Opinion: Livid Luke

Luke Dalli, son of EU Commissioner Helena, is livid, and rightly so. On 31 July, a man walked up to his mother’s house and placed a bag of marijuana and a threatening note: “Next time I will be prepaird (sic) to get something for the kids”.

Luke was right to feel intimidated.  He’s right to be concerned for his mother’s safety.  No public official, especially those representing the country, should be subjected to such cowardly threats.  But that’s not the reason Luke is furious.

The family immediately reported the incident to the police. They provided police with CCTV footage clearly showing the man’s face and vehicle.

Commissioner Helena Dalli complained that after more than a month, nobody from Angelo Gafa’s police force had contacted her. When she contacted the police, she was fobbed off with a flippant reply: “We have not come up with anything.”

Luke is right to complain about the pathetic police response when he said,  “Any such case should be taken seriously no matter who’s targeted.  But for the EU Commissioner, that’s not the case”.

“More than a month and a half later, we’re still waiting for a reply (from the police).  Why? If what the letter threatens materialises, who should we blame?”

Receiving anonymous threats is no joke.  When those threats are delivered to your door, the effect is chilling.  When your children are threatened, your whole life is torn apart. The Dallis must be going through a nightmare.

They deserve not just solidarity but the necessary protection.  The culprit should have been identified and prosecuted immediately, not after the case was made public. The longer it took the police to apprehend the man, the worse the impact on the Dallis’ lives.

Luke experienced a small fraction of what many have endured for years. Journalists on the front line of investigations into corruption in Malta are regularly threatened and harassed.

I will speak of my own experience.  I received whole pages of obscene threats, not just a short note, at my residence.  I received several anonymous intimidating letters at my workplace. Those letters were perfectly timed with every ONE News item that targeted me.

Those malicious reports by Labour’s TV even showed footage of my children.  Despite several reports to the police about the worst of those threats, I was never officially contacted by the police.

After months of threats and intimidation, a sharp police officer recognised the handwriting on those anonymous letters. Similar letters were sent to Jason Azzopardi, Robert Aquilina and Beppe Fenech Adami. When the man wrote a letter to the police commissioner in his identifiable handwriting, he unintentionally revealed his identity.

The culprit was caught, prosecuted, and sentenced. The police inspector who made the scoop was demoted to basic duties instead of being promoted.

The police denied punishing the inspector, arguing that working in a police station was not a “demotion”.

My personal experience pales into insignificance compared to the horrific trauma Daphne Caruana Galizia and her family experienced.  Luke Dalli played a crucial part in the journalist’s vilification and demonisation on his programme Tanatnejn on ONE TV.

His programme portrayed Caruana Galizia as an evil witch concocting potions.  He fuelled the despicable hounding of the journalist. He subjected her to ridicule and made her a public hate figure. He gave his party diehards a licence to molest and attack her on social media and in the streets.

If a single line from a man, now treated at Mt Carmel Hospital, elicited such fear and anger in Luke, he can only imagine the torment Caruana Galizia went through in her lifetime.

Her front door was burnt down in an arson attempt. Her dogs’ throats were slit and left in a pool of blood on her porch. Ignatius Farrugia threatened and harassed her, forcing her to seek refuge in an Mdina monastery.

People abused and spat at her in the street. Her assets were frozen by Labour’s deputy leader. And ultimately, she faced the most horrific end. All these facts are widely reported.

Labour supporters celebrated her demise.  Jason Micallef ridiculed her last words. Owen Bonnici ordered public servants to sweep away her memorial.  Robert Abela attacked her family, accusing them of “being more interested in their repugnance for their country than in finding out who was responsible for her assassination”.

Luke Dalli had a hand in creating that toxic environment.

Even now, Robert Abela insults her memory by heaping abuse on the three judges on the Caruana Galizia inquiry board. Three years after the inquiry recommendations were published, Abela still defies calls for their implementation.

That inquiry recommended that the police set up a specialised unit to identify risks and threats to journalists and public figures and provide them with effective protection. The unit was meant to serve as an immediate contact for those at risk.

Thanks to Abela, that unit does not exist. He’s made it clear he has no intention of implementing those recommendations.

Neither Helena nor Luke ever demanded Abela implement those recommendations. It didn’t matter to them as long as Labour adversaries were the targets.  They thought they were safe within Labour’s fold.

Now, their relationship with the leader has soured. They’re discovering just how exposed they are.  Labour’s constant briefing against her, Labour’s attempt to discredit her and the police’s delay reveal how vulnerable she is. Labour has dismantled the institutions that should be protecting her.

Helena Dalli’s shortsightedness contributed to her unenviable situation. When the rule of law was being undermined, when the institutions were being weaponised against government critics, she never lifted a finger.

Dalli actively supported Labour as it demolished the institutions. We now have a country where the planning authority overrides the decisions of the highest court.  We have a ruling party which appoints as its deputy leader a man who blatantly defies the law with his illegal swimming pool.

Helena Dalli is learning the hard way.  As for Luke Dalli, he’s reaping what he sowed.  At least he has his mother.

Matthew, Paul and Andrew Caruana Galizia, whose mother Luke ruthlessly targeted, have no such luck.