Maurice Caruana Curran, the judge, sitting in the superior court. Photo courtesy of Raymond Mangion.

Friday the 13th – certainly not a pleasant date to remember. We gathered at the Jesuits church, in Valletta to pay tribute and bid farewell to Maurice Caruana Curran who will remain known for his integrity, his fortitude, his love for the country, his legal prowess, his creativity, his courage and resilience in the face of the most bizarre and dark episodes of interference by the Executive with the functions of the judiciary.

Erudite and well researched tributes have been written to commemorate his memory, to help us keep alive his examples and benchmarks to serve us as guidelines in our daily life.

More than ever we need to be inspired by all that he stood for.

More than ever we need to discover that our environment and the heritage offer far higher value than senseless development that simply encroaches on our very identity.

More than ever before we need to discover the value of standing up to be counted, to be apostles for the truth rather than be carried away by deceit, to face temptation in the eye and to do what is just and correct rather than simply become enslaved by populism and the comfort of apathy.

I thought to myself over the past days: what could I possibly add to what has already been said of Maurice? My memory reverted back to another date in March – 46 years ago.

It was Sunday, the 30th. It was Palm Sunday. I was 14 then and it was one of the happiest days of my life. At the Salesians’ Hall, in Sliema, the Teens and Twenties Talent Trust, popularly known as 4Ts, held its first general meeting.

Allow me to share another side of Maurice, which I had discovered and still cherish with the readers.

As founder of this youth movement, I had spent the preceding months, together with Frank Muscat, working on the necessary details to set up this youth movement. It was meant to be an organisation that would be run by young people for young people.

Equally, we knew that the youth movement needed to have the backing of persons of calibre who would lend their support, who had faith in young people, who did not think that they were merely dealing with a young dreamer who was, at best, fantasising.

Maurice did all that and more with regard to the 4Ts. As the youth movement was still in its embryonic stage, it needed to be christened – it was still in search of an appropriate name.

The first drafts referred to what we believed in – the initial acronym was 3Cs – concern, communication and commitment. When Frank approached Maurice to lend support to this youth movement, it was agreed that, for various reasons, ‘3Cs’ would not be the appropriate name for the movement.

It was ultimately about promoting the talent of young people

It was clear that teens would be the driving force within the organisation. Maurice suggested roping in the 20s as well – in that way the movement would have a broader base.

The first two of the 4Ts were to form part of the name of the movement that was being set up.

It was also Maurice who understood and appreciated that it was ultimately about promoting the talent of young people, not as an end itself but for the benefit of society as a whole. Hence the words: talent trust.

The 4Ts synched together and on March 30, the youth movement was both born and christened.

A few years earlier, Maurice had set up the movement Din l-Art Ħelwa – an acclaimed heritage trust that has stood the test of time.

The concept of trust nowadays forms an integral part of our financial services sector. It took a creative and forward looking mind like that which pertained to Maurice for him to propose the concept well before it became part of our legal system as it is known today.

In fact, to propose the concept of trust in its deeper and more profound meaning – that of serving society as a whole, of safeguarding future generations, of protecting our identity, of caring for others and for one’s country and doing something about it.

That is what then helps an organisation generate trust from others towards it.

Also, that is what generates, to use modern management language, an organisation’s reputation, responsibility and a sense of governance.

His support for the 4Ts also exemplified a sense of utmost generosity. He did not even remotely try to protect the turf of the organisation he had set up himself earlier even if it was clear that there would be some areas of overlap.

Conversely, he was only too pleased to offer a helping hand towards the formation of another movement that would uphold civic commitment as one of its fundamental pillars of activity. For people who act out of conviction and love for others, personal agendas do not come into the equation. For him, the value of enriching oneself through giving rather than receiving was one of the fundamental elements of his personality of all that he stood for.

Maurice did not limit himself with actually providing the new youth movement with its name but accepted to become its honorary president.

On March 30, 1969 he was there for the youth movement’s launch and delivered a speech to mark the occasion. The message which he delivered is worth heeding more than ever.

He mentioned the need of different peoples and nations to communicate with each other and pointed out that most of the problems that people face resulted from lack of communication. By way of example, he mentioned strikes, student unrest, breakups in relationships, marriages gone astray, wars, as well as cases of severe depression.

More often than not, he pointed out, it results from our not trying to understand each other or to help each other out.

He added that young people should be given every opportunity to develop their talents and, in that sense, he felt that there was an excellent reason for this youth movement to be set up and move ahead. He expressed with enthusiasm his belief and trust in young people.

Any additional remark from my end would be superfluous.

Francis Zammit Dimech is a Nationalist MP.