Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1517531
tragedy yet, had I? Ok, tell you what: to make matters slightly less complicated, I'll just re- produce a few relevant news snippets to bring you all up to speed. "A bizarre debate erupted this week after Prime Minister Robert Abela harked back to an almost 30-year-old tragedy during a speech delivered on Sunday. "Abela was speaking about the recently published inquiry into the death of construction worker Jean Paul Sofia when he drew a parallel with another workplace-related tragedy, the death of nine dockyard work- ers in an explosion in early 1995. "Abela said that at the time no public inquiry took place, and although the government of the day assumed responsi- bility for the incident it only paid compensation to the vic- tims' relatives after dragging them through the courts." With me so far? Good. Mean- while, observers prompt- ly chipped in to remind the Prime Minister that there HAD, in fact, been an inquiry into Um El Faroud (over and above the standard magisteri- al one, naturally); and while it wasn't exactly 'public', in the sense we understand today… it was NOT (as Abela implied) 'held behind closed doors'; and nor were its findings 'kept un- der wraps'. But let's not get lost in the niceties of what may-or-may- not have actually happened. Let's just stick with the ques- tion we asked earlier about Ed- die Fenech Adami (and only, may I remind you once more, because Robert Abela decided to bring the matter up again, unprompted, all these years later). Is it wise, for the current Prime Minister to defend his own (previous) reluctance to hold a public inquiry into the Jean Paul Sofia case… by pointing towards the lack of any 'public inquiry', into an unrelated incident that hap- pened over 30 years ago? Erm… not really, I would say. (Or at least, not in any way I can immediately see myself.) Because just like the other case I mentioned earlier: it only forces to actually com- pare those two incidents… and that, in turn, only forces us to consider how little has actual- ly changed, in the intervening three decades. But let's get the obvious dif- ferences out of the way first. For those of you who might not remember: 'Um El Faroud' refers to an accident that took place at the Malta Dockyard in February 1995: when an un- derdeck explosion claimed the lives of nine dockyard work- ers. But while it's safe to say that it represents the single worst (non-wartime) calamity to have ever struck that par- ticular shipyard… it was – and mercifully, still remains – a single, one-off (and hopefully, never-to-be-repeated') trage- dy. Simply put: while I have no doubt that there have been plenty of other, less immediate- ly fatal accidents, at the same workplace over the years... I don't ever remember an entire 'epidemic', of ships suddenly 'blowing up while under repair at the Yard', taking place at any time throughout the 1980s, 1990s, and beyond. (And trust me: that sort of thing is kind of hard to just 'keep under wraps', you know…) Clearly, then: what we were looking at, with the 'Um El Fa- roud' explosion, was a myste- rious, one-off accident which merited an immediate, thor- ough investigation. In actual fact, it got two: the magisterial one, and a special- ised 'Maritime Inquiry': both designed to, a) determine the precise cause; and b) assign criminal/moral culpability, where applicable. But precisely because it was such a unique, unheard-of eventuality: there wasn't neces- sarily any perceived need (and hence, any public demand) for a 'public inquiry': which, by way of contrast, also extends to investigating the SYSTEMIC issues, that might give rise to the accident… and which, by definition, might cause MORE of such accidents, in future. If nothing else: this, at least, is one thing that the Jean Paul Sofia incident has certainly taught us, about the difference between 'public' and 'non-pub- lic' inquiries. The latter are concerned only with 'how/ why THAT particular accident happened'… the former, with the whys and wherefores of ALL comparable scenarios, in the same (or analogous) indus- try sector. For this reason alone, you cannot realistically compare the government's 1995 re- sponse to the Um El Faroud tragedy, with Abela's response to what can only be described as an EPIDEMIC of fatal con- striction-related accidents (caused, in turn, by a 'total sys- tem failure' when it comes to regulation, and enforcement). For let's face it, folks: the tragedy that claimed the life of Jean-Paul Sofia, in December 2022, was hardly the first of its kind to have ever occurred in these islands. On the con- trary: there had been at least two other construction-related fatalities, under entirely com- parable circumstances, over the preceding two years… and – more incredibly still – there have been others (non-fatal, this time) even AFTER Sofia's death… with the most recent having taken place just weeks before the publication of the Jean Paul Sofia public inquiry report! In other words: unlike the case with Um El Faroud, there was – and still is – an unaccept- ably high level of suspiciously 'similar' construction-relat- ed accidents, taking place in this country of ours: and this brings up yet another reason to insist on both holding a public inquiry, to start with; and then – perhaps more importantly – on ENFORCING the inquiry's recommendations, on the rare occasions when we do actually hold one. And that, of course, is also another good reason for Abela to have thought twice, before making that particular com- parison in the first place. For what is he actually telling us, anyway, by pointing towards Eddie Fenech Adami's per- ceived 'mishandling' of that 30-year-old calamity? As far as I can see, it's one thing, and one thing only: that Malta's standards of 'regula- tion, and law- enforcement', have not actually improved one iota, since the early 1990s… despite the fact that Robert Abela's government has now had ample time, to 'rectify the mistakes he now complains about', in the 11 whole years the Labour Party has been in power. Just saying, that's all… maltatoday | SUNDAY • 17 MARCH 2024 OPINION 11 The wreckage of the Um El Faroud in 1995 after a blast killed nine workers (Photo: Court Archive)