Raffles with government jobs as prizes: what the economy was like when Karmenu Vella was a senior cabinet minister in Karmenu MIfsud Bonnici's regime
The comeback kids: one of the men in this coterie round Mintoff is an MEP for Joseph Muscat's Moviment Gdid, another is the Moviment Gdid's current international secretary, and yet another is in Muscat's shadow cabinet. Another is Johnny Dalli tal-Lady Jo, who tells Gonzi how to run the country on Joe Grima's Inkontri.
One evening in late January 1986, a government backbencher called Carmelo Buttigieg, known and marketed politically as Il-Fratell, held an ikla for his Gozo constituents at the Ulysses Lodge overlooking Ramla Bay.
When the slurping and munching were over, some prizes – a necklace that cost Lm100, a cooker and a heater – were raffled.
Then Il-Fratell rose to announce a much greater prize: employment for one person in the public sector, known in Maltese as gopp mal-gvern. He explained to his audience, who might by then have stopped clanging their frieket u skieken if he was lucky, how this would work.
The holder of the winning ticket which he was about to draw would:
a) be put on the public sector payroll;
b) be promoted to a higher salary grade if he was on the public sector payroll already;
c) be allowed to transfer eligibility for a) and b) to another memher of his family if he himself was unable or unwilling to take up the offer.
The holder of the winning ticket, it turned out, was (oh gosh, what a surprise) an unemployed young man called Fabio Azzopardi, who lived in Il-Fratell’s own rahal of Xaghra and who had been badgering him for months for a gopp mal-gvern.
In those days, The Times didn’t go in for that kind of reporting (I sometimes wonder exactly why it was burned down, other than for symbolic reasons), so we turned to In…..Taghna and The Democrat for the real news. In…Taghna reported this as the top story on its front page, 3 February 1986.
The newspaper pointed out that it was inconceivable that prime minister Mifsud Bonnici did not know that his people were doing this kind of thing, and called for the resignation of Il-Fratell.
It didn’t happen, of course. Raffling government jobs at fundraising suppers for constituents was a mere peccadillo compared to the major horrors that were shattering the economy and causing civil unrest.
And the prime minister, we later discovered, was part of it all – in 1986 alone, the year leading up to the general election, KMB, Karmenu Vella, Lorry Sant, Joe Grima, Censu Moran and the rest of the sordid bunch put around 8,000 people on the public sector payroll, a problem that burdened the incoming Nationalist government and the country for years afterwards. We are still paying the price for that decision – thank you, Karmenu Vella; be sure to put it in Joseph’s electoral programme – today.
Some people insist on keeping their memory nice and short. They prefer to remember the ‘good job’ Karmenu Vella did as Sant’s tourism minister for 22 months in the late 1990s – as though a minister can be assessed on 22 months’ maintenance of a situation created by his predecessors, at a time when there were no tourism problems.
They have blanked out the fact that for six years, he was a minister in KMB’s cabinet, during the worst excesses of the regime just before its fall. And before that, he was a minister in MIntoff’s cabinet, too, and one of his favourite ministers at that, taken on yacht jaunts with him.
On his Facebook profile (yes, I know, pathetic), Vella has an entire library of photographs dedicated to his hero, the great Salvatur ta’ Malta, including some historical gems like Mintoff kneeling before Archbishop Gonzi and kissing his ring, Mintoff kneeling in worship on an isolated front pew during mass at St John’s Co Cathedral with Mrs MIntoff making a rare appearance at his side, and so on.
Karmenu Vella was as seedy and as corrupt as the rest of them. He even sank to the level of patronage for those who wanted colour televisions, recommending them personally for preference over others on the waiting list. The persons who administered the waiting list kept a sort of ledger with the names of ministers and the people those ministers were ‘recommending’ – the actual word used – for a colour TV.
And just to drive the point home that Karmenu Vella, great white hope of the Labour Party for 2013, was right there in the thick of the worst in 1986, here are some stills which I have taken from film footage of Opposition leader Fenech Adami’s reply to the Budget speech in late 1986.
