Back in 1976, as secretary of the GWU's metal workers' section, I remember writing before the general election that corruption was so rampant that one could openly buy duty-free cigarettes from the Malta Drydocks' dispensary-cum-clinic.

This argument was used to convince the workers to vote Labour to eliminate corruption from our streets. Little did I know at the time that a few years later, under a Labour government, corruption became the order of the day, when one had to pay Lm50 to obtain a telephone line or a colour TV set. Bribes were also paid for plots of land or a flat, or to change the colour of a green area to a building area, in which cases the bribes were much higher.

The spectre of corruption between 1997-1987 became an institutionalised and organised business touching all sectors of the economy, including the banks and the police.

Corruption was followed by violence - physical, psychological and/or moral - that included such atrocities as the murder of Raymond Caruana and the infamous frame up of Pietru Pawl Busuttil by members of the police force.

These last few weeks, Alfred Sant's party began throwing tons of mud at ministers, similar to what he did before the 1996 general election, claiming that Malta has never seen so much corruption as we are seeing now under this Nationalist government.

It is evident and unfortunate that the electorate should accept this perception and misconception conjured by Dr Sant and his party, given what the party has been responsible for in the past and certain allegations made not so long ago. Suffice to mention the frame up claims made by the MLP's deputy leader. Michael Falzon spoke about the matter himself in the presence of Dr Sant in front of an astonished gathering in Rabat. Claiming he was framed, Dr Falzon pointed his fingers at elements within the party.

While I state from the outset that I condemn without any reservation all sorts of corruption by whoever this is committed, it would be sheer dishonesty to compare the present cases of bribery at the ADT and the MMA, as well as any abuse involving unemployment benefits, children's allowances and pensions, with what happened during the dark years of the Labour Administration under Dom Mintoff and Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici.

Such comparison would also be very much unjust when it is a known fact that this present government has instigated the police to investigate the various abuses detected and it has resulted that in all cases those allegedly involved were lower to middle grade employees. Furthermore, the alleged defaulters have already been prosecuted and are paying for their mistakes while others are still under investigation and/or their case is sub judice.

In sharp contrast, despite rampant corruption involving millions of liri during the 1970s and 1980s, the only person accused of corruption was a whistleblower who had himself informed the police he had to bribe a minister to obtain an import licence!

In my opinion the only wrongdoing in the present cases is the way Minister Jesmond Mugliett mishandled the case of the two ADT employees. I venture to say that this was more a case of lack of "managerial experience" than a case of corruption. While this case should have never happened, it has been blown up to astronomic proportions. But, still, I do not believe that Mr Mugliett should have resigned for his involvement and one only hopes he has already learned his lesson from the hell he is going through.

It is very clear that this time round Dr Sant and his acolytes are again gaining ground through their mastery of perceptions. They have successfully managed to make the people forget the party's past, despite the fact that, up to a few months ago, they were still claiming that their party is a glorious one and that they have nothing to be ashamed of for their past.

The last point I would like to put forward is the fact that it seems that even most journalists have fallen in this trap of misconception on the present corruption issues, which, as already stated are nothing more than abuses involving a few thousand liri and committed by civil servants mostly in lower grades when compared to the institutionalised corruption that ran into millions of liri under the Socialist regime.

While journalists are in duty bound to report and bring to the fore every minute abuse, they are also obliged to remind the electorate of the corruption and atrocities committed when the MLP was in power in the 1970s and early 1980s. After all, journalists are all aware that Dr Sant had served as president of the party in the 1980s.