Outgoing MIA chief bids a light-hearted farewell to Malta

Peter Bolech promised that, although he will be going back home to Austria after five years at the helm of Malta International Airport, he will be returning to the island "quite often".

Mr Bolech, who relinquishes his post of CEO after 65 months serving the company, peppered his farewell address during a dinner at the Corinthia with anecdotes, jokes, food for thought and words of wisdom.

Urging his successor to take up "some unfinished projects", knowing full well that some day his successor will, in turn, pass on a few things to the one succeeding him, Mr Bolech was quick to add: "If one person has become indispensable in a company, there is something wrong with this company. If a person considers himself indispensable, there is something wrong with the person!"

He noted that, without being aware of it, we carry our culture with us wherever we go. "The Maltese and my culture clashed softly in July 2002," he remarked, adding that he never had serious problems of assimilation.

Whenever asked whether he knew how things worked in Malta, he would immediately say he did. But he had a confession to make at his farewell address: "This wasn't true, because some contexts I have never understood until this day.

"On the credit side of my balance sheet, where I would book the things I am proud of, I would put on the first posting line the fact that I have somehow managed until today to drive the streets of Malta without an accident. That's one small step for mankind but one giant leap for one man, especially if the man is a foreigner!"

He admits that "the phenomena which I have encountered on the roads are too varied to be analysed and categorised. The question I have deliberated over most is the reason for the total neglect of lanes. The explanation which my Maltese friends gave me: 'We always drive where the shade is' (which he uttered in Maltese) doesn't go far enough; it misses out on the essential reasons. It only shows that Maltese are inherently modest".

He has his own theory about this: Maltese motorists are simply driven by logic and nothing else. "They think in mathematical terms and, therefore, they know that the shortest connection between two points is a straight line... "

He spoke of his love for the Maltese countryside and noted that he took part in two marathons in Malta.

Mr Bolech let it be known that throughout his five-year stay on the island he was fined on the Manwel Dimech bridge for speeding "so regularly that I sometimes considered to set up a standing order with my bank to simplify administration. This omission is not what I am proud of, but rather the assurance that, with the subsidies I granted so generously, I made a major contribution to enhance Malta's infrastructure.

"I was made to believe that, after completion of the project, a commemorative plaque will be affixed to the tunnel, saying: (something like) 'This project was co-financed by the European Union and, especially generally, by Mr Peter Bolech'."

Turning to more serious matters, Mr Bolech said he was especially happy and grateful that he had the privilege to be the head "of such a competent, engaged and motivated team which runs MIA.

"What I will love to look back on is the fact that today, unlike five years ago, nobody queries any more that MIA is a Maltese enterprise, serving the interests of Maltese society. The fact that foreign institutions have effective control is no longer a matter for any concern, not even during times of an election campaign... This is for me the single most satisfying achievement of my term," he said.

He also referred to MIA's corporate social responsibility and its contribution in the areas of sport and culture in particular.

Mr Bolech concluded his address by looking to the future:

"I will go back and start a new career as an independent adviser and coach, so I will say goodbye to my 33 years as an employed person, giving up living in the ruins of my habits and following an advice by Bertrand Russell who said: 'You should never do the same stupidity twice in your life because there is such a rich choice'.

"Being curious about the uncertainty of life and what may come next will always remind me of Malta because life is like Malta: At the crossroads, there are no signposts!"