When he put down his papers and said that speaking about the budget was a complete irrelevance in those troubled times, when a young man had just been shot dead and he felt he should talk about that instead, government ministers began to shout threats and then lept over the front bench and rushed across the floor to assault him. One of them was Karmenu Vella, wearing a brown suit. The sound goes off at that point and the filming contines for a few seconds before it goes blank, resuming when the Speaker has succeeded in restoring order.
Karmenu Vella leaves his seat and crosses the floor to join his fellow ministers as they try to stop Fenech Adami speaking
Labour minister Karmenu Vella issues threats and insults to Opposition leader Fenech Adami during his speech about Raymond Caruana in parliament in late 1986.
Karmenu Vella joins his fellow ministers who have assaulted the Opposition leader in an attempt at stopping his speech about Raymond Caruana
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Le, jahasra – dawk marru jihdu b’id Fenech Adami biex jifirhulu.
Anke l-ministri fil-parlament kienu vjolenti ahseb u ghara il-Laboristi fit-toroq.
U ta’ min ifakkar x’tip ta’ marmalja kien ikun hemm fil-gallarija tal-parlament. Staqsu lill-Hector Bruno xeba qala m’ghand Edwin Bartolo fil-parlament meta kien reporter mal-gazzetta in-Nazzjon taghna, dak iz-zmien in- taghna jew kif kienu jghidulha tal-Labour l-intiena.
U kemm tkissru karrozzi ta’ membri parlamentari u ssawtu nies ghal xejn b’xejn fil-prezenza ta’ numru kbir ta’ ufficjali tal-pulizija u tal-armata. Id-deputati nazzjonalisti lanqas biss kienu jithallew jidhlu jew johorgu mill-bieb principali tal-parlament ghax kienu jsawtuhom.
Daph, I suppse by some people you must have meant me. I cannot forget – you ought to know that! Neither do I suffer from any kind of amnesia or other mentally debilitating condition or disease.I was merely trying to be as objective as possible. I never gainsaid the horrors of the past, for which, incidentally, my immediate family – myself included – were victims.
[Daphne – I have no idea why you think I meant you. I had other, quite different, people in mind. Curiously, they are exactly the same sort who said the same things in 1996. People are so easily identifiable as types, and so predictable.]
For example – whilst you were being held under arrest at Floriana by the erstwhile Inspector Angelo Farrugia, I was with my father at Tal-Barrani covering the scene and getting shot at given that there was nothing more conspicous – even in the fog of war – as that blasted orange camera.
On Black Monday when a huge number of PN clubs all over the island were burned to cinders following an arson spree by the more genteel members of the ruling class then, as a 14-year-old boy I was assisting my father in documenting the incidents for the party, both of us in fear of imminent attack whilst doing so.
When the party decided to start transmissions from Sicily in TV and radio it was our house that was consistently and systematically raided by the police day in day out in order to find evidence of illegal activity or equipment.
Still think I insist in keeping my memory short? I just merely stated as fact what was reported to me. I don’t know one iota about the tourism industry and don’t pretend to either.
willywonka, I don’t think Daphne meant you at all.
Knowing Daphne, she would have come straight out and said your name.
We have to remind our young generation of these horrid times.
LEST WE FORGET.
Mhux anke meta Dr. Eddie Fenech Adami kien qed jitkellem fuq l-istragi li ghamlu tal-Labour flimkien mal-pulizija tar-regim ghamlu l-istess haga fil-parlament. Lill-dawn iz-zaghar li ghadhom se jivvutaw l-ewwel darba nwissihom u nighdilhom min qalbi ‘ Iva ivvutaw Labour ghax hawn bzonn il-bidla ha tkunu tafu xi giefieri’. Ifthu mohhkom ghax wara jkun tard wisq. Il-hanzir taqtalu demdu hanzir jibqa, u il-hniezer tal-Labout ghadhom hemm.
Don’t worry. I’ll be 23 when the next election comes and I will vote PN without any doubt in my mind.
Zmien il-misthija, zmien il-marmalja Laburista u jekk ma noqghodux attenti dan kollu jista jerga jigri.
Le…ma nezegerawx issa….Issa jistghu jigru affarjiet ohra pero`…
L-istess nies qedin hemm hux?
Tal-biza.
What a brilliant piece of writing – we’ve lived through it all, and yet it all seems so surreal now.
