Nationalist MP Franco Debono last night apologised to Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici if ever he had said anything that irked him personally or his family, but said he would not have dragged his wife into the situation.

I have stuck to the truth and always fought on alone, with no intention of giving up.

He knew what he was talking about because he himself had undergone insults and psychological pressure and his family had suffered too.

He then proceeded – for 75 minutes because both sides agreed to his request for an extension after the usual 40 minutes – to lay into Dr Mifsud Bonnici for what he had “not done or done badly”, even though he had also managed to do good things. Not even in 20 years could hemanage to answer for what he had done badly or omitted to do.

The MP did not specify how he would vote on the motion this evening, but insisted Dr Mifsud Bonnici should shoulder responsibility for the shortcomings in his ministry and should not expect praise for doing what was expected of him.

It was true that Dr Mifsud Bonnici was no longer Minister for Justice. But that did not mean he did not have to answer.

Dr Debono pointed out that the European Court in Strasbourg had commented about the “unacceptable, all-in-the family jamboree” of the Mifsud Bonnicis in Maltese politics. He said the country belonged to all.

He said that in spite of the psychological violence he and his family had gone through, he had stuck to the truth and always fought on alone, with no intention of giving up and ever determined to be consistent.

Even the fact that his own motion on the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs, tabled a month before the opposition’s, had not been brought up for debate constituted psychological violence. They wanted to keep him hanging on so that they could manipulate him.

In answer to a comment by Minister Austin Gatt that he had suffered under Labour, Dr Debono said he was suffering under the Nationalists. And this when he used to idolise the Prime Minister and Dr Gonzi knew it.

A senior court official who had recently said that the courts were going downhill could not have been more prophetic, because only yesterday morning a chair Dr Debono had been leaning on in a court hall had collapsed and he was slightly injured. “Perhaps I should sue the minister!”he quipped.

Should the President of the Republic or the Chief Justice expect to be themselves or have their families victimised for speaking publicly about what was going wrong in the administrationof justice?

Hadn’t Mifsud Bonnici sought to wreck Dr Debono’s family when he had been one of many signing a petition for him to resign? But 90 per cent of the people knew Dr Debono was right, even among those who had signed the petition. In the past several years there had been only two ministerial resignations: those of Charles Mangion (PL) and John Dalli (PN). Almost everyone agreed that the former’s had been over a triviality, but Mr Dalli and his family had been made to suffer for three whole years. Had Mr Dalli committed a sin by contesting Lawrence Gonzi for the Nationalist Party leadership?

Dr Debono said it was only natural for the opposition to want power, even though it had no particular credentials on fundamental human rights. It was also natural for government backbenchers to want to move to the front with their ideas, but there were some frontbenchers who absolutely did not want to move back and would continue to cling to power. Indeed, it was the Prime Minister’s discretion to appoint a Cabinet minister, but he lost that discretion when a minister lost Parliament’s confidence. Yet, Dr Gonzi had supported Dr Mifsud Bonnici through challenge after challenge and gone on to appoint him Leader of the House in the full knowledge that he was facing a motion of censure.

Dr Debono claimed that a former Chief Justice had interfered in magistrates’ work in an attempt to stop their investigations about government ministers during the time that Dr Carm Mifsud Bonnici was justice minister with responsibility for the judiciary. Dr Debono claimed that the Chief Justice and the Attorney General were like “lovers”. He said this was wrong and it was a mistake for the judiciary to intimidate the legal profession. The system had to be changed and not all court cases appointed for the same time.

Investigating inspectors had to be present in court when they were supposed to be investigating suspects who were locked up for a long time. In some cases, so long was the wait that it rendered the arrest illegal.

Dr Debono claimed that apathy and lethargy reigned over the Police Corps. There was an exodus of police from the corps. It was a pity that good investigators like Pierre Calleja were leaving the force when they could give further service. “It is people like these whom the Prime Minister should try to keep and not the minister,” he said.

The shift in police investigations today was towards intelligence policing. The government implemented the change that investigating magistrates could not hear these cases after four years. The implementation was done wrongly.

The right to legal assistance during interrogation was still not enforced. Statements made to the police where a lawyer was not present were all invalid because the rights of the individual had been infringed.

The government amended the fireworks manufacture Act after a number of fatalities had occurred. The issue of bail was not being handled well in court as this was being awarded in the magistrates’ but not in the criminal court. Rethinking was needed on meditation in family separation cases.

Dr Debono said that merit needed to be given to Dr Janice Farrugia for drafting the parole legislation, which was still not enforced because the remission and parole boards had not been set up.

He said that entry requirements for the law course at the University were changed after he had presented a private motion in the House, which had not come up for discussion.

Dr Debono claimed that he had suffered political violence when the government published the Greco report on the Party Financing Bill three days before the Cabinet reshuffle. He immediately informed the press that it was not he who had drafted that Bill.

Government MPs continued to express their support for Minister Mifsud Bonnici throughout yesterday’s two sittings as the debate of a motion calling for his resignation continued. These included Ministers Giovanna Debono, Austin Gatt, George Pullicino, Dolores Cristina and Chris Said; Parliamentary Secretaries Clyde Pulì and Mario Galea; and MPs Michael Gonzi, Frans Agius, Censu Galea, and Frederick Azzopardi (see www.timesofmalta.com).