From Mr C. J Buttigieg

Surfing the Net in search of blogs is fun and interesting, but the fun and excitement turns into utter disgust when you hit on comments crammed with trash, hidden agendas and venomous attributes that are being posted by some “coalition” legionaries. On 14 February at 21.02, Daphne Caruana Galizia posted one of her disgusting pieces that I have serious difficulties quoting from because I do have moral standards. Daphne had no scruples in lowering herself and penning the most venomous contribution, attributing the unkindest adjectives to Dr Alfred Sant also involving his very private life.

Due to my reluctance to compromise my level of ethical standards and produce extracts from her vitriolic input, I had looked for different ways to further expose the so-called “one of The Independent’s best journalists” for what she really is and what her true agenda is all about.

I am not lying when I confess that I had lost sleep over it, but then it dawned on me that the immediate reaction of Rafael, posted two minutes later, would most certainly suffice. His brief analytical assessment of the situation substitutes volumes of conclusive professional psychoanalysis. This is what Rafael says: “I am not in the slightest surprised that your ‘original reason for disliking this man had nothing to do with politics’. You have made that amply clear in your 10-year career in Sant-bashing, by writing reams of articles that have never had anything to do with politics but everything to do with personal spite. Sad fact of the matter, Daphne, is that your hatred of 1970s Labour thuggery and the grudge you bear against Labour for having arrested you at 19 has blinded you to such an extent that – irony of ironies – you have become a thug yourself. Because that is the definition of a person who makes a career out of bullying others and trying to force them to vote one way or another out of fear of the consequences. And who uses her private profile to direct popular hatred against a tiny minority for daring to think differently. A thug, Daphne. Nothing more, nothing less.”

A sign of insanity, like other illnesses, is a disease that should not be attributed to others except by members of the medical profession. A mental disorder is an illness, just like any other, and, most of the time treatable, if not curable.

The problem with a handful of gutter writers among us, with an obsession to demonise their political opponents is something else. Demonising human beings is a product of the devil incarnate, and that, sorrowfully, is just putting it mildly. In more realistic terms the herd of swine which received the legion of devils from the demonised person in the gospels... and that’s not treatable, let alone curable.

Unchristian comments made by frustrated and unholy persons after being present for the sacred act of Baptism in the front row and produce such venomous writings, reminds me of the time when Jesus Christ denounced the Pharisees for their hypocrisy and judgments but forgave the adulteress. It also reminds me of the example the same Jesus gave of the sinner who stands behind the column at the back of the temple and of the hypocrites who stand in front where everybody can see them.

If one were to form an opinion of Daphne Caruana Galizia in the same way she judges Alfred Sant, according to what she thinks his actions represent, one might also judge her from her writings, a thing that, naturally, no true Christian would dare do. And this is because we Christians can only be witnesses to Christ by our actions, not excluding our writings.

It is better to look at oneself in the mirror. As Pope John Paul II said and wrote many times, the value of humans lies in their dignity, which should always be respected.

Charles J. Buttigieg

MELLIEHA