I sometimes do wonder where you manage to unearth these stories from, although now that I’m reading all about those dark, miserable days under the Mintoffian regime it is all creeping back to me – the terror we faced on a daily basis, the sheer misery round every corner, the frustration we lived in as we all knew we could do much better, but someone was holding us back, the awareness of precisely how and why some people were making it to key positions and how and why some people amassed the fortunes they did, whereas there was nothing left for us lesser mortals … the despair of it all.
Mr Vella, I look back at those dark gloomy days, and I cringe … NO … our beloved country and our families deserve better than to be thrown back to those ghastly, horrible days. And thank you for bringing all this back Daphne – lest we forget.
We’ve already forgotten, and I can’t blame the younger generation. They didn’t live through what we did, and even if they believe every word of what is written here and elsewhere, without a nuance of scepticism, to them that period is irrelevant, as, to a great extent, the last war is to us for example.
World War II would become relevant again if the Nazi and Fascist parties were returned to power in Germany and Italy. This is what could happen here: those who caused all the mischief are poised to regain power and the younger generation can no longer afford the luxury of blissful ignorance.
Mhux biss hamalli imma nies bla kuxjenza. Imbaghad issib suppost ‘moderati’ u ‘moderni’ li jsibu refugju taht il-gwienah tal-Labour Party.
U le, vera tal-biki u Alla hares jerga jigi gvern taht idejhom ghax lill-Malta ikissruha! Qabda racanc, skaduti, u neqsin minn valuri morali.
U bhala ‘lijder’ ghandom pulcinell u buffu aqwa minn ta’ qablu.
Mhux anke meta Dr. Eddie Fenech Adami kien qed jitkellem fuq l-istragi li ghamlu tal-Labour, flimkien mal-pulizija tar-regim, tal-Barrani ghamlu l-istess haga fil-parlament.
Lill-dawn iz-zaghar li ghadhom se jivvutaw l-ewwel darba nwissihom u nighdilhom min qalbi ‘ Iva ivvutaw Labour ghax hawn bzonn il-bidla ha tkunu tafu xi giefieri’. Ifthu mohkom ghax wara jkun tard wisq. Il-hanzir taqtaghlu dembu hanzir jibqa, u l-hniezer tal-Labour ghadhom hemm.
The hilarity and incredulity of the first half of this post – I had forgotten about the Fratell raffle though not the 8000 civil service jobs prior to the 1987 election – do not even begin to make up for the sad reminders of the latter half of the article.
Karmenu Vella, the petty Ghadira smuggler, is now entrusted with drawing up the plans for Malta’s future. The man who openly abused his powers and screwed customs and excise by landing boxes of contraband at Ghadira is now the spokesman for the economy and finance.
This is the same man who is supposed to collect taxes from us and then distribute them fairly.
I for one have absolutely no confidence in this second-rate politician.
Those of you who want to watch this shamful incident in parlaiment, it’s on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbPhNePqKGQ
The bit to watch is between1’48 and 3’08.
Alex Sceberras Trigona, Joe Grima, Karmenu Vella … Moviment Gdid t’ghajni.
And to think that at the time we were so accustomed to that sort of thing that we really thought it was ‘normal’.
Grazzi J Casha.
Ghamillu kopja lil Toni Abela ghal meta jaghmel xi exhibition fuq l-istorja tal-partit.
In part 8 or 9 Eddie mentions some photos published on In-Nazzjon Taghna. I was about a year old at the time, so I have no recollection of the events — does anyone have a copy of these said photos?
Apologies — part 7
Frankament, lil min ma ivvjolentax il-Partit Laburista meta kien fil-gvern?
O zmien helu kif inhxejtli.
Daphne, too few people on this God foresaken island say it the way you do, indeed see it so clearly the way you do.
Sadly, there are too many idiots around and they’ll be the ones to dictate our children’s future. The price of democracy, dammit.
That’s not the price of democracy…that IS democracy. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Well, it cannot be any other way – agreed.
