I think it’s time to re-post something I wrote on 1 February last year

1983: WHILE THE PEOPLE WERE STARVING, MALTA’S MINI BEN ALIS AND TRABELSIS MADE HAY

Published: February 1, 2011 at 8:18pm

This article took up most of the front page of the Nationalist Party newspapers, In….Taghna (they were banned from using the word ‘nazzjon’) on 12 August 1983.

ZEWG JOTTIJIET DAHLU FIL-BAJJA TA’ L-GHADIRA U HATTEW HEMM

NITOLBU INVESTIGAZZJONI: TNIZZLU KAXXI, PAKKETTI U AFFARIJIET OHRA

In…Taghna titlob lill-awtoritajiet koncernati jaghmlu investigazzjonijiet dwar zewg jottijiet li nhar il-Gimgha fil-ghaxija dahlu fil-bajja tal-Ghadira u hattew minn fuqhom kaxxi, pakketti u affarijiet ohra.

Iz-zewg jottijiet, ‘Stormy’ u ‘Lady Jo’, li fuqhom jidhru spiss il-Ministru Karmenu Vella u d-Deputat Mintoffjan John Dalli, rispettivament, huma registrati fir-Renju Unit u dahlu l-Ghadira ghall-habta tas-6pm. Humna rabtu mas-simenta li hemm fejn ir-ristorant Tunny Net li xtara dan l-ahhar id-Deputat MIntoffjan John Dalli.

Fuq is-simenta, lejn iz-zewg jottijiet, resqu zewg karozzi li fihom inhattew kaxxi maghluqa, pakketti u xi affarijiet ohra. Kaxxi u pakketti dehru jiddahhlu ukoll fir-ristorant Tunny Net u izjed tard issejhet taxi li fiha wkoll tghallew xi pakki u pakketti.

Mhux maghruf x’kien fihom dawn il-kaxxi u l-pakketti u jekk iz-zewg jottijiet dahlux l-Ghadira minn xi port iehor f’Malta jew inkella gewx minn barra l-pajjiz. Il-probabilita hi li z-zewg jottijiet dahlu minn Sqallija.

In…Taghna ghalhekk titlob lill-awtoritajiet koncernati jivverifikaw il-jottijiet ‘Stormy’ u ‘Lady Jo’ minn fejn dahlu l-Ghadira u jekk kellhomx il-permess biex jidhlu f’dik il-bajja meta talbiet li saru minn sidien ta’ jottijiet ohra, biex jidhlu hemmhekk, ma nghatawx il-permess mehtieg mill-awtoritajiet tal-Port.

Kemm il-darba z-zewg jottijiet dahlu minn barra l-pajjiz, il-pulizija tal-immigrazzjoni u l-ufficjali tad-Dwana kienu nfurmati u x’passi hadu?

Iz-zewg jottijiet raqdu hemmhekk (ir-ritratt juri z-zewg jottijiet marbutin l-Ghadira s-Sibt filghodu) u l-‘Lady Jo’ hareg it-tnejn filghodu. Fuqu kien hemm id-deputat Mintoffjan John Dalli flimkien ma’ mebri tal-familja tieghu li hu maghruf li marru fuq vaganza fuqu.

Tajjeb ukoll wiehed jinvestiga jekk ir-restrizzjonijiet li beda jattwa dan l-ahhar il-Bank Centrali humiex japplikaw ghal nies simili ukoll. Skond dawn ir-restrizzjonijiet, wiehed jista johrog flus bara l-pajjiz ghal vaganza mhux aktar minn darba kull xahrejn u jekk hu fuq negozju mhux aktar minn darba fix-xahar.
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I remember this clearly, because it happened when I was about to turn 19. Karmenu Vella had been a government minister so long already that it seemed he had been in government almost all my life, which is in fact the case. And now he wants to be in government again for, apparently, what remains of my life.

It was a big scandal, but to put it into context, you have to remember – or discover for the first time if you are younger than I am – these salient points.

1. Labour was in government with fewer votes than the Nationalist Party but more seats.

2. The country was wracked by unrest, mob violence, bombs, corruption from top to bottom, thuggery and the whims and excesses of Lorry Sant (now dead) and Ronnie Pellegrini (a man currently, would you believe, having some sort of relationship with Jason Micallef and hanging around in an unsavoury fashion with the members of Forum Zghazagh Laburisti), Patrick Holland and Fusellu (both dead), Joe Grima (alive and on Super One) and his lorries, and KMB (alive and lecturing us on Favourite Channel) leading the aristocracy of the workers to wreak occasional havoc in Valletta.

3. There were angry mass meetings and demonstrations of 50,000 people almost every weekend.

4. There were hardly any shops and nothing in them.

5. There were severe financial restrictions on travel – you were allowed to take so little money out of the country that you couldn’t leave in the first place without smuggling out cash at great risk, or unless you had a secret bank account overseas.

6. Anyone coming off a plane or the ferry from Sicily was practically strip-searched for hidden chocolates and other pathetic basic items and then held to ransom if any were found.

7. Hawkers on the Sicilian markets, who were themselves poverty-stricken, pitied the Maltese and regarded us with contempt like the Austrians pitied the deprived people of Bratislava who were allowed to cross the Iron Curtain in their Trabants for a few hours of normal life. They waved basic items at us from carts at the dockside.

8. Private yachts and cabin cruisers – there were hardly any and they belonged to Labour ministers, Labour henchmen, and those who ingratiated themselves with them so as to feather their nests – needed permission from the Port Authority to move around the coast. They had to be back in their registered berth by dusk and there was a strict ban on overnighting in bays. When you returned by private boat from Sicily, you had to notify Valletta Port Control and put into Grand Harbour. It was a criminal offence not to do this, warranting arrest and prosecution if you were not a Labour minister or henchman.

9. The vast majority of the population was out of work, scrapping around in the Pijunieri or the equivalent, or earning the minimum wage in the private sector and considering themselves bloody lucky to do so.

If you had told me back then that, 27 years later in 2011 at the age of 46, having raised a family and waved them off – literally a whole new generation – I would be sitting here listening to the news that this very same Karmenu Vella would be writing Labour’s electoral programme for the years 2013 to 2018 – the plan for what would effectively be my grandchildren’s generation – I would have laughed. And laughed. And laughed in disbelief.

And then I would have cried.

Because at the levels of despair we were all in then (except for people like Karmenu Vella, busy creaming it off and calling that period the Golden Years), we thought it would never end.

And by God, we were right.

Karmenu Vella is still creaming it off. He’s spent the last 25 years ingratiating himself with businessmen to feather his nest. His latest project is partnering up with Sam and Simon Mifsud of S Mifsud & Sons to take over the General Workers Union’s travel business, and they made him chairman just like Corinthia did for all those years.

And now he’s gearing up to get into government and cream it off even more.