News | Sunday, 08 February 2009

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Molly’s final coup de grâce

Charlot Zahra
The love affair between Molly Bordonaro, outgoing United States ambassador to Malta, and her adoptive country for the past three and a half years, ended with the conferment of the National Order of Merit.
Bordonaro, 40, was bestowed with the Honorary Membership of the NOM on Thursday, a day before the Oregonian left Malta for good together with her husband.
In his citation, President Eddie Fenech Adami said that “Bordonaro has distinguished herself through her service to Malta and acquired the respect and gratitude of the Maltese.
“Over the years, Bordonaro left her mark by taking several initiatives and bringing them to a successful conclusion. These include a Double Taxation Agreement and the Visa Waiver Programme for Maltese citizens travelling to the US,” Fenech Adami added.
“Bordonaro’s interest in immigrants landing in Malta translated into the introduction of the US Voluntary Resettlement Project that saw hundreds of refugees going to the US,” the citation added.
Until now, it has not been the practice to confer this award to outgoing foreign ambassadors who had just served in Malta. In fact, she was the third serving ambassador who was granted the National Order of Merit.
Asked why the Maltese Government had made an exception in the case of Molly Bordonaro, and whether the Committee that usually decides on the conferment of the National Order of Merit had met to endorse the decision, a spokesperson for the Office of the Prime Minister contended that no exception had been made.
“The Nominations Committee evaluates past and present nominations. The nomination of Bordonaro was evaluated and endorsed prior to the Republic Day Ceremony,” the OPM spokesperson told MaltaToday.
He explained that the Nominations Committee that confers the NOM awards “is set up in terms of Article 18 of the Gieh ir-Repubblika Act to propose candidates to the Prime Minister. A public call for nominations is published every year. Last year the public call was issued on 21 September 2008,” the OPM spokesperson told MaltaToday.
The news of the award awarded to Molly Bordonaro by the Maltese Government was even reported in “The Oregonian”, the home newspaper of the US State of Oregon, where she returned on Friday together with husband Matt and their three children, Brooke, 8, Colt, 6, and Skylar, 3.
Even some readers were quite astonished at how Bordonaro got the NOM award: “Yep, the government of Malta gave an unqualified and ineffective woman that country’s highest honor for the work she did there. The first American ever, and only the 3rd Ambassador ever,” a reader of the Oregionian commented on the newspaper’s website.
Another reader even questioned the usefulness of the US spending a lot of money on an embassy in a small nation such as Malta.
However another reader defended Bordonaro’s achievements in Malta as well as the utility of having a US embassy in Malta. “Having a positive presence around the world is important. Keeping our representatives around the world safe from our enemies is important. Our allies around the world are important. And little island or not, Malta is an ally – one of few in an unstable region of the world,” he insisted.
“So this story of an American success overseas is important. She did good. She was significantly honored by the country where she was our representative. Yet all I see from you is derision because she’s a Republican,” the reader commented.

czahra@mediatoday.com.mt

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