The cleric and the politician – brazen hypocrisy and racism by the first; treachery by the second –
Mosta priest Father David Muscat is a so-called “man of the cloth”, in the Christian world meaning he represents Jesus Christ and presumably leads a good and humble life conveying the words and actions of The Saviour to the population he is meant to shepherd to help them remain on the path of righteousness.
Politician David Casa is a Member of the European Parliament, presumably elected there by the people of Malta and Gozo to represent the best interests of Malta and Gozo in the European Parliament.
They are both worth a closer scrutiny.
Let’s take the cleric first. A short while back this priest caused consternation by attending a birthday party thrown by Norman Lowell, a man well-known for being on the extreme right wing of politics and making racist pronouncements, particularly against black people, Arabs and in general, those of African origins.
Now there is nothing wrong in attending a birthday party. Lowell may be a close friend of his, or they may even be related. The cleric may even be an admirer. That is his business.
However, wearing a cloth and robes and garments that represent the Church and its teachings he is supposed to represent humility, understanding and, love and tolerance for all mankind. Apparently not – according to Father David Muscat.
On the pretext of a certain Dr Abdalla Kabian delivering one of the speeches during the 8th September Great Siege/Victory Day commemoration, this man of the cloth came out with a stream of virulent condemnation about “foreigners” delivering speeches at national occasions, personalising the man as one of those “whose ancestors fired bullets against us”.
What absolute bullshit and nonsense, a shameful act of hypocrisy and treachery against the Church he is supposed to represent and an insult to Malta and Gozo and its friends and allies.
By Father David Muscat’s yardstick we should hunt down all current Italians and Germans and extract retribution for the bombs their ancestors dropped on Malta during World War II. Extend this further and attack the French too because of Napoleon’s invasion and all the stuff the French stole from Malta.
Maybe even the British deserve some sort of payback or other for thrusting Malta into two World Wars and all the misery these brought.
In short, let’s attack the whole world to show them we are Maltese!
As for Dr Abdalla Kabian, he comported himself with dignity as a real gentleman. He spoke with elegance and poise and underlined his capability by speaking in perfect Maltese. He is a friend for Malta to cherish dearly. Above all, I think he is Arabic and NOT Turkish Ottoman who set the Great Siege.
Now, let’s turn to the politician David Casa. In my humble understanding, a politician is elected to the EU Parliament to jealously safeguard his country’s interests and not try and use every possible means to betray it, cast it in a bad light, make baseless allegations and try and bring about the EU’s condemnation on his own country.
Last year a Maltese newspaper reported: “Nationalist Party MEP David Casa has called on MONEYVAL, the Council of Europe's permanent anti-money laundering monitoring body, to, investigate the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit's (FIAU) handling of information regarding the Dubai-registered company 17 Black.
“MONEYVAL carries out evaluations in each member state to assess their compliance with international conventions and EU legislation, and will be in Malta in November (2018) for its fifth round of evaluations.
“In a statement on Friday afternoon, Casa said that come November MONEYVAL would be in a position to "establish statements made by the FIAU to be false", adding that "this will indicate the extent of the political capture of this institution".
“Casa has repeatedly questioned public statements made by the FIAU, and has asked MONEYVAL to consider various points in their investigation.”
Yesterday, MONEYVAL came out with a list of “points” Malta has to “rectify” against “money-laundering and terrorist financing”, a list that for an unknowing observer indicates that Malta is teeming with MAFIA criminals laundering money and financing terrorists.
YET, only last week the more reliable and reputable Basel Institute of Switzerland – not “inspired” by Casa’s damaging allegations - said that from information gained from the world’s leading financial institutions, Malta is virtually free of such criminality and placed it in 113th position out of 125 countries surveyed in the corruption index.
Who do I choose to believe? Well, when I started journalism 54 years ago the first lesson I had to understand is that information gained has to be based on the credibility of the source yielding the information.
David Casa’s credibility? To state it is ZERO would be a brazen lie. It is well, well below ZERO and has been proven time and time again.
Above all, what credibility can a person have who has been alleged to have dished out cocaine and further alleged to have misappropriated EU Funds?
He has of course refuted the allegations. HOWEVER, has he taken legal steps to address them? Has he invoked legal proceedings?
NO, HE HAS NOT.
The cleric and the politician – brazen hypocrisy and racism by the first; treachery by the second – there is a Maltese expression that relates faces being of the same mould as posteriors!
ALBERT FENECH
