GonziPN’s strategists thought they could make a meal out of Alex Sceberras Trigona’s recent article on the illegality or not of the present situation in Parliament. And, especially, about three words used by Dr Sceberras Trigona in his article: “lack of democracy”.

GonziPN’s most vicious dobermanns were let loose to attack the messenger rather than the message.

Acting as if they didn’t know that Dr Sceberras Trigona had penned his article on his own personal initiative and that the views he expressed therein were his own personal views, with which one could agree or disagree, they roped in Joseph Muscat for good measure.

The strategists couldn’t resist the temptation to remind readers of the time when an agreement had been signed by Dr Sceberras Trigona, decades ago, with the government of North Korea – the “secret agreement”.

Party apologists and officials continue to mention that agreement without giving any details of what it was all about.

When Labour came to power in 1971, besides finding Malta’s coffers empty, so much so that Dom Mintoff had to resort to Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi for money to be able to pay the wages and salaries of government employees, Mr Mintoff also discovered that the police force and the army lacked weapons and ammunition.

Mr Mintoff already had information about this state of affairs within the army and the police. In fact, he used to refer to the army as “armata tal-operetti” because soldiers were even given wooden rifles to train with instead of real ones.

Finding no money to pay wages and salaries when elected in 1971, surely no one would have expected Mr Mintoff to fork out money to buy weapons and ammunition to arm the army and the police.

Relying on his ability to obtain for free what Malta needed at the time, Mr Mintoff found out that North Korea was ready to furnish the necessary weapons and ammunition so that our security forces would be properly armed and trained.

This is what the “secret agreement” with North Korea was all about. That it was kept a secret at a time when Nato, the US and Britain were focusing on Malta’s new government because they had been led to believe that Mr Mintoff could very well invite communist China to fill the void once Britain retreated from its Malta base, such “secrecy” was understandable.

But what I keep finding so ironic whenever GonziPN refer to that “secret” agreement with North Korea is the fact that, although they have been in government for almost 25 years, they have never, as far as I can recall, published the contents of that agreement.

What is even more ironic is that, while as a result of that agreement signed by Dr Sceberras Trigona, the Maltese people saved a lot of money, the deal done by the Prime Minister, his ministers and the parliamentary secretaries to give themselves a €600 weekly rise, cost taxpayers a lot of money. More so, it was kept “secret”, not just from the Maltese people but also from GonziPN backbenchers in Parliament.

So much for “secret “ agreements.