Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/673696
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 1 MAY 2016 26 Letters FORMER premier Dom Mintoff is keep- ing up his fight against the Water Services Corporation, which in November 2004 suspended his water and electricity for one day. The reason: Mintoff was obstinate in not paying a Lm1,230 bill spanning over seven years. The service was reinstated the next day, after longstanding confidant and legal counsel Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, paid the bill against Mintoff's will. The 88-year-old is now claiming he will either have to leave the island, or "die qui- etly at home" because he cannot find any assistance ("servitù") that will work at his home under the dire conditions that gov- ernment works and broken drains have left at his house, The Olives. Mintoff is appealing a sentence issued by Mr Justice Geoffrey Valenzia, who threw out his constitutional case against the WSC because he had recourse to an ordinary remedy. Although the one-day suspension was enough for Mintoff to take his case to the highest courts, claim- ing discrimination and serious danger to his health, Valenzia rightly pointed out the Constitutional Court was not there to be inundated by "unnecessary" cases. Undeterred, Mintoff and his lawyers, among them Prof Ian Refalo, the dean of the faculty of laws at the University of Malta, have appealed the sentence. Mintoff now claims he can find no as- sistance to work at his house, besieged by problems from government works in his road which have damaged to his water and electricity connections. Neither local council nor the Water Services Corpora- tion are apparently been able to assist him, he said. Mintoff actually got Bank of Valletta – the bank he created when he nationalised the private National Bank of Malta – to advance him Lm3,000 for works to intend- ed to keep water from seeping indoors and instead fill up into his reservoir, and mend his drains. He said he needed the water for his trees, many of which he said were 150 years old and of national heritage. Now just two alternatives are open to the man formerly dubbed the saviour of Malta: "either go abroad or die quietly at home… and with these alternatives his rights as a normal Maltese citizen have been reduced to nothing." Additionally, his appeal concluded "Perit Duminku Mintoff has no criminal accusa- tions against him." Mintoff's case before the Constitutional Court was thrown out earlier this month after Judge Valenzia ruled that the sus- pension of the service for one day could not have seriously endangered Mintoff's health, as alleged by the former PM him- self. "Perit Mintoff himself brought about this situation, by never paying the pending bills for the water and electricity he availed himself of." Valenzia also ruled there was no breach of Mintoff's right to a fair trial, the respect for his private and family life, his protec- tion from discrimination, or his peaceful enjoyment of his property. "Water and electricity are not the applicants' prop- erty… 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 there- fore still enjoy it." Mintoff will either 'go abroad or die quietly at home' Send your letters to: The Editor, MaltaToday, MediaToday Ltd. Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 | Fax: (356) 21 385075 E-mail: newsroom@mediatoday.com.mt. Letters to the Editor should be concise. No pen names are accepted. News 30 April, 2006 Welcoming Ibrag's new parish priest Ibrag has a new parish priest. His Grace the Archbishop Charles Scicluna gave the keys of the parish to Fr Mario Tong. Those present were liter- ally awe-stricken by the pastoral, spiritual and leadership track record of Tong. This was the seventh time he was appointed leader of a parish. He has served his f locks in at least four parishes in Malta, one in Gibraltar and also in New York. Archbishop Scicluna, who knows him best, sang his prais- es. We have it from the horse's mouth that our new parish priest is a persevering hard-working spiritual leader with a vision, a clear agenda, a leader who does not give up easily. I was happy to hear our Arch- bishop declaring that he loves our parish and our parishion- ers as they are. Yes we are a parish with hardly any popular traditions of external manifesta- tions of faith. We are a parish of sound faith. Fr Mario will be the perfect leader to continue the good works of the previous parish priests. Mayor Noel Muscat declared publicly that our council will be collaborating unconditionally whenever he needs it, and we look forward to be called up to serve. I wish him great success and appeal to him to exercise his patience and understanding when we fail him in any way. Thanks to Fr Tony Agius who served as parish priest of our community for a record number of years. Ad Multos Annos to both. Paul Fenech Swieqi Palumbo making Senglea proud Community issues do not nor- mally attract the attention of the national media. Perhaps, they might appear too parochial to be considered part of the national debate. Yet, when these issues concern defending traditions, this element of parochialism becomes even stronger, as most of our traditions revolve around the Catholic faith and there has been a concerted effort over these last years to obliterate this element from our culture. When I started to dedicate more time to safeguarding the culture and traditions of my hometown, Senglea, I was already working as a volunteer at the football club of the locality. Small clubs like ours face the same predicament of most of the other associations in my locality working in promot- ing the culture and traditions of Senglea. Associations promoting reli- gious culture no longer form part of the mainstream groups. They are a sub-culture that fail to find support from the national govern- ment and institutions. The only institution showing genuine sup- port for our work happens to be a foreigner. His name is Palumbo! And it is only the Palumbo dockyard that is sponsoring our activities. I hope that we are not be- ing ignored by the authorities because both Senglea Athletics and the group that I represent have publicly thanked Palumbo for the support that this company is giving us. It should be stated that when the Drydocks was run by the Maltese, no financial aid was ever given to any association in the Cottonera area. The only support we used to receive was in kind. As an association, we hope that we are not being penalized with a silent boycott for having shown our gratitude to Palumbo. I am stating this because another association in the locality that is vociferous against Palumbo is re- ceiving red carpet treatment from the government. This association claims that it speaks in the name of all the residents of Senglea, which is not true. I have person- ally already collected a petition, with over 600 signatures, where those signing it are clearly stating that the Residents' Association of Senglea does not speak in their name. The inhabitants of Senglea have eyes and a mind of their own to evaluate the situation. What surprises most of them is that Palumbo Shipyards is always in the news for the wrong reasons and the most negatively opinion- ated pieces are written against this company. Normally, private investment does not fall under negative criticism from politi- cians and the media, and those thanking Palumbo are ignored or at worst bullied into silence. I wish to ask, why is this so? What are the true intentions behind all this? It should be remembered that Palumbo acquired the shipyards after a public call and is paying millions in taxes to the govern- ment, besides employing people. Therefore, it is offensive when accusations are levelled at mem- bers of the Senglea community that they have been bought out by Palumbo, because the company sponsors one of their activities. I think that it is more than correct that a company, like Palumbo that has succeeded in turning a loss- making company into a highly profitable one, reinvests some of its profits in the community by aiding local associations to con- tinue fostering their traditions. Are the people of the Cotton- era complaining about the grit from sand blasting today? No. Why? Once privatized, Palumbo invested in machinery to collect it without damaging the environ- ment. When the Dockyard was run by the State, the grit was car- ried into the Grand Harbour and the residents of Senglea and Birgu had to swim in the silt (ħama). Today, it is collected and exported to Portugal. The people of good will in Senglea salute these initia- tives as they prove that profit can be diverted to the well being of a community. Our courts have proved that Palumbo is not the industry that is creating unnecessary noise in the harbour. At the same time I do not think that we, the residents, are stupid when we complain about noise. Similarly, there are other enterprises at the harbour who are creating noise but for convenience sake, only Palumbo is in the news and at- tacked. Why are the police failing to track down the real culprit? Stephen Buttigieg Senglea