Civil Liberties Minister Helena Dalli will today be meeting Daboma Jack to “apologise on behalf of the Maltese people” for the racist attack he suffered this week.
The black Hungarian student was accosted by a Maltese woman at the Valletta terminus as police officers failed to stop her racist attack on him – both verbal and physical – and instead arrested Mr Jack.
“I am meeting him to apologise in the name of the Maltese people,” Dr Dalli told Times of Malta yesterday in the wake of a raging debate sparked by the incident (see separate story on page 4).
She also said the behaviour of the police, judging by the news reports, was uncalled for.
“I think that the reaction was disproportionate to what he was doing. In actual fact, I think there should have been no reaction at all, because from what I read and saw, he was organising the queue. No one deserves this treatment – but even more if he was teaching us how to form a queue,” she said.
Police behaviour uncalled for – Civil Liberties Minister
The Maltese woman spat at Mr Jack and screamed at him to “go back to your country”, as he was trying to organise a chaotic queue at the Valletta bus terminus on Wednesday.
He immediately reported the incident to a police officer, who failed to react. The woman – still unidentified yesterday evening – then slapped him in the face and Mr Jack started shouting at the police to take action.
At this point three officers from the police’s Rapid Intervention Unit wrestled him to the ground and handcuffed him. In the ensuing confusion the woman escaped.
An internal police investigation is under way. The police yesterday said no police officers had been suspended pending the outcome of the inquiry.
Dr Dalli condemned “all sort of violence” and insisted Malta still had a long way to go in the promotion of the politics of integration.
Mr Jack, a chemical engineer in Hungary, is in Malta for a year to study for his Masters degree. Although not taking calls yesterday, on his Facebook wall he posted footage of the news clip which was filmed by TVM.
“This is what happened to me today in Malta. I am speechless. Let my tears do the talking. Hear my cry,” he said. By yesterday evening the video had 126,000 views.
Dr Dalli said that a recent seminar had revealed the majority of Maltese were in favour of integration. “I am sure that many people want to make an apology for what happened.”
She also linked the incident to the controversial investment in a proposed university at Żonqor in Marsascala, adding that people who were cheering and shouting that Mr Jack should be sent back, were not seeing the whole picture.
“I see it ironic that, while at this moment in time we are trying to attract an investment in our country for a university for foreign students, we treat a student like this.”
As human beings, she stressed, we have to live together and make best use of each others’ potential. “The opposite of integration is disintegration.”
Archbishop Charles Scicluna, who was one of the first to tweet his condemnation of the racist act, yesterday told Times of Malta the racist reactions did not respect Malta’s Christian heritage.
“Incidents like this show that at times Christian values tend to be only skin deep and this needs an honest appraisal of where our culture is going,” he said.
Several people yesterday contacted Times of Malta expressing shock and disgust at the accident. One lawyer even offered his services pro bono to Mr Jack, should he ever need.
Online several people expressed solidarity with Mr Jack, with some posting apologies on his Facebook wall and others changing their status to #JesuisDabomaJack and #stopracism.
Social media frenzy
Social media became the stage for a raging debate after the arrest of Daboma Jack on Wednesday, prompting a mixture of apologies, anger and even racism.
The online story became the day’s most read piece on timesofmalta.com with more than 63,000 views, 536 online comments and several hundred shares on social media.
Facebook, meanwhile, was littered with posts expressing anger and disappointment both at the police who arrested Mr Jack as well as at the woman who allegedly slapped and spat on him.
Facebook user Bernard Grech said: “I unequivocally declare me against this horrendous behaviour. I am flabbergasted and ashamed. We have become a nation of judgmental bigots who cannot see past the colour of skin.”
Popular Facebook forum The Salott saw hundreds of similar comments and posts of solidarity, while notorious racist groups such as Daqshekk għall-Immigrazzjoni Illegali f’Malta (No more to illegal immigration in Malta), were plastered with unsavoury comments congratulating Mr Jack’s assailant and insulting his race. On another anti-immigrant group, Għaqda Patrijotti Maltin, coordinator Alex Pisani asked followers to stop posting about the incident because action would be taken against the “innocent police officers”.
MaltaToday blogger Josanne Cassar posted an apology on Mr Jack’s personal account saying: “We are not all like her” – a reference to the unknown woman who accosted the Hungarian student.
In another personal post, The Sunday Times of Malta columnist and anthropologist Mark Anthony Falzon called on the authorities to charge the woman.
The story even took on an international appeal with people across the world sharing Maltese news reports of Mr Jack’s ordeal.
kristina.chetcuti@timesofmalta.com