Fenech Adami bows out
For the first time in 40 years, Eddie Fenech Adami can claim this afternoon that he is a private citizen.
The end of his five year term as President at noon today brought to a close a remarkable career which started when Prime Minister George Borg Olivier picked the lawyer from Birkirkara for co-option to Parliament in 1969.
Of course, his political life started earlier. He contested but failed to get elected at the 1962 and 1966 general elections, but was very active within the Nationalist Party and served as the editor of its newspaper Il-Poplu and then president of its administrative council.
His election to the helm of the Nationalist Party in 1977 saw the party machine speed up a process of modernisation while the party’s policies moved closer to the centre.
One of Fenech Adami’s earliest, and biggest, tests came on October 15, 1979 when thugs attacked and ransacked his home and assaulted his wife. Several PN clubs were also set on fire, as were the offices of The Times.
Dr Fenech Adami displayed the character that was to be a distinguishing factor of his leadership by appealing for calm, nipping in the bud a situation which could have spiralled out of control. It was a characteristic which he was to show in other defining moments – notably following the murder of Raymond Caruana in 1986.
It was also in 1979 that Fenech Adami set the Nationalist Party formally on the road to membership of the European Union, a goal he was to achieve in 2004 in what will forever be remembered as the highlight of his political career.
But much had to happen before that.
In 1981, his first general election as party leader, the PN won an absolute majority of votes but not enough seats to form a government. Gerrymandering of electoral boundaries was blamed, and Nationalist MPs boycotted Parliament until Dom Mintoff committed himself to amend the constitution to avoid a repetition. That amendment was only made in the eleventh hour of the administration, in 1987.
And while political divisions sharpened, Fenech Adami introduced new words to the Maltese political dictionary – djalogu (dialogue) and rikonciljazzjoni nazzjonali (national reconciliation).
Reconciliation – both local and with the Western democracies - became one of the priorities of his government, elected in 1987. He also set about modernising the economy and updating the infrastructure, reducing the presence of government in business and launching a process of liberalisation.
As Prime Minister, Fenech Adami welcomed, among others, the Pope, Presidents Bush and Gorbachev and Queen Elizabeth II to Malta.
In 1992 he won a second term with an increased majority but lost to new Labour leader Alfred Sant in the 1996 election, held in the wake of the introduction of VAT.
The stint in Opposition was to last for only 22 months before early elections returned Fenech Adami to Castille. His new term was characterised by the final sprint for Malta to join the EU and ended with a referendum which approved EU membership in 2003. As the results were announced and in the context of an Opposition declaration that it would only recognise the people’s decision on EU membership if given at a general election, Dr Fenech Adami called a general election.
It was held just days before the instruments of accession were due to be signed in Athens.
Fenech Adami triumphed once more, and was off to Athens within hours of the result becoming known.
EU accession was the highlight as well as the conclusion of his years as Prime Minister. He announced a few months later that he was stepping down as leader of the Nationalist Party and Prime Minister.
The handing over took place in March 2004, with one of the first decisions taken by new Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi being to nominate Dr Fenech Adami to the Presidency. His decision did not meet universal approval, since Dr Fenech Adami had been the leader of a political party and was therefore viewed by some quarters as being a divisive figure.
But five years on, praise for the Fenech Adami presidency found no political divide, with Opposition leader Joseph Muscat seconding a parliamentary motion by Dr Gonzi to thank Dr Fenech Adami for his service as President.
Dr Fenech Adami has said he intends to enjoy the freedom of not being restricted by a diary of official duties and he intends to spend as much time as possible with his grandchildren, one of whom is just two weeks old.
See also Fr Joe Borg’s blog: In praise of a great man:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/blogs/view/20090404/fr-joe-borg/in-praise-of-a-great-man
13 Comments
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Anthony Magri
Apr 5th 2009, 14:03
@ Mr. Josph E.Briffa
If I am living in a dream world and you are sorry for me then it goes that I am in good company: Editors, regular contributors bloggers never cease to refer to the past fifty years or so particularly to the time Malta Labour Party was in office.
All this is behind us, but there are libraries and if some people think they have the monopoly for relating certain events they should know that it is easy for everyone to refer back to the news of those times without historical discrimination.
Recalling real facts is referring to real history that some contributors would like to tint the evil only in red and forget the blue
Anthony Magri
Apr 5th 2009, 13:34
Cordless telephones date back from before the Second World War Mr. DeMartino.
You see you are not well informed. It is a cajta! Cajta serja from the P.N. side. A hidden arsenal to reinforce reconciliation. Go back to police reports and news papers of the time if your memory has once failed you.
