Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/625693
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 13 JANuArY 2016 7 News To RMYC Members After the result of the 2015 election to the RMYC committee was announced, Mr. G. Bonello Dupuis who was not elected entered the club premises in a range and proceeded to verbally abuse these present including committee members and staff. A new member Mr. C. Noriega was also abused by Mr. Bonello Dupuis before eventually leaving the club. Mr. Bonello Dupuis was claiming that there had been a campaign against him being elected and that staff had influenced voters. The committee considered this behaviour totally unacceptable and suspended Mr. Bonello Dupuis from the club until further notice and asked him to apologise unequivocally to all concerned. Any concerns regarding the conduct of the elections should have been directed to the electoral commissioners at the time rather than resorting to unacceptable and untoward behaviour not befitting a member of the RMYC. The Committee nevertheless did not ignore the claims made. An investigation was conducted by Mr. R. Ciantar who questioned a number of members including, but not limited to, persons named by Mr. Bonello Dupuis himself, about the conduct of the elections. No irregularities whatsoever were found as detailed in the report of the investigation. Mr. Bonello Dupuis at first expressed his regret and apologised to the committee but qualified it by an attempt at justifying his behaviour and repeating his allegations. This was not considered acceptable by the committee. He subsequently sent an unequivocal letter of apology on the 7th October. His suspension was lifted after eight months but was reminded to also apologise directly to the persons concerned. The passing away of Arthur Podesta created a vacancy on the committee which Mr. Bonello Dupuis became eligible to fill. The committee agreed to ask Mr. Bonello Dupuis if he still wished to form part of the RMYC committee to which he replied in the affirmative. Mr. Bonello Dupuis attended his first committee meeting on the 14th December. At that meeting he was reminded that he had still not apologised to Mr. Noriega and that this compromised his position on the committee. Mr. Bonello Dupuis subsequently sent his apology to Mr. Noriega. This statement is being issued in explanation of actions by the committee as required by 10.3 of the club state. RMYC committee. The above recent notice to the RMYC MEMBERS by its committee, 11 months late and only after the paid media notices where published, is deliberately accommodating words by omitting facts, distortioning the time line, ignoring the very grave actions and behaviours following the incident described is a very poor and misleading recounting of events. In addition, it fails to assume the responsibility of the misjudgements and bad decisions taken by Mr. John Ripard Sr, Honorary President of the RMYC and by Mr. Godwin Zammit, Commodore of the RC regarding this very serious incident committed by Mr. Georges Bonello Dupuis within the RMYC premises, which included verbal and physical abuse. It seems screamingly strange and I could add suspicious, that the "untoward behaviour not befitting a member of the RMYC," received only a very light suspension, which was lifted only after 8 months in order to deliberately accommodate Mr. Georges Bonello Dupuis's re-inclusion to the Executive Committee. This exposes the lack of seriousness and respect of the Statutes of the RMYC, which all elected Committee Members would be expected to adhere to in the management of the RMYC on behalf of all its members. As such, the particular grave incident more than warrants an irrevocable and 'for life' expulsion of Mr. Georges Bonello Dupuis by applying clause 10.2 of the RMYC statutes (Disciplinary Section). The named statutes clearly regulate, give the appropriate powers and describe the sanctions available for an adequate running of the club, which are to be abided to by the current Commodore and committee members under the leadership of Mr. John Ripard Sr, Honorary President of the RYMC. Regretfully, these Statutes are and have been in this case repeatedly stepped on, blatantly ignored in order to mislead and misinform the RMYC club members. This begs the question of WHY Mr.Georges Bonello Dupuis is receiving this special 'protection' following his 'untoward behaviour not befitting a RMYC member'. These actions by the leadership of the RMYC, is leaving the club with a very negative precedent in any future disciplinary cases involving verbal and/or physical abuses. It shows all members that engaging in above would be acceptable and that the Committee can just choose to 'turn a blind eye'. THE ROYAL MALTA YACHT CLUB should now respect and recognition for integrity and honour by abiding to its statutes and regulations. The RMYC members deserve a true and detailed information enabling them to cast their vote in an informed manner in the upcoming elections. Mr. John Ripard Sr and Mr Godwin Zammit are now deliberately interfering with a very serious disciplinary AND unresolved case in an unexplained effort to dilute the multi- cited incident, and all while ignoring the full application of the club's statutes disciplinary section 10.1, 10.2 clauses and lastly distributing a truthful account as per clause 10.3, which the case FULLY warrants. Most respectfully Carlos Noriega RMYC full member. This is a paid advert development on Safety concerns Residents have also ex- pressed fears on the impact of the new petrol station on their safety, arguing that they already fear using the narrow pavements in the area due to the risk of being hit by over- speeding vehicles. They claim that the pro- posed development substan- tially increases the risks of traffic accidents. This is because existing pavements will remain nar- row and an unexpected curve will be introduced to the road. Residents warn that be- cause of the development the road will suddenly narrow to- wards the north as it passes between residential units at the accident-prone junction of Triq il-Kustinjus and Triq il-Kappella ta' Santa Maria. "It is therefore inconceiv- able how Transport Malta, in their letter of February 2013, have 'no objection in princi- ple' to such a proposal, given the history of traffic acci- dents on this stretch of road," residents concluded in a re- port submitted to the Malta Environment and Planning Authority. jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt rejection Church was wrong before Believers may feel there is al- ways some room for doubt. A Church decree does not wipe out all the possibility of the divine. As Fr Camilleri ex- plained, there were cases in the past when the Church issued similar decrees on persons who were later beatified by the same administration at the Vatican. A good example is that of Padre Pio. When a doctor published a journal in which he claimed that Padre Pio's stigmata were "false and of neurotic nature", the Church issued a decree which declared that there was "little proof of the supernatural ". In three decrees that followed, the Church prohibited its fol- lowers from meeting or even writing to Padre Pio. Years later, Pope John Paul II celebrated his beatification. On yesterday's current affairs programme 'Reporter', Arch- bishop Charles Scicluna said it was his duty to protect his peo- ple "from gross caricatures of faith ". "The Church is clear in that followers aren't obliged to be- lieve in private apparitions, even those that are proved le- gitimate," the Archbishop told programme host Saviour Bal- zan.