However it is a drawback that people who would actually believe we were better before 1987 to today, who would have denied their own children their future, who honestly believe, like ‘dear leader’, that Labour is responsible for today’s education and employment opportunities, who would have voted for ‘PARTNERXIP’ without having the slightest clue as to what it was about (they couldn’t have known, Sant himself didn’t have a clue) and who actually believed the ‘no’ side won the referendum have an equal say.
I wouldn’t have it any other way, either. You can’t have it any other way; however, it is a drawback.
Keep at it, Daphne.The collective dementia is appalling.
Luke Borg grazi perit dak iz zmien rega gej taht joseph muscat.
August 22, 2010 at 1:17pm · .
Dan il-kumment minn fuq Facebook, taht ir-ritratt li gab Karmenu Vella biex jawgura lil Mintoff.
Does anybody else remember the ‘kumitati tal-girien’? I can’t remember exactly how they were formed or what they were supposed to do, but they certainly used to rat about their neighbours and classify them as ‘maghna’ or ‘kontra taghna’.
They played a vital role in deciding who got water and who didn’t when a water bowser used to visit our street to fill up the roof tanks, after days without a drop in the taps. I remember we used to call them ‘kumitati tal-grieden’.
Every so often I like to point this out. In 1987 the Nationalist Party won the election by a few thousand votes. Considering the situation back then it should have won by a lot more.
But there were people who did not know any better other than knocking on doors of their ‘ziemel’ for favours, and then there were those who were scared stiff to vote for PN i.e. scared of being identified. Remember this – 1987 was a bad period ….. well, we’ll never have the likes of Eddie, Guido, Censu, Ugo, Louis, Antoine Miffsud Bonnici, Austin, Ninu, Mchael Refalo, Bonello Du Puis, Joe Borg , Tonio Borg etc…. again
Il-Fratell was another one of those exemplary Labour MPs. He was caught shoplifting in London at about that time. Resign? Of course not. He was only gathering goodies for his ‘good causes’ raffle in Marsalforn.
I don’t think you will allow this to appear and maybe you shouldn’t but but people like Mintoff and some of those close to him are well known to have been partial not only to young women but also young men.
Daphne, I am sure you know that when one feels that one has absolute power there is no end to the depths that he will sink to.
Unlike you I do see some good in Mintoff – he was a good bulldozer. He did a good job of destroying the old social structures and allowed the rebuilding of a new Malta by successive governments.
It is obvious to me with his talk in clubs, Joseph Muscat wants to revive the old Labour party base. His hero is Mintoff and he is going whatever it takes to emulate him. It’s sickening and frightening.
What is worrying me is the spineless Maltese media for they are not reporting to the young electorate what was like living under the oppressive Labour government.
Does the PN have an educational strategy to defeat Muscat?
Wake up people!
What a blitzkrieg on Karmenu Vella. Does he worry you THAT much?
[Daphne – Yes, because unlike you I was around and an adult when he was a cabinet minister (in a brown suit, though that was the least of it). And his performance was abysmal. If you have a hotline to Muscat, let him know that when he promised us a moviment gdid for a generazzjoni gdida, we didn’t expect him to dig Karmenu Vella out of his 35-year-old political grave.]
Maybe he does – I expect Gonzi would give an arm and a leg to have somebody as capable on his team, instead of having to make-do with a proven incompetent like Tonio Fenech.
[Daphne – Listen chavs, if you want to join the grown-ups in this conversation, at least bother to read up a little bit about Karmenu Vella’s performance in government in the 1980s, then we’ll talk about how ‘capable’ he is. You’re out of your depth here. ‘dear’.]
Dwar Tonio Fenech…ma nixtieqx naqbez ghalih partikolarment pero, ftit rizultati:
1. Finanzi. Is-sena l-ohra l-unika pajjiz (ahna u l-Estonja proprja) li naqqasna d-deficit u gimghatejn ilu l-Kummissjoni tfahhar lil Malta f’dan is-sens.
2. Ekonomija. Numru ta’ rapporti (IMF fuq quddiem izda anke UE) tghid li Malta fost l-ahhar li dahlet fir-ricessjoni u fost l-ewwel li harget.
3. Xoghol: fost l-aktar rati baxxi tal-UE.
4. Kompetittivita: ikteb google bloomberg malta germany only two countries to improve competitiveness u ssir taf aktar.
Li Tonio huwa unpolished f’certu kummenti tieghu naqbel – imma fir-realta he’s turning out to be wiehed mill-aqwa ministri li qatt kellu l-pajjiz fil finanzi.
