I thoroughly enjoyed reading Kristy Debono’s article ‘Joseph Muscat’s firsts’ published in the ever popular Times of Malta last Wednesday, March 26. What she said in this article is absolutely true and deserves our gratitude for refreshing our memories.

However, with all due respect, there was one thing in her article which sounded a little bit out of tune, and that was when she referred to Brigadier Martin Xuereb as “the best brigadier that our country had since the AFM was founded by George Borg Olivier in 1970”.

While I do agree that Brigadier Xuereb was a brilliant commander, there were other exceptionally talented commanders who deserve a mention, namely Lt Colonel E.W. Parnis. This well-disciplined officer did not make it to commander due to political interference from Dom Mintoff who had wanted to amalgamate the police with the AFM.

There was also the late Brigadier John Spiteri, Brigadier Maurice Calleja, Brigadier Claude Gaffiero and that brilliant young deputy commander David P. Attard who, thanks to Manuel Mallia and Joseph Muscat’s political interference, was sidelined.

He had to resign so that a supporter of the Labour Party could be given three promotions in so many weeks to take his place.

This to the frustration of a considerable number of other well-trained and disciplined army officers who felt that they have been cheated, and rightly so!

I would like to end this with Debono’s own words:

“The style over substance dichotomy will finally devour the politician who indulges in such an ephemeral game...”