while he was general secretary of the MLP, extreme right-wing views would not be tolerated.

Meanwhile, Mr Callus has apologised for his actions, resigned from the Safi council, acknowledged the damage he has inflicted on himself, his relatives and the Nationalist Party, and completely backtracked by denouncing right-wing policies.

But his position within the PN was unclear. He had resigned from his office as deputy mayor, but all I had read in the press was that PN general secretary Joe Saliba had said that a decision on Mr Callus's future within the PN would be taken by a committee within the party.

On Friday I asked Mr Saliba whether Mr Callus was still a member of the Nationalist Party. "No, he no longer holds a PN membership card and all contacts with the party have been severed," I was told. I also asked him the same question I asked the MLP general secretary about right-wing extremists hiding in the party's woodwork.

Mr Saliba gave me the same assurances that extreme right-wing tendencies would not be tolerated in the PN.

In the meantime AD chairman Harry Vassallo has seized the opportunity for his party and is gathering support from people who are getting exceedingly anxious about human rights violations.

The main parties are now busy trying to repair the damage.

Dr Vassallo's article in Friday's The Times had impact in more ways than one. Besides bringing home the plight of the detainees who are enduring extreme conditions - their spirit is broken, they are freezing, have no privacy, and their amenities are foul - he said that the Commissioner of Police had told him he (Dr Vassallo) had been given data not supplied to Gavin Gulia (the Opposition's Home Affairs spokesman, who has been very active on this issue).

Was Dr Vassallo given the information because he was seen as less of a political threat? This kind of information does not bode well. What other data are being withheld, one wonders?

Dr Vassallo is not the only one to be shocked by the appalling conditions the detainees are enduring. I have had people phone me to say they cannot sleep at night since visiting one of the centres, and asking why I had not visited.

I explained that I had asked both Police Commissioner John Rizzo and Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg to allow journalists to visit long ago. They were both adamant that they would not give access to the press. When I had asked them why, they responded that the information might be used "badly". My response had been that surely they could distinguish between the journalists out to cause sensation and those who were trying to do their job.

Apparently they could not. As a result, they have got themselves landed with even more bad publicity. I had also made a public request to Dr Borg at a seminar a few years back when Dr Gulia backed the request, and to which I had referred to in my column at the time.

However, we have to accept that there are also journalists who agreed at worst, and sympathised at best, with the embargo. Much could have been avoided. Had the institutions that represent the press in Malta made the appropriate noises and taken some action, the issue would not have degenerated into the current debacle.

I agree with Nationalist MP Franco Galea writing in The Times yesterday that "the press has a major role to play in any national matter and this is even more so where immigration is concerned".

I also concur with his views that "extreme views of any extraction pollute the debate", and that caring for one's own does not make one a fascist (charity begins at home), nor does caring for the plight of (I am not happy with the word "genuine", which I have not got room to explain why here) refugees make one a "commie".

Mr Galea was the Nationalist MP I referred to in my column of January 23 when I wrote: "Almost complete silence from our politicians in the main political parties (I believe one Nationalist backbencher said something in Parliament, but he was not reported).

I did not mention him by name because I did not have time to get hold of the parliamentary transcript. "A speech... I delivered on the subject... on January 18 went nearly totally unnoticed by the media in general," Mr Galea said.

He is right. I only found out that he had made the speech when I was phoning around to see whether any MPs at all had said anything.

"I won't bother in availing myself of privileges, because what counts for me is that something is done in response to the concerns of the public," Mr Galea said when referring to the fact that an unofficial transcript of his speech was inaccurately translated and contained excerpts taken in isolation.

Well, the concerns of the public are that the whole issue had been badly mishandled. Of course the other European countries should be doing something about it. It is also the EU that is mishandling the issue.

But the inhumane behaviour is happening on our shores and that is our responsibility.

Another concern is that the bulk of the responsibility is being put on the soldiers and the police rather than the authorities. I have had people in the know telling me that although they abhor what has happened, and much has to be done to improve the conditions in the camps, the soldiers and the police are also having to endure hardships.

They sometimes are on duty in freezing conditions. They also have no proper lavatory or showering facilities. The kitchen at Safi is run by two sometimes three people who provide 800 meals a day. No wonder the food distribution is slapdash, to say the least.

There is also more to say about the inadequacies of the diet provided to the detainees and why this is causing problems, both to health and morale; and that man does not live by bread alone, but unfortunately I have run out of space in the page. The national conference dealing with the issue starts tomorrow, so I will no doubt have more to say next week.

Not long-winded

As to Major Clews (see Letters, page 15), I suggest he goes back to his dictionary. My response last week was long, but readers who missed the column he was referring to would have otherwise got the wrong end of the stick.

phansen@timesofmalta.com