Today my father would have turned 81. He would, however, have described himself as 41 years young – life begins at 40, he would cheekily say, thereby allowing him to deduct 40 years from his actual age.
Labour are unapologetic despite the trauma bestowed by them on my mother through their shockingly sensational headlines- Mario de Marco
Two years have nearly passed since his demise. His wisdom, optimism and humanism are sorely missed.
But as political events unfolded over the past few weeks, my mother of all people passed a remark that shocked me at first: “Perhaps it is better that Guido is dead,” she said, “it would have hurt him too much to witness this current state of affairs.”
All those who knew my father, know only too well that he held the police corps, justice and human rights close to his heart. There was a time when unfortunately these institutions and principles were not complementary to each other, but rather in antagonism to one another.
My father’s trademark conclusion at the numerous mass meetings he addressed was “il-libertà l-ewwel u qabel kollox” (Liberty first and foremost). He was referring to liberty as the most basic but fundamental of human rights that the Maltese people were then aspiring for. A right that the police corps in the 1970s and 1980s did their darn most to trample upon to support a socialist regime that saw little of fundamental in human rights.
So when he was appointed Minister for Justice and Home Affairs in 1987, he set out immediately on three tasks; first enshrining the European Convention of Human Rights as part of our domestic law; secondly, establishing the independence of the judiciary; and thirdly, setting up an Academy for Police Studies to ensure that all police officers receive training, not only in crime detection and prevention but as importantly in law and human rights.
So you can imagine what my father would have felt had he witnessed the motion presented in Parliament by Labour asking for the removal of Carm Mifsud Bonnici, as Minister for Home Affairs, being approved thanks to the vote of Franco Debono – a former law student of his.
A motion that ignored the suffering of many to satisfy the ego of a few. A motion supported by those same Labour MPs that supported the regime responsible for the torture of many, the death of Nardu Debono, the killing of Raymond Caruana, the frame-up of Pietru Pawl Busuttil, the gassing of peaceful gatherings at Tal-Barrani and Rabat, the burning of The Times building, just to mention a few of the ignominious events crowning the dark pages of history of Labour.
More was still to come, however, with the motion submitted in Parliament by Labour against Richard Cachia Caruana that was to pass this time thanks to the support of the now newly independent Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando.
The acquaintance of my father with Richard goes back to Richard’s teens when he was a close friend of my sister. My father, who had a passion in changing the names of his friends and his children’s friends (Francis Zammit Dimech aka Ċikku Lebbet, Tony Bezzina aka Bezzinaio, Adrian Hillman aka Adriano Montanaro) decided to rename Richard, then 19, “Ca Ca” as an abbreviation of Cachia and Caruana, and to distinguish him from Joe Caruana Curran, whom he teasingly called “Ċ Ċ” in Maltese.
Admittedly, over the years, as Richard moved on to a more active role within the party and government, Richard and my father did not have the easiest of working relationships. Each had their own style of doing things. My father was fiercely independent in his work. Richard would try to centralise government and party matters to the detriment of those who, unlike my father, did not stand their ground. But that did not mean they did not respect each other or work together. They both strove for the same aims. That of seeing the Nationalist Party in government. That of seeing Malta take its proper place in the European Union.
Regrettably, over the last few weeks, Jeffrey – whom my father once described to me in the mid-1990s as a potential rising star in the PN – repeatedly brought my father’s memory into the fray, by playing for his political convenience, on the reputed differences between Richard and my father and the writings of certain columnists that over the years had also targeted my father along with many others.
What Jeffrey missed, however, was that loyalty to the party and its leadership was absolute for my father. Whatever contrasts or differences of opinions one may have over the years with party structures or individuals, these are never to come in the way of party loyalty, which was ultimately built upon party roots. My father was part of a team that had suffered with many to end 16 years of socialist regime. Nothing for my father would ever come in the way of that hard-fought victory. A victory that belonged not only to him but to the Maltese.
More was still to come, however, as the political pantomime of the past few days kept unfolding. On the days of the hearing of the motion, this time submitted by Jeffrey to the PN Executive Committee against Richard, Labour’s media – Maltastar and One News – started a striptease headline that two Nationalist ministers were “implicated” in the attempted murder of Richard in 1994.
On the day of the actual hearing, Maltastar and One News claimed in the headline they could “reveal” that one of the ministers “implicated” was my father. They then went on to state that the person claiming the “implication” was Richard himself, and as “evidence” they sounded extracts of a recording (undated) wherein Richard is heard to say that he thought my father could have told Brigadier Calleja that his resignation was “xi ċuċata ta’ Richard”. Incredible. Evidently enough, Labour has no idea what the word “implicates” means. Or so I hope.
Anyone who has bothered to listen to or read the extracts knows that at no point in time did Richard indicate that he thought, even remotely, that my father or any minister was implicated. Indeed, Richard himself described as “shocking” the assertion made by Maltastar and One News.
But the PL is still unapologetic despite the trauma bestowed by them on my mother through their shockingly sensational headlines, who at 79 has only my father’s dear memory to hang on to.
Labour insisted that it was Richard’s voice heard in the tapes, conveniently missing the point that Richard did not deny it was his voice, but denied the false and perverse conclusion and interpretation reached by Maltastar and One News of what he said.
If I say “carrots are orange” and you conclude that to mean that I therefore like “potatoes”, the fact that I spoke does not mean you are right, as there is no connection between the two.
There is absolutely no link between the shocking headline of Maltastar and One News and the actual content of their story. But for the PL , the end justifies the means.
They will claim they respect my father but given that it was politically convenient for them to stir the pot against Richard on the day of the hearing of the motion presented against him by Jeffrey, it does not matter to them if collateral damage is done to innocent third parties, in this case to the memory of a lost person.
Truth is that despite claims of being a “new progressive movement”, Labour has not changed, will not change, may not want to change. For as Evarist Bartolo, who reputedly spearheads the news at One and Maltastar, said with regard to the same PL, “plus ça change, rien ça change”.
So was my mother emotionally right after all? In truth the biggest political fallout of all these events has possibly not been the Nationalist Party or my father’s memory. The biggest victim of all this has been the political class in general. Who is going to take politics and politicians seriously? Who is going to want to enter politics?
My father, while undoubtedly saddened to witness yet again the trademark gutter politics of the Old, New and now Progressive Labour Party/Movement and to see the irresponsible damage inflicted to the Nationalist Party and politics in general by the acts of individual MPs acting on self-interest rather than principle, would have still been able to see the light in the gloom.
The proverbial glass was never half empty. He would have been proud to see a government that despite all the internal and not-so-internal distractions of recent times has nevertheless succeeded in delivering where it counts: jobs; education; and health.
He knew only too well that the political foundations of the Nationalist Party that Eddie Fenech Adami and he inherited from George Borg Olivier and passed on to Lawrence Gonzi, are solid enough to withstand this current storm. He always saw in Lawrence a person of principle and of virtue, which ultimately are the most important ingredients in a politician.
At 81, a seasoned sailor that he was, my father would have undoubtedly done all it takes before jettisoning any extra weight as the ship hits the storm; but once a decision was taken by the captain to do so, he would respect such a decision, support it, and pull on all the ropes necessary to ensure that the ship not only survived the storm but steered safely into harbour.
Mario de Marco is Minister for Tourism, Culture and the Environment.