10 Mar Gags are for bondage
90mg of Sarcasm required – Repeat dosage after every paragraph
Ok so here’s the deal – it’s Sunday morning and we’re all waiting with bated breath for the first indications of the results of this blessed election.
If you’re anything like me, you’ve had it up to you know where with all the campaigning, mudslinging and shenanigans of the two big parties, so much so that last Friday, during the day of ‘silence’ I tried my very best to get arrested for protesting against the 48 hour gagging order.
I blogged, I commented, I argued on line, I pasted political links and campaigned for Alternattiva Demokratika like my life depended on it (well it kind of does).
I even openly stated my intention to break the law by posting this on my Facebook :
As a blogger I have decided not to heed the ‘day of reflection’ imposed upon us today, eve of the election, not because I think that more needs to be said (quite the opposite in fact), but because a) I do not agree that I and others like me should be silenced b) I do not believe that reflection hinges upon or depends on silence c) as a subtle protest against the huge bias in the public broadcasting services d) and lastly because I am not a public broadcaster myself but a private individual with a Facebook page and a blog, lots of opinions and yes, I have the right to express them whenever and however I wish
I appeal to anyone who agrees with the above to copy and paste into their own Facebook pages.
But nothing happened. No policeman turned up at my door even though I waited all night, and had an over night bag prepared.
Someone told me that in order to get such police attention I needed to be on some special list; others (my mother to be exact) told me to thank my lucky stars and to stop being silly.
The next day – Election Day – which was also supposed to be silent – I tried once again, but again, nothing.
No policeman turned up at my door, not a slap on the wrist was in sight, not even a mere precautionary warning came my way….nothing.
And now that the gagging order is over, I can’t stop the effects of the verbal laxative that I force fed myself during the past two days… so please forgive the rant that follows.
But before you read on, for my sanity, I beg you to set aside what you personally think of Daphne Caruana Galizia and consider her to be just another blogger.
I know it’s hard, because she’s not, but the law that governs the days of silence is not based in any way on ‘what’ you write, ‘about whom’ and ‘how’, it’s based solely on whether what you write is in anyway an attempt to influence people’s vote.
So, for example, if I wrote ‘AD for Malta’ and Daphne wrote a whole rant mocking PL and giving you reasons to vote PN, we’re both equally breaking the law.
Now that we got that sorted, here’s what irked me the most – after innumerable attempts to get myself arrested in protest of this archaic law that should have been removed or amended light years ago – on Friday night, Daphne, (not me) got arrested.
Within a couple of hours of allegedly receiving a complaint, the police were at her door in Bidnija with a warrant for her arrest.
Given that this happened during such a crucial time – just twelve hours before the polls opened – my mind was working in overdrive.
Who would be so silly as to pull this stunt now?
Which party was behind this or have the police nothing better to do?
The fact that DCG was given the time to call the media, was successful in negotiating which police station to go to, and also had the clarity of mind to give a lengthy statement to the press immediately after her interrogation, led me to think that her arrest was nothing but a charade – an event orchestrated by the PN to put the fear of God in people once again.
I mean let’s face it, had people believed (and some did) that Joseph Muscat was behind this arrest, the most to gain were the PN. I therefore concluded that this was the PN’s last attempt to show us that with Labour in power, freedom of speech will once again be punished with arrests. Back to the Golden Years!
Then, when I saw Lou Bondi’s macho questioning of the police, his microphone-shoving attitude, and the lack of an arrest for obstructing justice in his regard, my suspicion that the PN were behind this charade got even stronger.
But of course that’s all it is, a suspicion, and because I’m not on anyone’s special list, this is what it will remain….another one of those things I’ll never know for sure.
But worry not. I’m good with uncertainty because miraculously, out of uncertainty lots of certainty emerges. To my mind, whether DCG’s arrest was orchestrated by the PN or not, the following certainties hold true:
- The PN had decades to change this Neanderthal law, the criminal libel law, and a host of other archaic laws, and yet didn’t.
- If it’s true that the police acted upon a complaint we have the right to know if it was or wasn’t Joseph Muscat, as was alleged by DCG. Joseph Muscat publically criticised this law, so if he then resorted to using it, the public should know.
- If the police did receive a complaint, which still needs to be determined, they could have used their discretion not to act. God knows how many times they ignored my complaints about a noisy cock in my neighbour’s yard.
- The fact that they acted illegally by calling at DCG’s house after dark, means that after twenty five years of PN in Government, it is still possible for ‘certain’ people to pull ‘certain’ strings that get the police to act illegally.
- The next day a few labour candidates and activists were also called in for questioning. This was either done for good measure to balance the books against DCG, or because the PN too believe that the archaic law that they never bothered to change should be randomly enforced.
And finally, since I’m under the delusion that you’ll read my blog, here’s my message to whoever ends up in Gov tomorrow :
Whilst I may sometimes strongly disagree with Daphne Caruana Galizia and her opinions, I reserve even stronger disagreement with the silencing of people. If the law is there to stop the parties from self promotion and yet lends itself to these farcical stunts, do away with the law.
