From Prof. J. A. Muscat

Minister for Justice and Internal Affairs Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici did well to remind us of the difference in the climate regarding freedom of the press obtaining before and after 1987, with regard to the conduct of the police in the case of the death of Nicholas Azzopardi (ToM, 30 August).

The reluctance to speak one’s mind, not only in print but anywhere else, for fear of political reprisal was not only publicly and palpably felt, but also bitterly experienced by many who held public office.

I recall a private conversation I had as Director of the Department of Surgery with the CGMO at the time, about what I felt were certain irregularities being perpetrated by the Minister of Health, and how this was telling on public opinion and the public health service.

Within a few days I had two plain-clothes policemen from the CID knocking on my door inviting me to accompany them to Police Headquarters for interrogation.

After some five hours of waiting and interrogation at Police Headquarters, I was released, having assured the Police Inspector conducting the interrogation that given time I could produce written evidence to substantiate what I had told the CGMO.

This Police Inspector was later, after 1987, dismissed from the Police Corps.

Certainly the recent inquiries into the conduct of the police were called for. They were also open, transparent and impartial and the results we all know; police behaviour was in order.

However, the minister should not crow too loudly.

After all it is his duty to see that such inquiries are held and carried out in the way they were. It is what we expect in a civilised, democratic nation with a long tradition of respect for the law.

This is not to say that we can rest here. The issue of our democratic deficit is often raised in public fora. Indeed the Prime Minister can count among the more important of the hundreds of electoral promises recently made, the one of making appointments to public boards and councils more representative and democratic, a promise still awaiting implementation; and it is an important one which should curb the number of crony appointments.

However, all in all the great difference in the air we breathe (and I am not referring to CO² emissions polluting the atmosphere), in the freedom to express our opinion about public matters openly, without fear of intimidation or reprisal, is still keenly felt especially by the older generation.

The collective memory of turbulent days when human rights were trampled on with impunity dies hard. Gone are the days when a labourite mob can storm and wreck the Archbishop’s Curia situated in front of the Police Depot and be not only shielded from criminal prosecution but rewarded by the government of the day with the cynical act of calling this obscenity a victory for ‘the aristocracy of the workers’.

It is one of the good reasons why we have re-elected a Nationalist government 21 years on.

J. A. Muscat

TA’ XBIEX