Up until mid-2004, John Dalli, then Minister for Foreign Affairs was considered a star in the PN government Cabinet. He is known to be a spark plug, a doer and a motivator. Then, a malicious and false report regarding the granting of a contract for Mater Dei hospital ended his career as a Cabinet minister.

It is now revealed that not even he knew the existence of the report handed over to Prime Minister Gonzi who then asked for Mr Dalli’s resignation.

No doubt there will be a sector in our political sphere which will exploit this detail and make it appear as if PM Gonzi was heavy handed by not showing Mr Dalli the report given to him by SIMED and authored by a certain Joe Zahra.

Mr Dalli was undoubtedly grieved, and rightly so, by this sudden turn of events. On the other hand, Dr Gonzi did the right thing for two reasons. Firstly, he was prudent enough not to reveal the contents of the report to Mr Dalli since the latter, if truly involved in the allegations, could have further hurt his own case. Secondly, Dr Gonzi was right in handing the report over to the police authorities for their independent assessment and investigation. Can one imagine how the opposition would have screamed if they smelled any political intervention on the part of the Prime Minister?

Mr Dalli remained relatively calm in the last two years although at times, he showed his displeasure on how the whole affair was handled. Having said that and taking a quote from his recent interview, he remains in the service of the nation, a Nationalist and still loyal to the party and the Prime Minister. This, I consider to be a class act, by an individual who, deep down was convinced that he had done nothing wrong.

Now the courts have spoken. The subject report was deemed to be false, by the police’s own investigation and by the admission of its author who was then justifiably jailed for two years for his act.

What now remains to be done is for the PN and the PM to come out clean with a suitably worded statement restoring full confidence in one of its hard-working members.

Giving Mr Dalli a Cabinet position after the next election would come a long way towards healing an injury which he never deserved to be inflicted with in the first place.

Joe Martinelli

London, Ontario