It was on 1 November, 1921, exactly one hundred years ago this week, that the Prince of Wales, Edward VIII - Prince Charles' immediate predecessor in title and the current Queen's uncle - inaugurated the first sitting of the newly formed Malta Legislative Assembly, provided for under the novel Amery-Milner Constitution.
It would be wrong to send out the message that before 1921 there were no other instances in our rich and remarkable history where elected representatives of the Maltese people were tasked with a particular aspect of local administration and certainly I do not want to do that.
Nor would it be correct to give the impression that the Maltese Legislative Assembly kept meeting uninterruptedly during the whole one hundred years. In fact the British, for one reason or another, had suspended our Constitution various times, repeatedly relegating our Constitutional status akin to that obtaining in other miniscule and obscure dominions.
Also, it would be amiss not to point out that the 1921 Legislative Assembly could only legislate on a number of limited areas, as the country was Governed by two Governments at the same time (i.e. a diarchy).
But still, despite all those very strong reservations, the 1st of November, 1921 was a momentous day which provided a huge impetus for our quest for liberty and freedom from foreign rule and rulers- rulers who, as the 1919 Sette Giugno uprisings remind us so very vividly, promised a lot and delivered very little.
It is very hard to imagine how pre-WWII Malta looked like and despite the various literature available at our disposal, very few people can concretely understand and grasp the fantastic progression our country has made in the last century.
In trying to do so, we have to celebrate the extraordinary deeds of Maltese heroes such as Dr (later Sir) Filippo Sciberras who is, undoubtedly, the symbolic father of the 1921 Legislative Assembly.
Dr Sciberras, who is a descendent of another Maltese hero, Camillo Sciberras, weathered the storm at its worst and captained our fore-fathers’ efforts to seek more liberty and autonomy from British rule.
Sir Filippo died in 1928 at the age of 78. His nephew, Dr Herbert Ganado, had quite an interesting political career himself and left us a fantastic account called “Rajt Malta Tinbidel” of Malta during the Great War and and the years after the war ended.
It was a very noble idea from the part of Speaker Anglu Farrugia to mark the 100 year anniversary with a special Parliamentary sitting and a celebration of mass. I enjoyed listening, in particular, to Archbishop Scicluna’s positive and concrete message during the homily as well Dr Myriam Spiteri Debono (the first and only female Speaker)’s contribution.
I believe that whatever we might all think, the people at large respect Parliament as an institution and follow what happens there on the media. They know that what goes on in the chamber impacts their daily lives. Sometimes I hear words in the sense that Parliament is no longer important, or that Facebook or Twitter is the new higher institution. I tend to disagree. Despite everything and the effectiveness of whatever alternative means of communication, it is in Parliament that the real political business is brought to fruition and truly, a lot gets done there.
It is not only the legislative process which is impactful, but also the famous power of the purse which effectively means that the Executive can only function as long as it enjoys the trust of the majority of MPs. And as anyone who has experience in public life can tell you, trust does not grow on the trees but it is earned with hard work, commitment and a great deal of positivity.
I have personally a lot of ideas about how Parliament should evolve in the forthcoming decades and how to be more relevant in the whole Constitutional set-up. But that is not important today. What is important is to be proud of our fantastic history and give credit where credit is due to our ancestors who passed through a lot in order to make this place, tinier than almost all other jurisdictions but not less proud than any other country, a thriving and free democracy.
The 1921 Legislative Assembly is in itself an extraordinary achievement.
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It was truly an honour and a privilege to accompany H.E. President George Vella and the First Lady Mrs Miriam Vella during a State Visit in Croatia last week.
We had meetings with President Milanovic and Prime Minister Plenkovic and I could immediately sense the extraordinary level of respect and cordiality between the two sides. President George Vella has a lot of gravitas and has also a unique ability of switching from “a Head of State approach” to “a foreign policy expert approach” in a structured, studied and well-thought manner.
I personally enjoyed a conversation which I had with the First Lady Sanja Music Milanovic who, to my surprise, throughout her distinguished career, has in the past worked closely with our own MCAST at the time when Prof. Maurice Grech was in charge.
I consider MCAST to be the most rewarding and beautiful entity which I had the pleasure to be politically responsible for during my whole entire political career and I strongly believe that the more we invest in MCAST, the more will our country succeed and overcome its future challenges. But that is a discussion for another time.
Back to Malta and Croatia. Truly, Malta and Croatia have a lot in common, much more than one would tend to assume.
Not only the two countries are Mediterranean States, but both countries have historically been the last bastions of Christianity in Europe – Malta on the South and Croatia on the East.
In the meantime, in meetings which I had with my counterpart, Dr Radovan Fuchs we paved the way for a deeper collaboration in the field of research and innovation. I have personally a lot of respect for what contemporary Croatian disruptive innovators such Mate Rimac (who founded Rimac Automobili at the age of 21), have managed to do. After all the geographical region of Croatia gave birth over time to the inventors of the parachute, the water cannon, the torpedo, the electric light-bulb with a metal filament, dactyloscopy, the Zeppelin and MP3 players!
I am sure that by working together in selected areas Maltese and Croatian researchers can do a lot of terrific things and also bolster their chance to obtain more Horizon Europe funding.