Former Labour minister Wistin Abela.

Parliament yesterday paid tribute to the memory of former Labour minister Wistin Abela, who the Prime Minister described as “a much loved member of the Żejtun community”.

Dr Muscat said this was manifested by his friends who, when Mr Abela was mobility-impaired, used to take him out daily to ensure that he remained in touch with everyone.

Foreign Minister George Vella spoke of the enormous political contribution made by the man he affectionately referred to as “Wistin”.

A firm believer in Socialist values, Mr Abela, who died a week ago, used to give private lessons for free to children of the working class. Air Malta, Sea Malta,Enemalta and Xandir Malta were just a few of the entities in which he was involved, which helped to build up the country from scratch, Dr Vella said.

His love for Żejtun, his family, the Labour Party – and in particular his loyalty to the party leaders – were his major characteristics. Despite his physical impairment, his mind remained sharp and he was interested in current affairs until the end. While one may criticise him as a politician, one could never criticise his integrity.

Dr Vella said Mr Abela had even predicted Labour would win 40 seats in the last election – missing his target by one. He had remained in contact with Labour’s grassroots and made a supreme effort to attend Dom Mintoff’s funeral.

Minister Vella also paid tribute to Mr Abela’s family who always supported his pol-itical career.

Deputy Opposition leader Mario deMarco told an anecdote to show Mr Abela’s unassuming personality. The service he gave to this House and the country was a great one, he said. Malta would remember him especially for the setting up Air Malta, which contributed so much to the economy.

As former Labour minister Joseph Micallef Stafrace wrote last Sunday, it used to bother Mr Abela that Malta continued to be described as a mini nation and he always strove to ensure the island developed further, Dr de Marco said.

Quoting PL deputy leader Toni Abela, Dr deMarco said that incidents in the 1980s bothered Mr Abela because he had a clear conscience, and in his own modest way, he used to try to calm things down without hurting anyone.

Concluding, Dr deMarco said everyone needed to learn from what happened in the past in order to move forward. He believed Mr Abela truly did everything he could for Malta to move forward.