Ask anybody (and I mean anybody) in the tourism business and they will tell you he was the best tourism minister we ever had – by a very long shot.
Then talk to the man who is probably Maltas most successful entrepreneur ever – Alfred Pisani of the Corinthia Group – and ask him why he employed Karmenu Vella, in the very top positions, for as long as he wanted to work there.
PS: I am roughly your age.
[Daphne – Well, then I wonder what sort of ‘tourism businesses’ they run if they judge performance on 22 months of administration of other people’s work. Exactly what did the man achieve in 22 months? Did he stop his primus inter pares from throwing those ‘tourism businesses’ into chaos by burdening them with a complicated switchover to CET two years after they had put in costly systems to deal with VAT? No, he didn’t. Did he improve Malta’s ‘tourism product’? No, he didn’t. Did he oversee the production of some scintillating and successful marketing campaign? No, he didn’t. Did he conquer new markets or increase the numbers and quality of tourists? No, he didn’t. If you had the sort of insight into people that I do, chavs, and especially the sort of people you mention, most of whom I know and you probably don’t, you will know that what they mean when they say he was ‘the best’ is that he used to sit there and listen to them go on and then tell them ‘Iva, ghandek ragun, dazgur’ and then do nothing. These are people who want to feel at all times that they are in control of the situation, of the MTA and of the tourism minister, and Karmenu Vella – like all smart women – allows the men to feel that they are the ones taking the decisions.
Alfred Pisani employed Karmenu Vella for the same reason he employed John Dalli from the other political party. Grow up, chavs. I suppose you think that most of Malta’s major developers use Charlie Mangion as a notary because he’s so….brilliant.
And no, you cannot possibly be 46 because you have the thought and speech patterns – assuming that you write as you speak, that is – of somebody in his early to mid 30s.]
Your speech analyses seems to be as hot as your political analyses – lukewarm at best.
I don’t think Dalli ever worked for the Corinthia (though I’m not sure about that). Thought I wouldn’t be surprised – he’s another one who could knock all the other PN ministers into a cocked hat (and probably will).
[Daphne – So I was right about your age. Actually I was being kind by telling you that I think you’re in your mid-30s. You sound more like a chippy person in his late 20s. If you really were in your 40s you wouldn’t sound like a total twat and you certainly wouldn’t have to rely on third-person accounts of what happened in the 1980s. I’m beginning to think that you didn’t even know Vella was in Mintoff’s cabinet. But then we’ve been through this already and you seem to have forgotten. You went pie-eyed because I worked out your socio-economic background to a T just by the way you write and think. That was some months ago now. You’ve just given away more of yourself than you think by revealing that you don’t know John Dalli worked for the Corinthia Group. Not as involved with the tourism business (or politics) as all that, it turns out. ]
Il-Perit Karmenu Vella, Lorry Sant, Johnny Dalli u Joe Debono Grech marru fuq Fenech Adami dak inhar mhux biex issodulu halqu, imma biex jghidulu li kienu se jaghtu lil membri ta’ l-Oppozizzjoni l-onorarja taghhom, ghax huma ma kellhomx bzonna ghax kienu qedin jaqilghawha tajjeb hafna bil-korruzzjoni u bil-kuntrabandu.
Il-Perit Vella ghax ma jghidx li meta telghu in-Nazzjonalisti kien hemm sparatura fuq coach bit-turisti gewwa l-Marsa, mela jaccetta inkarigu biex jaghmel il-manifest elletorali ghal-Maltin wara li xeba jhawwad fil-kuntrabandu?
Dawk kollha li kienu korrotti f’kull sens tal-hajja kienu joboghdu personalment lil Dr. Fenech Adami u mhux ta’ b’xejn il-marmalja marret tkissirlu d-dar u ssawwatlu l-familja. Ma tisthux ja qatta korrotti?
Ara lil Lino Spiteri u lil George Abela helsu minnhom ghax vera rgiel ta’ l-affari taghhom. Dawn nies hekk iridu. Nies mahmugin u korrotti.
