A soldier who was summarily dismissed from the army after a humorous video of him ridiculing the army top brass went viral a year ago, on Thursday drew comparisons between the way he was thrown out overnight and the treatment meted out to the prime minister's chief of staff Keith Schembri. 

The video showing Bombardier Godwin Schembri making disparaging comments against army senior officers as he drove an army truck around a newly-installed gate on the Pembroke ranges had gone viral. The army had erected the gate without building an adjoining fence rendering it useless.
 
The army took a dim view of the comments and the bombardier was sacked. A wall on either side of the gate was, however, built within a few days.

The former soldier eventually took court action, insisting he had never authorised anyone to share the video of what, he insisted, was a light moment. He has still not been reinstated.

In a bitter Facebook post addressed at the former chief of staff, Mr Schembri wrote:

“Both our surnames are Schembri. Both of us used to work for the government, and both of us were brought down by a ‘gate’. There was a small difference, I was a soldier and you were the chief of staff. ‘Army Gate’ was a joke. @Malta Gate’ is a murder.

"I was sacked overnight and they wiped the floor with me on the media. But they protected you for two years. You were never sacked. You were praised even when you were already at police headquarters. Only in Malta..."