Former Nationalist MP Frank Portelli has registered a sign of personal protest against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, requesting that his name be removed from the national honours list.
In his second letter in the space of just over three weeks to President George Abela, Dr Portelli wrote that he has become more convinced that Gaddafi’s recent actions have brought our honours system into disrepute.
In his first letter, the former MP had requested the President to take the necessary steps to appoint a meeting of an Honours Forfeiture Committee to consider whether Mr Gaddafi’s actions allow him to remain a holder of the honours.
Colonel Gaddafi was made an honorary member of the Xirka Ġieh ir-Repubblika on 5 December 1975 and an honorary companion of honour – National Order of Merit on 8 February 2004.
Dr Portelli noted that the country bestows honours on individuals who demonstrate “exceptional merit in the service of Malta or of humanity”.
“Muammar Gaddafi has been condemned by the Arab League, by the United Nations, and by a unanimous resolution of the (UN) Security Council which has also referred Gaddafi to the International Court of Justice for crimes against the people of Libya,” he wrote in his letter to the President.
The Libyan leader’s actions cannot in any way be interpreted as being ‘exceptional merit in the service of humanity’, said Dr Portelli, adding that the Libyan people are being massacred because they dare claim their rightful aspirations.
The former Nationalist MP was awarded the National Commemorative Medal of Malta marking the 75th Anniversary of the Re-introduction of Self-Government in June 1996.
“I wish therefore to request you, as the head of the Maltese Orders, to remove my name from the list of Maltese Honours until such time as Muammar Gaddafi’s name is removed from the Malta’s list of honours.”
The Attorney General replied to Dr Portelli’s first letter earlier this month, saying that in the circumstances “the President is not legally empowered to consider your request on its merits”.
The Attorney General quoted article 23(1)(c) of the Ġieh ir-Repubblika Act, which states that a person shall cease to be a member of the national honours “if such a person has been guilty of such conduct as makes him unworthy of continuing to be a member of the Order or of the Xirka or the holder of a medal…”