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Matthew Vella
Stubborn and obstinate even in his twilight: former premier Dom Mintoff, whose brinkmanship marked his bolshie style on the world stage, refused to pay a Lm1,230 energy bill until acolyte Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici had to step in to pay the bill himself, against Mintoff’s will, to have his water and energy supply reinstated.
Mintoff’s constitutional case against the Water Services Corporation, which suspended his water and electricity for just one day after refusing to pay a bill tallying over seven years, was refused after Mr Justice Geoffrey Valenzia ruled that Mintoff had recourse to an ordinary remedy and did not have to file a constitutional case.
The corporation suspended its service on 2 November 2004, and supply was reinstated after a day, after receiving payment for the seven-year bill.
In his judgement, Valenzia said the Constitutional Court was not intended to be inundated by unnecessary cases which could be determined by other courts. Mintoff was assisted in court by both Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, and constitutional lawyer Profs Ian Refalo, dean of the Faculty of Laws.
Mintoff claimed the suspension of his water and electricity by the WSC had been discriminatory, and breached his fundamental human rights.
Judge Valenzia however said the suspension of the service for one day could not have seriously endangered Mintoff’s health, as alleged by the former PM himself. “Perit Mintoff himself brought about this situation, by never paying the pending bills for the water and electricity he availed himself of.” Valenzia ruled there was no breach of Mintoff’s right to a fair trial, the respect for his private and family life, his protection from discrimination, or his peaceful enjoyment of his property.
“Water and electricity are not the applicants’ property,” Valenzia said in his judgement. “In order to enjoy these utilities they also had the obligation to pay for them, or else contest the amount owed. In the meantime, the property in question was still the applicants’ and they could therefore still enjoy it.”
Mintoff’s lawyers even appealed to a breach of Article 1 of the European Convention of Human Rights, which is not a right in itself, but the introduction to the list of rights. Valenzia said the article “could not be invoked”.
Despite not having paid his bills since 1997, Mintoff did not acknowledge repeated letters to pay his Lm1,230.97 bill, nor did he formally contest the bills issued by the WSC.
Mintoff’s lengthy and emotional palaver in his first appearance before Judge Valenzia last year was stopped after the judge said he could submit his testimony in an affidavit.
The reclusive former Labour Party leader and prime minister had told the judge he was “ill and supposed to be in bed”, and that his health had been worsened by the tampering (tbaghbis) with his telephone, mail and computer. He even said the guards outside The Olives, his residence in Tarxien, were accusing each other of sabotaging his car.
In a paranoid plaint, Mintoff claimed in court he had disagreed with Malta’s accession to the European Union, and former prime minister Eddie Fenech Adami’s decision to become President of the Republic.
He claimed that under such circumstances, he could not accept “the Gieh ir-Repubblika from Fenech Adami”, referring to Malta’s foremost honour. “And that is why I have to insist with this honourable Court that I will not accept this medal, and until the circumstances in which I would have to accept it do not change, meaning that I would be able to accept it with a clear conscience, the medal has to remain under the custody of the Armed Forces of Malta.”
The government later confirmed Mintoff’s award was not the honour he created in 1975, which Labour governments awarded to Libyan leader Muammar Ghaddafi and North Korean communist dictator Kim Il Sung.
Mintoff had been actually automatically entitled as a former premier to membership of the Order in the grade of Companion of Honour. In 1990, the Chancellor of the Orders addressed a letter to Mintoff informing him of the honour, but never received a reply and the insignia was retained by the Chancellor.
In March 2004 Mintoff’s enduring confidant Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici informed the head of the public service that Mintoff now wished to receive the insignia. The citation was drawn up and signed on 15 March 2004 by the Prime Minister and President. According to the Department of Information however, various suggestions made through Mifsud Bonnici as to how the relative decoration could be conferred were not accepted.
Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici could not give MaltaToday his comments since he is indisposed.
mvella@mediatoday.com.mt
Links:
www.maltatoday.com.mt/2005/05/22/t11.html
www.maltatoday.com.mt/2005/05/29/t7.html
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