Riya, ghalfejn tiskuzah lil Lino Spiteri?
Mhux maghhom kien fil-gvern ta’ Mintoff?
Kolletivament, ghandu responsabbilta’ wkoll. Telaq minn ma’ Alfred Sant mhux ghax harqitu qalbu ghalina, imma ghax kien jahdem minn wara daru u sar jaf bis-CET waqt li kien jiekol f’restaurant.
Issa jista’ jikteb u jghid li jrid imma f’dawk iz-zmienijiet koroh hemm kien u ma harigx fil-pubbliku jghid li ma jaqbilx.
Facli tigi issa u tghid li ma kontx taqbel u tkellimt fil-Kabinet biex tipprova tirrijabilita ruhek.
Meta kien ministru hu u shabu tghidx kemm kellna mohh niktbu poeziji fuq uliedna u wliedhom. Hawn min joghgbuh l-analizi li jaghmel imma jien niftakar sewwa x’kien jikteb fuq Eddie fenech Adami.
Xejn ma kien joghgbu milli jaghmel u ahna nafu x’rizultati kiseb Eddie. Gieli kien tant ikun iebes fi kliemu li ma kontx nibqa’ naqra.
Il-verita’ hi li hawn nghatu cans lill-politici jitwieldu mill-gdid. Kieku ma kienx hekk, nies bhal Evarist Bartolo li kien membru tal-Partit Kommunista Malti, issa jilghaba tal-moderat u progressiv? Jien nemmen li t-twemmin li kellu fil-qiegh ta’ qalbu tletin sena ilu, hemm ghadu.
Read Lino Spiteri’s opinion pieces in The Times: am I right in thinking that he considers what’s happening in Egypt and the other Maghreb countries should also happen in Malta?
Sometimes his writing and double negatives are so convoluted that you get the impression that he wishes the Maltese proletariat – so Marxian – would break its chains and assault the Bastille; a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Ghandek ragun. Meta s-Sea Malta mlijha bl-aristokrazija tal-canvassers/konstitwenti tieghu, it-tip tal Hatambu u il-Midghi li hadd ma kien jazzarda jkellimhom, hu kien.
Birds of the same feather flock together –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1RpOT5zX6I
chavsRus, be mature and accept this information. To assess Karmenu Vella’s abilities as a minister you would have to look at the 1970s and 1980s, when he was a minister for many years, and not at the 1990s, when he was a minister for 22 months in very comfortable conditions, fejn sab is-sodda mifruxa minn ta’ qablu.
Daphne, you bring it all back in spades, like it just happened yesterday.
Better that I should keep suffering the trepidations of one Canadian winter after another than dream of returning to a cluster of tiny islands where one half of the adults suffers from terminal Alzheimer’s, and most of the young are just like Boxer in Animal Farm (despite their free post-secondary education, stipends, and otherwise heathy-ish Mediterranean lifestyle).
Karmenu Vella? KMB? Joe Grima? Again? Shoot me now!
All I have to say is: Where the hell is the rest of Malta’s fourth estate?
Oh I thought you meant ‘Raffles’ the discotheque run by Joe Grima’s son…
Chavs, perhaps you could ask Karmenu Vella about the the exportation to Libya when he was Ministry of Industry.
For instant the deals with his Libyan counterpart in the textile Industry.
If you hesitate to ask him, you have another option, go to Republic Street, perhaps you can hear something while you are shopping.
Person A feels ill. He decides to go to the doctor. The doctor informs him that he is seriously ill.
He gives him some medicine, but more importantly he tells the patient to take better care of himself and live a healthy lifestyle. To turn his life around.
The patient slowly gets better. He suddenly feels that he is cured. He starts taking for granted the doctor’s advice.
Out of the window goes his vigilance, healthy lifestyle is ignored as he really feels good about himself. He is unaware of the virus lurking underneath waiting to pounce. This time round there is no cure, it is too late.
I wonder, could we as a nation be Patient A?
The debate about whether Karmenu Vella was a good minister or is a good policy writer misses an essential point. However good or bad he was (and I think he was rotten), his political future is behind him. If he’s the best the PL can come up with, then we really are in a sorry mess.