As inspiration for his letter Distortion Of Facts, Salvu Felice Pace chose one online comment under an article of mine in this newspaper. He enthusiastically pounced upon the words “lack of analysis”, relieved to satisfy his eternal anti-Labour controlling political obsession come what may.
Felicitously, Mr Felice Pace ignored what was written in answer to his chosen comment, namely, that this was no analysis but merely personal invective.
As expected, Mr Felice Pace did not mention other comments such as “Dr Dalli, you hit the nail on the head”.
Goodness knows what could be the intention behind an online comment, whether positive or negative; I am simply pointing it out because Mr Felice Pace was very selective and people reading the hard copy of this newspaper may, heaven forbid, think I only get bad comments. Mr Felice Pace has yet to learn that online comments can be risky territory.
But anything goes for him whose reputation to answer with an emotional yelp, as soon as he hears the word Labour, is legendary.
Mr Felice Pace then puts his foot in his mouth again and says that there is a difference between the case of John Dalli’s resignation and that of Chris Said because the latter is a parliamentary secretary in the Prime Minister’s office. By stating this, he is inadvertently strengthening my argument that the Prime Minister should have dealt with Dr Said’s case in the same way (as in the Prime Minister couldn’t have a minister under investigation) as he dealt with Mr Dalli, even more so since Dr Said serves in the Prime Minister’s office, the most important of all ministries.
They may both be proven innocent – Mr Dalli already has been in this case – but it remains a fact that the resignations were handled differently by the Prime Minister and that’s the whole point of the argument.
My detractor goes on to say that I was misinformed about Dr Said’s visibility after the pseudo-resignation. Misinformed? I saw Dr Said with my own eyes. Does it matter if the activities he attended were planned beforehand?
They obviously always are. The issue here is that if he had really resigned, there shouldn’t have been public appearances with the Prime Minister if he wants people to take the resignation seriously.
The fact that Dr Said did the opposite was further confirmation that the resignation was a sham.
The message given by Dr Said appearing with the Prime Minister on all news footage was that the Nationalist Party thinks people are fools.
However, it seems these theatrics impressed Mr Felice Pace. Or perhaps, they may not have, but anti-Labour prejudice regularly makes him try to choke the truth before it stings too sharply.
Then, Mr Felice Pace goes on about a report carried in another news portal, which according to him stated that Dr Said entered a conference room after Dr Gonzi had started speaking. He says that I was “peddling” this line. Where, pray, did I write anything of the sort? Mr Felice Pace is wrong and this can be confirmed by anyone who could be bothered to read my piece.
My critic rants on as if he is unaware that the last election was won by the skin of the PN’s teeth and that the extra voting hour was instrumental for the slim victory. I have heard many stories of PN sympathisers who were not going to vote but were pressured to do so in the last hour while they were promised whatever it was that they were after.
Many of them were later short-changed. It is ridiculous – to use his own word – of Mr Felice Pace to pretend not to understand this. He surely must be aware of the many grievances the government has to face because of this situation.
Mr Felice Pace also goes back a quarter of a century to remind us that Labour’s problem is its past; we don’t have to be reminded though that the PN’s problem is its present because we are living it. It is typical of writers of Mr Felice Pace’s style to blame Labour for all the ills in Maltese history starting from the earliest ages.
I am then accused that “Dr Dalli’s arrogance knows no bounds”. My crime? I dared say that this government is past its expiry date.
Perhaps Mr Felice Pace could refer me to the inquisition department for expressing my views which he does not tolerate as from my first word. Thank goodness for my arrogance, which is comparatively lukewarm.
There must be many arrogant people around though because one hears complaints about our past-by-its-sell-date government everywhere, except, maybe, among those in Mr Felice Pace’s comfort zone.
Mr Felice Pace also mentions employment. On this, I invite him to my surgery where he may listen to the big problems in that area related to the kind of jobs people have no choice but to take on and the concomitant bad conditions of work. It’s take it or leave it, there are scores of people ready to do the job if one complains.
For many it is either remaining unemployed or accepting whatever comes their way regardless of how precarious the conditions may be.
But then it is pointless trying to get Mr Felice Pace to empathise with people who are not having it as good as he is. This is evident in his writing. Who knows what he sees as interesting in the sand where his head is stuck?