The Orwellian discourse of the Labour Party and its intellectuals is ramping up a notch now that Labour won the general election and their rent-seekers feel confident enough in flaunting their own corruption and Orwellian thoughts. The intellectuals of the Labour Party could have engaged with the critics of the Labour Party in a healthy and democratic way and the least they could do was to give homage to Daphne Caruana Galizia, but instead, they are doing the opposite and by willingly and willfully becoming ever greater proponents of murder, corruption, dictatorship and suppression of free speech.
Recently, the government’s favorite state-funded artist, Mario Philip Azzopardi tried to organise a play at the Manoel Theatre which directly attacked and vilified the memory of Daphne Caruana Galizia apart from vilifying her family. He attributed words to Daphne which were not hers and ridicules her sons all in an attempt to portray Daphne as a bitter and malicious person. The play is funded with public and state funds. The national theatre cancelled the play after an uproar and threats of boycott. Had there been no protests from the artistic and theatre immunity, the state would have literally funded and held a play with the direct intention of vilifying Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Mario Philip Azzopardi went on Jon Mallia’s podcast to vomit a series of excruciating lies which made him sound like an outright fraud. And, no this is not a good man, this is a fraudulent imbecile who is trying to pass himself off as a successful artist when the only reason that he came to Malta from Canada to be paid to do Joseph Muscat’s propaganda at a fee, was only because his work in Canada dried up. Think about it. Why would a successful director as he says he is accept to be paid the Maltese standard rates for editing and producing propaganda videos for a political party? I can tell you why and it wasn’t about because he is Labour. Mario Philip Azzopardi was never Labour: on the contrary he was a staunch anti-Mintoffian who wanted to see the Nationalist arty in power and left Malta frustrated by its politics. Mario Philip’s damascene conversion came when Joseph Muscat offered him work and promised him to be involved in the government’s cultural bureaucracy.
Mario Philip Azzopardi is waging his propaganda war in favour of the Labour Party under the pretences that he is some sort of populist artist creating plays in Maltese against some sort of “elitist clique” which dominates the national theatre. The truth can not be even further from the truth. Ironically, Mintoff was one of the biggest purveyors of the pro-Maltese and anti-cultural elite in the 1970s, yet Mario Philip Azzopardi did not find an ally in the pro-Maltese anti-imperialist. And also ironically, one of his pro-Labour friends Albert Marshall had quite extensive government patronage to produce, host and disseminate works of art in Maltese in the 1970s. Nowadays, however, Mario Philip Azzopardi is re-writing history according to financial conveniences which come with political patronage.
He describes Keith Schembri as his friend and says he doesn’t want to talk about politics. Of course, he doesn’t. Mario doesn’t talk politics, but rather Labour propaganda which is devoid of political substance, and full of hatred and spite towards Malta’s artists, journalists, and intellectuals. Indeed, Mario only speaks about politics when he comes to vilifying Daphne and government critics, and never made political statements about the corruption and murder perpetrated by his friend, Keith Schembri. He still holds Joseph Muscat and his friend in high esteem. And this is why Mario Philip Azzopardi survives and retains his patronage in the local culture industry which is stifled by the government while government critics and artists who refuse Labour’s patronage have to literally pack their bags. The new Minister of Culture is Owen Bonnici, the same minister who saw that under Joseph Muscat, pro-Labour artists like Mario Philip Azzopardi got all the patronage they needed. Mario even bought a property in Malta with the money made in Malta thanks to Labour and Joseph Muscat’s government.
There is an unlimited amount of stupidity, fraud and corruption within Malta’s intellectual circles that play the game of political patronage to secure financing. Like Mario, I too was a government executive within the cultural bureaucracy but I did not survive it, having been the only government executive who paid homage officially and publicly to Daphne Caruana Galizia by the institution that I ran. On the other hand, top Labour officials are genuinely supportive of Mario Philip Azzopardi’s work and they are genuinely happy that he gets to use public resources to attack and vilify Daphne. And I know Mario as well like I know many top Labour officials. Mario is one of those who were genuinely happy that Daphne got killed and sang merry songs celebrating her murder along with many others. I find it quite in bad taste to write what many of these people sang and chanted upon her death. Mario was part of these celebrations too. And Mario has no empathy or sympathy for Daphne despite the fact that she has been murdered, that is why he still describes Keith Schembri as his friend. Mario is a brute whose only interest is to secure patronage and funds for projects so he will say and do whatever is needed to get the sympathy of top Labour officials. What he really feels about Daphne, having shown his thoughts about her in his play, is a direct reflection of what Labour’s top brass think about Daphne. He is mirroring their thoughts and articulating them to a general audience in order for him to get the best-intended praise from his superiors. He is unprincipled and mercenary.
In our mafia state, the government’s top artists are supported and funded to write plays and art which incite violence and the murder of journalists.. Mario calls this free speech. Fair enough. It merely continues to expose the fraud, corruption and stupidity of our mafia state and those who support it. These people are criminal freaks and they are not ashamed of it.
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