I am writing today about Miriam Spiteri Debono without knowing at this point whether she will be appointed President of the Republic as from 4 April.

When she was appointed Speaker of the House of Representatives by Prime Minister Alfred Sant soon after the Labour Party won the election in October 1996, she was the first woman elected to this post since Malta got a representative parliament in 1921.

This was considered at the time as a very significant step forward for Maltese women. Her behaviour in this new role then reinforced widespread admiration for her qualities which remained after she ended her term presiding the House.

Those were, not many remember today, very turbulent times not just because the Nationalist Party found itself out of government after two successive terms, nor just because Malta unknowingly was heading towards the historic decision to join the European Union and the euro a few years later, but also because the Labour Party was passing through a period of intense turbulence which would culminate in Dom Mintoff bringing the government down.

In all this turbulence Spiteri Debono kept her calm and exemplified the best of the Speaker’s constitutional role (not always followed by successive Speakers) as ensuring that the House promotes freedom of speech by those who have been elected by the people.

We remember, those of us who indeed remember, those long sittings of the House as Dom Mintoff made his interminable speeches which had the whole country drop everything and remaining glued to the radio.

In this regard, it is indeed a pity that no historian or anyway researcher has so far tried to write an account of those years before the protagonists die. With Alfred Sant coming to an end of his European Parliament term in the coming days, that is yet another poignant moment.

Maltese party politics (well, not just Maltese) can be dirty and very hard on those who devote years and efforts to promote the wellbeing of the community and who get heartburn and hatred, and also ingratitude in return.

I saw at close quarters, not just in those years, how ambition could bring people in high places to try and trip up political rivals with purely concocted and fictitious stories. Some persons in high office today can perhaps reveal matters, but won’t.

What I can speak about today is a despicable episode that happened in those days. It happened when Lorry Sant at the end of his political career and already on his way out, rose on successive days and revealed what he called corruption in the country that nobody had known about.

In particular he spoke about an extramarital episode and he had, he said, a photo to prove it. Presiding that day was Speaker Lawrence Gonzi who immediately sequestered the photo and locked it up.

Subsequently there was a tidal wave of speculation about that offending photo and who appeared in it. Knowing Gonzi, it is out of the question the photo was passed from hand to hand. People were speaking about something they had not seen.

When, after the election, Gonzi stepped down and was succeeded by Miriam Spiteri Debono, the curious thought they could satisfy their curiosity. One day, or rather one night, someone tried to force open the Speaker’s safe but did not manage to do so.

At least, that’s how the story goes. We called it Speakergate (after Watergate).

Spiteri Debono retired to private life. We next hear of her making the official speech in commemoration of the Great Siege in 2021. In her speech, which contrary to custom, was not disseminated by the government, she paid tribute to Daphne Caruana Galizia and insisted that Malta needed to “redeem itself “.

This comment, so different from anything that George Vella has said in all his presidential term, was widely praised by, among others, Claudette Buttigieg, the PN MP as “a laudable speech which took courage to write, and more so, to deliver.”

I have tried to be cautious in my comment because till the moment I am writing there is nothing concrete so far. Some years back, Spiteri Debono refused to be roped in as the Commissioner for Standards proposed by the Nationalist Party because this party had stupidly not thought of consulting her before nominating her.

She is one of a very restricted number of Labour politicians who did not hold office under Joseph Muscat or under Robert Abela.

If at the end she makes it to San Anton, her achievement is all the more significant because for the first time the President has to be elected by approval of two-thirds of the House.

 

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