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The Maltese Herald

Justice for Ajay Shrestha

—

by

Mark Camilleri
in
Ajay Shrestha

I woke up from my feverish slumber full of anger at the death of Ajay Shrestha, a delivery biker from Nepal, killed in Malta by a truck driver’s negligence.

First of all, allow me to say this to men in Malta, especially to men who ride bikes – you are a bunch of cowards who don’t deserve to be called men. You raise a lot of hullabaloos when a man kills a woman in the attempt to convince others that not all men are violent to women, but when one of your brothers gets killed, you shrug it off as if nothing has happened.

A biker has died from the negligence of a truck driver. Where is the biking community? Where are the men who ride bikes?

I was a male biker and previous food delivery guy, and I am tired of seeing the jungle rules system created by politicians like Robert Abela which allows the construction industry to kill people with impunity. I’m tired to see that our lives on the street don’t matter. I’m also tired to see how we treat Asian workers as if they dispensable objects of our society. I’m not only tired. I’m also very angry.

The man who has killed Ajay has to pay up. Ajay’s family probably lost a major source of income so the truck driver has to replace it. If the truck driver isn’t forced to pay hundreds of thousands of Euros in compensation to Ajay’s family then this is not justice. And by compensation, I don’t mean, €10,000 or even €100,000. The truck driver has to fork out payments to Ajay’s family for the rest of his life. I’m sorry then where is the justice?

When are people in Malta going to start facing up to their responsibilities? We have a jungle rules system where people can get away with murder and manslaughter. We have also had a consistent history of deaths brought by the construction industry and throughout this history no one has ever faced any consequences. And I don’t care if it was an accident. Clearly, if you are a truck driver and you are carrying a load in the street it is up to you to ensure that your cargo is safe. If your cargo ends up in the street and kills people in the process, it doesn’t matter if it was an accident, you still have to pay for the grievous consequences of your mistake. We are not bloody children and we can not live in this society where our lives don’t matter.

Comments

  1. Gerard Caruana avatar
    Gerard Caruana

    Someone in the bicycle community had a similarly irate rant blasting the term “accident” and calling it NEGLIEGENCE. Mimlijja sa ruh ommha fuq l-outer lane biex jiffranka jaghmel zewg vjaggi.

    Reply
  2. Pat Laferla avatar
    Pat Laferla

    What many people don’t realise, is that these third country nationals pay ?7,000 to come here. This is either deducted from their salary or borrowed from their poor family/village. When they are forced to leave or unfortunately die, this debt has still to be paid. Further morel, the ones that do manage to come are usually the most ablebodied of the clan. Their exploitation is indeed one of the worst types of injustice of our era.

    Reply
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