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Labour told Calleja not to do Xarabank, former minister denies: 'outright lie'
MaltaToday reconfirms: Reno Calleja was told by Labour not to appear on Xarabank to talk on Libyan unrest.
6 March 2011, 12:00am
Matthew Vella
Matthew Vella
2 min read
Former Labour minister Reno Calleja has called “an outright lie” a report in MaltaToday that he was told by the Labour party not to participate in chat show Xarabank last Friday.
But party sources have reconfirmed, and MaltaToday stands by its story, that Calleja – who had alerted the party of his intention to appear on the programme to discuss the Libyan unrest – was directly told not to appear and risk upstaging the party.
“An outright lie that I was asked by the PL not to participate in Xarabank,” Calleja, a former minister under Dom Mintoff, wrote in the maltatoday.com.mt comments board. “I assure you nobody contacted me from the party.”
Calleja said he resigned from his ministerial post in September 1982, and then was re-elected to parliament for two more terms. He said he met Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 1987 as chairman of the Marsaxlokk project’s monitoring board.
“That is all. I didn’t go sleep in his bed like our Prime Minister did only a month before the Libyan uprising. I didn’t form part of the delegation led by Joseph Muscat that visited Libya,” he said.
Calleja himself is criticised for being too critical of Labour itself. Earlier the PL had issued as a statement disassociating itself from a comment placed by Reno Calleja in the comments board of an online newspaper, in which he criticised a declaration made last Sunday by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi that the end of the Gaddafi government "was inevitable".
A party spokesman told MaltaToday: “The party has no intention of getting embroiled in a controversy over Libya, our stand is clear – we share the same national interests, Reno Calleja does not represent the party’s views in any way.”
The Labour party has been unusually careful in not sending the wrong message on Libya, given its long history with the Gaddafi regime during its time in government. But the PL is now worried over its image and there is a strong attempt in not dragging any of its representatives in unnecessary debate on the matter.
Matthew Vella, a freelance journalist at MaltaToday, was formerly executive editor at Malt...
Pauline Moran •
FEHMAWVUCI...
Nahseb li ghandek zball ohxon habib. Nahseb kont qed tiehu xi whiskey ma Wenzu meta tkellimt kif tkellimt fuq Reno Calleja! Halli nghidlek...Dak li qal Reno huwa li hemm bzonn inkunu kawti ghax hadd ma jaf x'se jigri. Qal wkoll li meta jaqa Gaddafi, se jinbet it-tribaliuzmu fil-Libja, bl-Al Qaeda ddahhal saqajja hemm.
Dan kif jghjdu l-inglizi; Does not bear well for us with the possibility of terrorist attacks. That is why Malta should offer mediation. Who would have taught that Araftat will be given the Noble price?
Dak kien li qal. Darb'ohra ccekkja sew s-sorsi tieghek qabel ma tibda tfajjer left, right and centre!
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Why do you bother to discuss a filty program such as Xarabank?
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At this stage, Mr Matthew Vella must either back up his allegations with proof or retract.
He has no other honourable way out.
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Sur Calleja ! Bir rispett kollu li sejjer nghidlek.
Huwa 'rrelevanti ghall Maltin jekk il Partit Laburista riedek tmur jew le fuq Xarabank pero jien li nixtieq naf huwa x'kont qed tahseb meta mort fuq il programm biex tiddifendi lill Gaddafi fost attendenza Libjana li riedet tnehhieh mill poter u l'ila 'ssofri 40 sena mill hatra tieghu.
Possibli li ma dahlietx f'mohhok li kont qed tiegi wzat ghax siehbek l'antik Joe Grima ma weriex l'istess entuzjazmu tieghek ghall Gaddafi.
Huwa possibli li ma tafx kemm qatel nies Gaddafi din il gimgha biex hriegt bl'idea li semmejt u f'ghajnejn kulhadd hriegt ta' veru bniedem insensittiv ma minn tielef nies min tal familja gol Libya.
Jien nibqa 'mbellah kif taccettaw li tmorru fiq programmi l'ikunu 'ppraparati biex jitfu dawl ikrah fuqkhom u fuq il partit taghkhom.
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Once again I vehemently deny that someone from the Party contacted me and told me not to take part in Xarabank. Once again the Labour Party spokesperson is lying. Once again I challenge him or her. Come clean. Come public and face me you coward.
If you do not do this you are not fit to represent the Party. We do need liars and schemers in our Party.
We need honest people who are dedicated to the Party and not to their own self centered interests.
If he or she is serious he or she she should have a record on the telephone or personal conversation that he or she claim to have took place on the matter.
If there is no such record he or she does not deserve to keep his or her handsomely paid job.
This is not the way to treat a veteran who has dedicated my life to the Party.
I also suffered a bomb attack in the eighties and they almost killed my son.
Who knows who this spokesperson is? Who knows if he or she was among the crowd calling for Mintoff to be crusified. He or she has kept herself anonymous. So we will never know.
The last time I spoke to officials of the Party was more than two weeks ago when I attended the launching of the book an the history of the Labor Party. I have had no conversation with any of the officials of the Labor Party since then.
As for you Mr. Mathew Vella, if you are a serious journalist you should have had the decency to make contact with me before going to press.
. Why don't you publish the name of he or she who is feeding you this rubbish if you want your readers to take you seriously?
From now on, I will never take you seriously. I always treat you as a unprofessional journalist who is more fit to work with a newspaper dishing out stories on naked women.
I also worked in journalism for many years with the Union Press and Freedom Press. We were a group of young upcoming journalists.
The late Paul Carachi , who was one of my mentors and Anton Cassar, that brilliant editor, used to tell us '''make sure to check and re-check your story''.
'' Make sure to contact the person or insitution that is being mentioned in the story When possible face them with questions.If fthe person being attacked or mentioned couuld not be rezched state that in your story.''
This is what true journalists are made of Mr Vella.
You never did that Mr. Vella.. Which continues to show how the quality of good journalstm has detoriarated in this country.
Reno Calleja
Micheal Bonanno •
@surfturtle. Qieghed titbaqbaq ghalxejn siehbi ma fommirrih. Dak bhal qasba tixxejjer mar-rih!
