The Home Affairs Ministry has distanced itself from the comments made by its communications adviser John Pisani, who publicly mocked soldiers who have complained about the food they were given while they were on stand-by service during the CHOGM that was held over the weeked.
Mr Pisani, a former cameraman and journalist, was reacting to a story that was published in The Malta Independent, in which soldiers were complaining that they were given a poor breakfast, a dry sandwich and a tasteless dinner.
Mr Pisani is well-known for writing in favour of the right osf sodiers and police officers when he worked as a journalist for the General Worker's Union L-Orizzont and later at MaltaToday.
Writing on Facebook, the ministry’s adviser said that if he were the AFM chief, he would try to find out the identity of the soldiers who were complaining. In this way, he wrote, when Maltese soldiers are needed in a war these soldiers will be kept here in Malta “so that their mummy prepares bacon and eggs with toast” (which is spelt badly in his post) and “instead, the real men and women soldiers are sent, and not children”.
These soldiers, he added, think that it only takes wearing a uniform to become machos when, in actual fact, real soldiers need to have balls.
The Home Affairs Ministry with which Mr Pisani works has the Armed Forces of Malta within its portfolio.
In reply to questions, the Home Affairs Ministry said that "any comments stated by Mr John Pisani on his social network profile were completely done in his personal capacity as a private citizen and do not reflect in any way the position of the Ministry.
"The Ministry for Home Affairs instantly looked into the alleged remarks made by the Malta Independent reports on the quality of food provided to the Armed Forces of Malta members during CHOGM15.
"The Ministry is informed that overall the food provided to the soldiers by AFM in all areas of deployment was very satisfactory and of a very good standard. Any shortcomings that were noted during initial stages in only one particular area of deployment, were immediately addressed and remedied in a couple of hours, with members of the force expressing positive remarks on the provided service by the Armed Forces of Malta."
The ministry uses the word "alleged" in its answer. The Malta Independent was quoting what independent MP Marlene Farrugia posted on her Facebook profile.
After the publication of the story, the post has been removed.