With a spate of gun-crime, violent protests and a nail-biting election campaign, you can’t exactly say it’s been an uneventful 2008. RAPHAEL VASSALLO on the main stories over the past 12 months
JANUARY
Euro-phoria
The New Year sees the last of the old currency, as Malta’s January 1 euro adoption deadline passes without any noticeable hiccups or major problems (if you close an eye at the Prime Minister’s close encounter with an uncooperative ATM on live TV).
Malta in the dock over spring hunting
Despite various assurances that spring hunting would be retained in the EU, the European Commission announces court procedures against Malta for violating the Birds Directive by permitting hunting during the breeding season. As a result, the spring season will fail to open as usual in March, for the first time in living memory.
FEBRUARY
Jousting with Jeffrey
Election Campaign 2008 hottens up, as Opposition leader Alfred Sant hints darkly at a scandal involving Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando. This prompts a series of open confrontations between the two MPs, culminating in a showdown at the PBS head offices during the final televised debate.
Sant will eventually reveal a contract for a tract of Mistra land owned by Pullicino Orlando to be turned into a discotheque named “Spin Valley”. But the revelation came too late, and the PN spin machine had by that time already gone into overdrive to portray the former green champion as a martyr.
MARCH
PN pulls it off
Malta’s ninth election after Independence sees the “GonziPN” campaign strategy pay dividends, with the Nationalist Party returned to power against all odds, albeit with less than 50% of the popular vote. Lawrence Gonzi announces a smaller cabinet enjoying larger ministerial portfolios: Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando is not among the chosen few.
APRIL
Death of a detainee
Nicholas Azzopardi, 38 from Floriana, dies in hospital shortly after accusing the police of brutality on his deathbed. In a statement filmed by his brother, Azzopardi claims to have been beaten and thrown off a bastion by the police. A magisterial inquiry would later rule out foul play, but questions still linger over police obligations towards persons in their custodial care, after it transpired that Azzopardi had been allowed through negligence to attempt suicide under arrest at the Depot.
EP expenditure under wraps
European Ombudsman Nikiforos Diamandouros asks the European Parliament to accept MaltaToday’s request – originally made in 2005 – for details of the payments received by members of the European Parliament, including general expenditure and allowances. But the European Parliament has to date refused to comply, raising legitimate questions about the institution’s transparency and accountability.
Armier Armistice
MaltaToday reveals a secret pact between Lawrence Gonzi and residents of illegal boathouses in Armier, limits of Mellieha, just 19 days before the March 8 election. The Prime Minister promised Armier squatters that their illegal shantytown would be sanctioned six months after the electon, and that boathouses predating 1992 “will not be demolished”.
MAY
Love all round in Labour leadership election
Joseph Muscat, 34, pips older party veterans to become the second-youngest Labour leader ever after Dom Mintoff, who successfully challenged Sir Paul Boffa for the role at only 33. In an emotional acceptance speech after a particularly acrimonious campaign, Joseph Muscat declares his undying love for Labour supporters, and urges them all to love his wife, Michelle.
JUNE
Rent Reform White Paper
Social policy minister John Dalli finally announces a long overdue White Paper to reform Malta’s archaic rent law regime: an issue which has been studiously avoided by past administrations for decades. But after the government lost three separate cases in the European Court of Human Rights, there was little room left for manoevuere.
JULY
Public transport pandemonium
Austin Gatt’s announcement of a partial liberalisation of the motor hearse sector precipitates three days of mayhem, as bus, taxi and minibus drivers choke the streets in violent anti-government protests. The demonstrations fizzle out after the hearse sector withdraws from the so-called “strikes”. Ironically, the unsightly protests also paved the way for ongoing discussion regarding liberalisation of all public transport sectors.
Tuna turmoil
MaltaToday Midweek reveals an apparent discrepancy between Maltese export declarations of bluefin tuna – a critically endangered but immensely lucrative fish – and Japan’s import records, with WWF and Greenpeace suggesting that Malta allegedly exported more tuna than was physically possible at the time. Subsequent revelations include unlicensed extensions to tuna ranches, and various other anomalies. The stories precipitate multiple lawsuits by owners of local fish farms, in an undisguised attempt to shut this newspaper up.
AUGUST
Tragedy at sea
Malta waits with bated breath for news of the Simshar, a 12-metre fishing vessel which went missing at sea with a crew of five: owner Sandro Bugeja, his father Karmenu and his 11-year-old son Theo, as well as 33-year-old Noel Carabott and Abdulrahman Abdala Gedi, 21 from Somalia. After a three-day AFM search, Sandro is eventually discovered clinging to a makeshift raft by a fellow fisherman. The rest of the crew, including young Theo, were not so lucky. No trace is found of the Simshar itself, which leaves in its wake a trail of unanswered questions regarding the apparent malfunction of all its hi-tech safety equipment.
Kordin prison blues
Prisons director Sandro Gatt resigns over revelations that notorious convict Leli l-Bully was the inmates’ official representative in their dealings with prison administration. Despite being standard practice in most prisons worldwide, the existence of such a system in Malta provokes scandal and outrage... resulting in a change in the official representative, but not in the system itself.
SEPTEMBER
Emailgate
After numerous reports in MaltaToday, Communications Minister Austin Gatt admits in Parliament that the government information bureau’s central server – containing email passwords for sensitive departments such as the law courts and the police – had been compromised after an apparently successful hacking attempt. Gatt confirms the theft of 300 passwords, but denies allegations that high profile Labour MPs had been specifically targeted.
Cremona’s anti-divorce crusade
Divorce was emphatically back on the agenda after Prime Minister Gonzi, Social Policy Minister Dalli and Opposition leader Muscat separately hinted at a willingness to actually discuss the subject. This prompted a fiery sermon by Archbishop Paul Cremona on the occasion of Victory Day, in which divorce was equated with abortion and euthanasia, and the struggle against secularism likened to the victory over the Ottoman Turk in 1565, and the defeat of Nazism in World War Two.
OCTOBER
PBO-gate
More woes on the electronic front, as an email sent by PN secretary general Paul Borg Olivier unwittingly reveals the outcome of a meeting – held at PN headquarters between PN officials and OPM staff, together with Cabinet ministers – to discuss the sharing of personal data of citizens complaining to government departments. Borg Olivier refuses to resign, in spite of the sinister implications regarding abuse of private data.
Compensation for Anthony Mifsud
Anthony Mifsud, the former prison warden who was framed and tortured for the escape of a high-profile prisoner in the 1980s, finally wins €186,349.87 in compensation after a legal ordeal lasting 26 years. A case of justice delayed, the Mifsud saga brings back memories of police brutality in past decades, but also illustrates the reluctance of more recent administrations to redress past injustices.
NOVEMBER
Credit crunch and electric shocks
Reality bites in the wake of an international financial crisis, as Finance Minister Tonio Fenech presents a budget devoid of any of the goodies promised before the March election. Separately, government announces an upward, retroactive revision of electricity tariffs, amid popular discontent and trade union outrage. Hopes for a Trade Union Council are however short-lived, after a spat between the Malta Union of Teachers and the Confederation of Trade Unions. Both impasses - the TUC issue, and the revised tariffs - remained unresolved.
DECEMBER
Gun crime under the spotlight
A shoot-out at the Mqabba PN club, in which 13 are wounded, again casts the spotlight on lax gun laws after a series of crimes involving firearms throughout 2008. These include two murders in Qormi, one in Birkirkara and another in St Paul’s Bay, as well as a shooting incident in Siggiewi just this week. Responding to popular concern, the Justice Ministry announces it is considering an overhaul of the country’s gun laws.
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