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6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 MARCH 2022 OPINION 2 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR KURT SANSONE ksansone@mediatoday.com.mt Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 17 AUGUST 2025 Isn't it ironic? Editorial THE Nationalist Party leadership race is offi- cially on. After six weeks of due diligence on the only two candidates who expressed an interest, Adrian Delia and Alex Borg can now formally submit their nomination. The election among all card-carrying mem- bers of the party will take place on 6 Septem- ber, giving the PN chance to have its new lead- er installed in time for the Independence Day celebrations. Unless the restrictive media rules introduced by the PN's electoral commission are changed, Delia and Borg will be unable to debate each other and appear on other media outlets for interviews. There is more than a hint of irony in the party's media antics. While we do not get the chance to see the two candidates debate each other and exchange ideas in a civil confronta- tion, we are allowed the luxury of seeing their spouses sitting next to each other, answering questions from a journalist. Interesting and articulated as the spouses are, it is Adrian and Alex that matter in this race and yet, the party does not trust them to debate each other. It's a pity. * * * The government went ahead and tabled in parliament amendments that would overhaul the planning process as we know it. It did so on a Friday afternoon, a fortnight before par- liament shut for the summer break. There was no prior consultation on these very sensitive amendments. The tactic is an age-old political trick—pub- lish controversial things in the midst of the summer lull when people are not bothered. Had this not been the intention, we would have seen billboards and TV adverts pushing forward the government's message on plan- ning reform. Government exponents can go blue in the face saying the intention was al- ways to hold a public consultation exercise— we do not believe them. Public consultation was an afterthought; a response to the strong backlash. The public consultation is now open until 15 September and an inter-ministerial com- mittee is supposed to be gathering face-to- face feedback from NGOs. We'll wait and see whether this is simply a box-ticking exercise or a meaningful consultation that addresses the concerns raised. But the irony is that on another controversial issue—the regulation of Airbnb accommoda- tion and short-let apartments—the Tourism Ministry under Ian Borg is correctly holding a consultation exercise with stakeholders before even drafting and releasing its proposals pub- licly. It's as if two branches of government are functioning in diametrically opposed ways on the process of how to deal with sensitive legal and policy amendments. The mind boggles. * * * The court last week imposed a complete ban on the publication of a 17-year-old teenager charged with involuntary homicide following a drink-driving incident. The youngster was drunk and at the helm of a Maserati when he lost control and smashed into food courier Khim Bahadur Pun who was on his motorcy- cle. Khim was killed on the spot. What made the incident worse was that the teenager and a passenger riding with him simply walked away from the scene without even bothering to call the emergency number. The pair also aban- doned another passenger who was with them in the car and who was seriously injured. The court withheld all personal details about the youngster on the premise that he is under- age—18 being considered the age of majori- ty. The decision is incomprehensible because there have been instances when details of people under the age of 18 have been released when arraigned in court. But the irony of the situation is that while this country allows 16-year-olds to vote and be elected as mayors—even making a special provision in the law to allow a 16-year-old mayor to sign on official documents which would normally require the person to be 18— for criminal purposes, people aged 16 and 17 are considered minors. This does not make sense. While varying age limits can be used to introduce restrictions on certain behaviours or controls that are re- quired for social and economic engineering, it is increasingly making no sense to consider someone between 16 and 18 a minor for crim- inal purposes. And what if a 16-year-old mayor embezzles funds from the council; will the name be with- held because they are considered a minor? The law must provide clarity on this matter, especially when the incident at stake involves the death of a person. Quote of the Week "I killed them. Go tell the police that I killed him. I didn't kill you so I can see you suffer." The words allegedly spoken by Carmelo Ciantar to his ex-partner on the day when he shot her son and son in law in Baħrija. Ciantar stands charged with the double-murder of Dennis Mifsud and Anthony Agius. The compilation of evidence against Ciantar is ongoing. MaltaToday 10 years ago National Bank share-holders claiming €325 million in compen-sation 9 August 2015 THE shareholders of the National Bank of Malta, precursor of the Bank of Valletta be- fore its forced nationalisation in 1973, have submitted a claim for €325 million in com- pensation for the shares taken away from them by the Mintoff-led government at the time. The financial appraisal, carried out by banker Anthony R. Curmi – formerly a chief executive of the Malta International Business Authority – has been met with a disparag- ing reception by the government, whose own financial consultants have told the Maltese courts that the NBOM shares had no value whatsoever when the NBOM was national- ised. It's a handsome claim that comes 42 years since the Labour government took control of the NBOM to create Bank of Valletta, in which it retains a 25% shareholding. In October 2014 a Constitutional Court confirmed a court decision that found that the shareholders' rights had been breached when they were forced to surrender their shares, overnight, without any compen- sation. It was a harrowing example of the late Dom Mintoff's uncompromising, and heavy-handed style of government. Another decision upheld by the Constitu- tional Court recognised that the sharehold- ers were entitled to compensation. Bank of Valletta has always denied claims by the shareholders, saying that in 1973 the NBOM was insolvent, which the Maltese government is now insisting upon. But the compensation claim will have even more serious implications if the 49 share- holders and their heirs take the matter to the European Court of Human Rights, to force the government's hand in paying out com- pensation.