Mark Camilleri, beholder of ‘a brown Marxist ass’, is Labour’s abrasive conscience

Mark Camilleri has a lot of sharp corners, but his social contribution far outstrips the inelegance of an online tiff with a criminal defence lawyer

Mark Camilleri
Mark Camilleri

It beggars belief as to how a foul-mouthed social media exchange could warrant instant resignation from the public service, when for years the Labour government resisted sacking the men caught operating a secret offshore network of private companies.

Mark Camilleri – self-confessed beholder of a “brown Marxist ass” – was installed by the Labour government of 2013 in the position of executive chair of the National Book Council after leading a successful anti-censorship campaign in the preceding years.

Now, the education ministry’s permanent secretary Frank Fabri, wants him removed for having publicised a Facebook conversation with a lawyer from Yorgen Fenech’s defence team, Juliette Galea. Galea messaged Camilleri to take issue with him about his criticism of Fenech’s bid to having the public inquiry into the Caruana Galizia assassination stop its work beyond the government’s deadline. Camilleri, goaded by the inquisitive lawyer, replied back unkindly; then made it known to all and sundry.

“Whoever is scared of public inquiries and the truth has something hide. Inquiries are not there to serve political interests. The public inquiry has uncovered new facts. I support the judges in their work in the quest for truth,” Camilleri wrote on Facebook. His candour and critical outlook is indeed rare in a country where cookie-cutter apparatchiks employed by the State are expected to be demure and loyal to the party-in-government.

But Camilleri is known for his sharp corners and kicking back. Indeed, he told Fabri he would ‘prefer not to’ resign… Those who dislike his intransigent ways have long attempted to have him shipped out. His ally in government was former education minister Evarist Bartolo. Now, Camilleri’s moves are being watched, and his inelegant tiff on Facebook makes him exposed.

As the editor of a minor university pamphlet, Realtà, in 2010 he was reported to the police by the University of Malta administration for publishing a short story by acclaimed author Alex Vella Gera. Charged unsuccessfully on obscenity charges, with then Attorney General Peter Grech appealing the acquittal – again unsuccessfully – Camilleri became the recipient of a Republic Day honour in 2013. He slept in and missed the ceremony.

The long campaign to reform obscenity laws • Mark Camilleri

Diary malfunctions apart, Camilleri became an instrumental part of the Labour government’s anti-censorship drive. Together with his campaign activists Ingram Bondin and lawyer Andrew Sciberras, he contributed in great part to the reform in censorship laws which did away with obscenity as a criminal charge; as well as playing a part in a rewrite of the Media and Defamation Act that had been first pushed by leading newspapers.

Ironically, Daphne Caruana Galizia, always keen on disliking anything Labour, derided his appointment, claiming he was “inarticulate in two languages, not quite the best requirement for somebody editing a university newspaper.”

But his biggest contribution has been revolutionising the National Book Council by forcing bigger public spending on its activities: royalties for Maltese authors from lending rights, a convention of writers to push for legal changes, A-list celebrity writers invited to the Malta Book Festival, and one of the biggest ever national promotions of Maltese literature over the course of seven full years.

That said, Camilleri has not shied away from being his own government’s critic. In 2018, he declared he was embarrassed at the revelations that the secret company 17 Black was set up to send funds to the secret Panama companies owned by Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi. “Since there is now clear evidence that they [Mizzi and Schembri] have laundered money, it should be obvious that, first of all they should resign – that’s the least they could do,” he said in April 2018.

“And secondly; yes, that they should be investigated criminally. However, it must be said that right now, there is this narrative being perpetuated that there has been a breakdown of the rule of law; that this is all Labour’s fault; that Labour has brought Malta to the brink, etc. The reality is that this is the same situation Malta has had for the past 30 years. So we have to call a spade a spade. It’s true that there is corruption in this government, and now it seems it is being proven through hard evidence.”

And since then, he has been unforgiving in his treatment of the “Castille gang” that created Panamagate. He has even accused Labour’s One TV of supporting and defending corruption for years, calling for the station to be shut down unless it is turned into something more “intelligent”. “For many years, ONE and its editors have consistently supported and defended corruption… In a blatant and shameless way, this station has tried to fool people into thinking that Konrad Mizzi isn’t corrupt.”