Junior minister Tony Abela ordered the Armed Forces to give him the salute that is normally accorded to the Prime Minister at the Trooping the Colour parades on 30 September: a clear breach of military protocol that embarrassed the army from the top brass down.
The unassuming Rabat notary, with a penchant for dressing up as Old Testament figures in church pageants, forced the AFM to give him the general salute on the day commemorating the army’s 37th anniversary.
The privilege is reserved for the Prime Minister and the AFM Commander, with the national salute accorded to the President as the highest official of the State.
Yet the junior minister insisted with Brig. Carmel Vassallo that he be given the salute of a Prime Minister, even though Lawrence Gonzi himself was attending the two parades on that day.
Asked for the reason behind his peculiar order, Abela initially declined to comment, but in an email sent hours later he denied he gave such an order.
“I suggest you contact Brig. Carmel Vassallo and he will explain better,” he wrote.
Brig. Vassallo confirmed it was not usual to salute a parliamentary secretary but said it made sense in the context of an exclusively military ceremony.
“This wasn’t a national day but army day, so it was a salute to the junior minister in charge of the army,” Brig. Vassallo said, conceding that “maybe it seemed strange as it’s never done on a national day.”
One of the parades was held in front of St John’s Co-Cathedral, the other at the Luqa Barracks, and in both of them the soldiers had to salute Abela as if he was Malta’s Prime Minister.
“This goes against ceremonial protocol and against the drills book, which is the bible of military procedure,” an angry senior officer told MaltaToday
Abela’s order also entailed a change in programme, with the AFM ending up giving an extra national salute to Gonzi instead of giving it exclusively to the President, meaning that the national anthem had to be played twice in every parade.
A retired senior AFM officer among the VIPs attending the ceremony commented throughout the parades that the military protocol was “thrown out of the window”, turning the event into a veritable farce.
“It is just not done. It was just an ego trip for Abela that degraded the army in front of foreign defence attaches, the Italian military mission and lots of British expatriates who know everything about military parades, definitely much more than our minister.”
Another soldier who was parading on that day was equally irked at Abela’s imposition.
“It was an absurd order that only humiliated us in front of everyone. I guess just because Abela wanted the limelight on the eve of an election,” he said.
“I hope this kind of farce is not repeated.”
Sources added this was not the first time Abela came up with such impositions and visions of grandeur.
“We should have stamped our feet and stood our ground back then,” an AFM officer said. “Now it seems he’ll expect prime ministerial treatment every time.”