Malta on Monday paid its last respects to former Prime Minister of Malta Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, who died last Saturday, aged 89.

The funeral was held at the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady Church in Hamrun on Monday.

The private ceremony, led by Archbishop Mgr Charles Scicluna, aligned with Mifsud Bonnici’s wishes not to have a state funeral.

The funeral was attended by family and friends of Mifsud Bonnici.

Notable presences at the funeral included Prime Minister Robert Abela, Opposition Leader Bernard Grech, Chief Justice Mark Chetcuti, Speaker of the House Anglu Farrugia as well as MPs from both sides of the House. The attendees also included former prime ministers Lawrence Gonzi and Joseph Muscat.

Auxiliary bishop Joe Galea Curmi, who is also Mifsud Bonnici’s nephew, delivered the homily, saying that Mifsud Bonnici was a generous person with a heart of gold.

Galea Curmi said that when he went to see him personally in hospital, right before his death, Mifsud Bonnici would always be saying a prayer.

He said that Mifsud Bonnici enjoyed watching televised masses Galea Curmi said that Mifsud Bonnici also enjoyed receiving the eucharist in the elderly home he resided in.

He continued to say that Mifsud Bonnici had a great sense of humour, and knew what it meant to love and care for his family, even if they had different ideas. He said that Mifsud Bonnici always encouraged each member of his family, taking an interest in them personally and individually.

“Karmenu showed love to those in need and lived a life of faith. His love for the poor was a reality which he lived by, and not a mere slogan. He was ready to give what he had to others,” Galea Curmi said.

He said that the former Prime Minister helped people from his own pocket, but his charity extended to social justice where he used his intelligence towards helping workers and their rights, as well as the poor and most vulnerable in society.

“When he had to be of service to the nation, he never sought to take advantage of his position, and he never let anyone buy him, or enter into a net of corruption,” Galea Curmi said.

Galea Curmi said that Mifsud Bonnici was an example of a man of conviction and not of convenience. He said that while Mifsud Bonnici passed through many illnesses, and suffered a lot, he remained humble.

Mifsud Bonnici was born in 1933 to a predominantly Nationalist family. His brother Antoine was for a time parliamentary secretary in a PN government and his cousin Ugo was a PN Minister and later President of the Republic. He graduated as a lawyer in 1954 and specialised in industrial relations. 

Mifsud Bonnici had become Labour Party leader and Prime Minister at a time, in 1984, when the party was in power in spite of having obtained fewer votes than the Nationalist Party in the 1981 election. But in those times there was no constitutional provision to amend situations which saw parties obtaining fewer votes but more parliamentary seats being elected to government.

Changes were made late in the legislature which, in May 1987, allowed the PN to return to government - in that election, the PN had again obtained fewer seats, but this time there was a constitutional provision which allowed extra seats to be given to the party to be able to govern.

He was the first Prime Minister of Malta to have been sworn in to the post without ever having contested an election.

Mifsud Bonnici was prime minister in what could be described as Malta's darkest days, and the months that preceded the 1987 election were earmaked with political violence, including the killing of PN activist Raymond Caruana in December 1986. A week earlier, the Nationalist Party had been refused permission by the police to hold a mass meeting in Zejtun, a traditonally Labour stronghold. The town had been ringed with barricades and as PN supporters made their way to the meeting, police officers had used tear-gas. Several people had been injured.

Mifsud Bonnici will also be remembered for leading the government's battle to close down church schools, the "jew b'xejn jew xejn" (free of charge or nothing) campaign. Ultimately, church schools had remained open.

In 1984, Mifsud Bonnici was also present when the offices of the Maltese Curia were ransacked after a demonstration by workers of Malta Drydocks. He had then described the workers as the "aristocracy of the working class".

As Prime Minister, he was also the lead negotiator when Egyptair Flight 648 hijacking took place and the plane landed in Malta. Sixty of the 92 passengers had been killed.

 

Mifsud Bonnici had strongly opposed Malta's membership in the European Union. He had launched the Campaign for National Independence and proposed an alternative association agreement with the EU, an idea that was rejected. In later years, Mifsud Bonnici continued his campaign against Malta's membership on Smash TV.

Photos: Giuseppe Attard