A few days ago we were inundated with photos and memories of the Tal-Barrani events and later of the Raymond Caruana violent death on the 30^th anniversary of the happenings.

There is another event that is nearing its 30^th anniversary too, or rather the 30^th anniversary of its removal: the bulk buying scheme put in practice by the 1980s Labour administration.

This administration’s centralist policies engendered the creation of the infamous Bulk Buying Scheme. The State became the importer of all essential commodities including tinned milk, cheese, butter, coffee, sugar, canned tuna, corned beef and luncheon meat.

In August 1978 17 leading food importers were summoned to the Ministry of Trade in Lascaris and formally, politely but firmly, informed that the government had essentially taken over absolute control of importation of essential commodities and that even communication with the principals abroad was henceforth banned as the Department of Trade would be solely responsible for sourcing the products from whoever and wherever.

Thus was born the Bulk Buying Scheme, an intrinsically complex and flawed system which mostly served the purpose of stifling choice and spawned corruption at the expense of the consumer.

Career civil servants like Marcel Pizzuto, Oscar Grech and Costantino Spiteri were tasked to lead committees that handled specific product groups. In time, the government started to turn the screws even further and a certain Joe Zammit, another civil servant, took over as head of the system. Things turned for the worse. Zammit was a far from popular figure at the time, with his tyrannical style of enforcement. His Ï’m the boss, take it or leave it’ attitude earned him the not-so-kind nickname of Ayatollah.

The Bulk Buying Scheme was not the only control placed on imports. Imported items that were not included in the Bulk Buying Scheme were subjected to import licences. No licences were issued for the importation of items that were either also produced in Malta or else similar to those produced in Malta.

Once a consignment of rag dolls was imported from Greece. There was a Chinese factory in Malta manufacturing plush toys so the Greek toys were stopped by Customs. In a panic, since Christmas was just a week away, the importer approached Cost Spiteri who decided to take the case to his minister, Lino Spiteri. The minister, in a Solomon-like judgment, ruled that as the dolls were half hard and half soft, then half would be released and sold and half were to be distributed to local orphanages.

Also, to please Gaddafi, no imports were allowed from Israel. The suddenly the Maltese government stopped all importation from Japan. At one point, Mintoff became angry with Italy and so for a time all imports from Italy were banned.

The situation became worse. Importers started to apply for whatever quota was going and then trade quotas with other importers. With tighter controls (as the socialist government of the time considered all businessmen to be leeches) came abuse.

This was the situation existing just 30 years ago. It was swept away by the incoming PN administration after 1987 which liberalized imports and allowed free movement of goods. This liberalization cut down on abuse, raised the standard of living, and contributed to sustained growth for many years.

It is worthwhile to remember all this. Some key people in the system have died but others are still alive and should be asked to defend their past. More than that, we need to learn that the germs of that nefarious system may still be alive and dormant, maybe ready to wake up and take over.

Society, the country, must never take freedom for granted.