|
Louis Fenech
Iklin
The EU enlargement commissioner was in Malta last week to collect his reward for helping the present government make us forfeit what the Labour Party has struggled to achieve for all of Malta and the Maltese – freedom from foreign rule.
Yes Gunter Verhuegen had made it his fundamental ambition that Malta, by hook or by crook, is to join the European Union. His threatening words to Dr George Vella: that he is going to do everything possible to ensure the MLP loses the last elections, still echo in my ears. So does this ambitious, biased foreigner merit the highest honour Malta can bestow? Is he going to make us endure again what we went through when we were a colony?
And it was Profs DeMarco who conferred the ‘reward’ Xirka Gieh ir-Repubblika. The same ‘messenger’ who way back in the early nineties was minister for foreign affairs, and who presented Malta’s application to the EU in Rome. It was a perfect connection. Both of them made it their mission to consign to oblivion Freedom Day and all that Malta achieved from that day onwards. And I do hope this won’t last forever!
“Malta is a jewel in Europe” expressed Verhuegen and he “always felt that Malta was a special case” for him. We didn’t have to wait for Mr Verhuegen to tell us what he has discovered Malta to be. We know that. We have already been called “an unsinkable aircraft carrier,” by Mr Churchill in our unwarranted participation in WWI and WWII. Malta suffered then and will have to relive the bitterness of what the EU has to offer in the coming years. We don’t want to go through all that all over again.
It was also reported in The Times on Thursday, that now as his mission has been accomplished, he couldn’t be more “relaxed” to come to collect his undeserved (my guess) reward. I consider it undeserving because he made it his crusade, not to mention his arrogance, to pry into our political domain. He was prejudiced from the onset, and had to come here on several occasions to the aid of the government. This he did when he realised that the Opposition was gaining ground. And to add insult to injury he even taunted members of the Opposition for the stand they tried to take on this, our national affair.
He had the cheek to declare that he was “glad to see that the eternal debate on joining the EU has come to an end. In all democracies,” he said, “the minority has accepted the will of the majority.” The minority, Mr Verhuegen, has accepted the will of the majority, not thanks to you. It’s thanks to the way Dr Alfred Sant and the MLP acted on realising what the majority had voted for. If this was a wise decision or not we have to wait and see. We already taste what the EU has to offer even before we are officially in!
On bestowing the Xirka, the President said “the good relations Malta has with its southern neighbours means our nation can make a great contribution to the EU.” Lest we forget, please! It was none other than the then Prime Minister Mr Dom Mintoff who was instrumental to achieve these excellent relations with the south. In addition to the south, through Mr Mintoff, Malta established relations with Tito’s Yugoslavia, most of the eastern European counties and China and Russia.
These were new, unexplored frontiers, which proved to be of great benefit to Malta. Not to mention Mr Mintoff’s first proposition that it is only through peace and the co-operation of all nations in the Mediterranean region that prosperity can be achieved. Mr Mintoff was also the first western head of state to visit China. In fact President Nixon followed suit and so did other heads of states. Now this government is coming up with these ‘copied’ suggestions. They forgot the way they acted then. They even accused Mr Mintoff of being a communist, and of trying to propagate communism in Malta. Forgotten now, are the days when these same persons (the Nationalists and Co) who used to refer to them (the Arabs and Chinese) as “tal-habbaziez u ta’ wicc wiehed.” They now are in full praise and enthusiastic to communicate and trade with our southern neighbours and those from the Far East.
Furthermore, the president could never have conferred Xirka Gieh ir-Repubblika on Mr Verhuegen, were it not for a Labour Government which established this, and other honours in the seventies – when we had no strings attached.
Finally, it’s thanks to Mr Dom Mintoff that the President Profs. De Marco could compensate Mr Verhuegen for his active involvement in our politics, and assuring him of the contribution that Malta can guarantee not only with the south, but also all throughout the Arab world.
|
