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The judgement in which a judge rewarded compensation to Mr Dom Mintoff has cropped up again in the media recently. Mr Lino Spiteri in his article on The Sunday Times of September 12 has dealt with it along the Brussels building, but I see that there is a difference between the two issues.
If we really need a house in Brussels, it is better to buy, not lease one. The attacks on ‘Dar Malta,’ in Brussels should be directed to those involved in this deal, rather than against the idea of the purchase itself.
Perhaps the only negative point about the purchase is related to the financial situation the country is facing, but again, since the country needs a home in Brussels, the longer thetime taken to purchase, the more costly the deal. Future administrations can sell the property that cost Lm 9 million now at a very high profit.
I want to compare the Brussels deal with the compensation offered to Mintoff. The Lm360,000 which the court has rewarded him will be lost to the public forever.
One should remember here that the exaggerated compensation is not for an expropriated property (L’Gharix), because it was not, neither is it for a property that was requisitioned, because it was not. Compensation is being offered because across the road a power station was built causing an inconvenience.
And here I ask, who is without an inconvenience in life?
But let us be honest here. I do not blame Mr D. Mintoff and the late Mrs Mintoff for suing the government for compensation, probably for the loss of the property’s market value.
But the one thousand dollar question is: suppose instead Mr Mintoff, was another ordinary citizen who is supposed to be equal before the law, would this ordinary citizen be awarded the same amount by the courts?
How many ordinary citizens have had their property expropriated years ago, and are still waiting for compensation. How many of these citizens had their property requisitioned sometimes for friends of friends and then lose their property forever because of inheritance.
Here we are not speaking of inconvenience, but of a loss of property. I wonder if the courts will consider the market value for these poor citizens. Will these be compensated with the market value of their properties or is that not possible, as a lawyer once told me?
I think the best solution would have been to find a piece of government land double the size of where L’Gharix is, at a place chosen by Mr Mintoff himself, and a replica of L’Gharix could have been built on it and offered to the former premier. But Mintoff would have to hand over L-Gharix to the government. Such a deal cannot be repeated with every other citizen who had his property expropriated or requisitioned, but these could be compensated with the market value of the property, and the requisition law abolished once and for all. Even if we are supposedly all equal before the law, it seems that some are more equal than others.
Joseph Muscat
Mosta
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