From Mr S. Mizzi

Many a time I find myself alienated from the policies Alfred Sant puts forward every so often. You can criticise his delivery, his policies and anything the man does day to day as a job, i.e. Leader of the Opposition.

You could justify criticism about the mockery and bad showing Alfred Sant had at the last mass gathering on Independence Day. One could say his speech was spineless, without substance and vision and that his oratory belongs to staple politics.

One could argue that Alfred Sant should not have knocked that door, which certainly did not improve his opinion ratings and most likely he will have a hard time recovering. All that criticism would be justified.

Having said that, I found the article by Daphne Caruana Galizia utterly disgusting, as it had nothing to do with policy-making and not deemed appropriate to appear in a “once-serious” newspaper like The Malta Independent on Sunday.

If Malta is to have a serious debate about politics we can do it without the likes of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

This article lacked objectivity and pushed boundaries that opinion articles should not push. I do think that the editor is held responsible to not make sure that such boundaries are not crossed. There is “respectful free speech” and then there is “careless hatred”. This article displays the characteristics of the latter.

Mentioning the wig in excess of 20 times will not help me and the majority of the electorate to form an “educated opinion” about policies and what distinguishes the different party policies.

I do think that the MLP needs a change in leadership but I also think that The Malta Independent should rid itself of hateful opinion writers like Daphne Caruana Galizia that revel in hateful writing and accuses others like Alfred Sant of having serious inter-social problems.

That Alfred Sant lacks charisma and has all the negative factors a politician could have is a fact, but we also know that Daphne keeps forgetting to look in the mirror and that hateful article also reflects her own serious inter-social problems.

Such people only find comfort within a restricted group that is bound to praise her each time she jots down something on paper. I am very sorry to say that she is out of touch with reality and this latest article drove Daphne and The Malta Independent on Sunday into journalistic limbo.

As I said, I am very much alienated from Alfred Sant’s policies and way of doing politics and have no interest in defending the man. What I am defending here is a “respectful forum” of having a serious objective debate about politics.

You may be sued for libel and not care about adding another one to the pile. All I say is that objective people eventually will start giving you the cold shoulder and anything written in The Malta Independent on Sunday will be taken with a pinch of salt. It would be on a par with anything written in papers like Kulhadd, l-orizzont and Nazzjon.

Simon Mizzi

Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

University of Strathclyde

GLASGOW

SCOTLAND