TONY C CUTAJAR
Apr 5th 2009, 10:35
Grazzi, Eddie, ghall-40 sena ta' hidma kontinwa favur Malta u l-Maltin. Grazzi ghas-sagrificcji li ghamilt u ghal dak li ghaddejt minnu flimkien mal-familja tieghek. Grazzi ghall-ezempji tajba u l-valuri li dejjem ghaddejt lill-poplu Malti. Jalla nibqghu dejjem nimxu f'dik it-triq. Issa gawdi l-frott ta' dik il-hajja flimkien ma' Marija u l-familja tieghek. Gawdi n-neputijiet li ghandek.
Rennie Deguara
Apr 5th 2009, 08:08
Many THANKS Dr. Fenech Adami, Your focus, dedication and commitment to Malta were extraordinary. We are all enjoying the results of your political strategies in particular membership to EU. GREAT LEADER. All the Best, Rennie Deguara Ireland
Joseph Micallef
Apr 5th 2009, 08:01
I don't know why we keep referring to the Office of the Prim Minister as Castille! Castille is a Spanish city! If anything the Office of the Prime Minister should be referred to as Auberge De Castille (because it used to be the residence of the Knights from Castille in Spain). To a non-Maltese reading: "...early elections returned Fenech Adami to Castille.", it would actually mean that Fenech Adami returned to Spain!
GiovDeMartino
Apr 5th 2009, 05:47
Tarawx? ANKI cordless telephones kienu sabulna! Tajba c-cajta tas-Sur Magri. Ma naghmlux li qed tirreferi ghall-armamenti tal-Amerka hux? Tippruvaw tivvintaw biex tibbilancjaw is-sitwazzjoni, imma l-passat taghkom moqziez wisq u wisq. Anqas kieku sibtulna A bomb ma nigi draw maghkom. INDMU forsi l-poplu jahfrilkom.
George Falzon
Apr 4th 2009, 21:39
All this contrasts sharply with the manner Prime Minister Mintoff ended his carrier. Notice above all the treatment/tribute accorded by their own parties. What a big difference! No one can deny this! Truth wins.
David Meilak
Apr 4th 2009, 20:13
I look back in time when I was given the privilege to organise election campaign visits to Small and medium sized business for Dr. Fenech Adami throughout Malta in 1998 and 2003. While watching TV today and viewing the highlights of Dr. Fenech Adami's political career I could not help myself from getting emotional as this great family man and leader has left such an impact on so many people's lives, actually a whole nation.
Looking back through history of our political leaders, not many of them have managed to bow out in time of their political career to have recent history remember them for their political glory. Eddie Fenech Adami bowed out of being our Prime Minister at the TOP of his career, giving us the gift of joining the EU. His term as president, although controversial in the beginning, allowed time to again prove the wisdom and fatherly figure of this great man, who again found the right time to bow out of politics, with national political consensus thanking this man for the way he has carried out his terms with extreme candor. I thank you for all you have done for us Dr. Fenech Adami.
Joseph E Briffa
Apr 4th 2009, 19:30
@ Anthony Magri...You are still living in a dream world. I am sorry for you
Anthony Magri
Apr 4th 2009, 19:05
This paper does not cease to refer to what it describes as MLP violence.
Has it forgotten the cache at P.N. H.Q. where all kind of weapons rifles, pistols ammunition were found including, Molotov cocktails ready for use, plenty of acids in bottles, whips, transistors, cordless telephones, and in a garage the property of a diehard nationalist, wrapped in P.N. newspapers dated the time of the elections, rifles, sub machine guns a whole arsenal.
Who was responsible? The big heads of the party signified that they were not aware of anything.
When a judicial enquiry started, the P.N. allegedly advised Nationalists not to cooperate.
And there were people who accused the police to have planted everything themselves, even behind a whitewashed wall. This was not a dream but history to be remembered and to be reminded.
Joseph E Briffa
Apr 4th 2009, 18:29
I have known Eddie since his student days back in the mid-1950s. He was always a reserved unassuming man who attended his lectures regularly and shunned publicity. His visits to the students' club were mainly for coffee and meetings of the Catholic Guild in the company of Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici and 'Don Abbondio' Mifsud - who died young - and Fr Darmanin (il-karozzin). One would never have imagined in those days that he would one day be involved so deep in politics; that he would be capable of leading so successfully the freedom movement of Malta in the turbulent days of the 1970s and 1980s. But he was always imbued with Christian principles which gave him the courage to cope so well with the difficult situations in which he found himself in those times and which no doubt were instrumental in helping him to lead his followers out of the tunnel. His famous and repeated calls for reconciliation after his victory of May 1987 were instrumental not only in saving Malta from a bloodbath but in reestablishing Malta among the free states of Europe which culminated in its entry into the European Union in 2004 : his life-time dream.
Charles Micallef
Apr 4th 2009, 17:20
May God bless you and your family and hope that you live till you are a hundred plus to enjoy your family, you certainly earned it!
Raymond Farrugia
Apr 4th 2009, 17:13
Thank you Dr Fenech Adami. Your contribution to the nation is immeasurable.