In the second of a two-part feature, Anthony Manduca lists some of the memorable comments and controversial statements made in The Sunday Times of Malta in 2019.
Read part one in the feature.
"Rethink, refound, rebuild and relaunch"
– Nationalist Party grandee Louis Galea on the way forward for the PN after it was heavily defeated in the European Parliament elections, June 2.
"How can you persuade a Labour voter to choose the PN if you cannot persuade your own activists to do so happily rather than with a heavy heart?"
– Former Ambassador to the EU and adviser to two PN prime ministers Richard Cachia Carauna, commenting on the turmoil facing the Nationalist Party, July 14.
"It’s too late. We have failed"
– Malta Chamber of Planners secretary general Anthony Ellul speaking amid growing concerns that Malta’s haphazard construction sector had uglified the island with no hope of redemption, July 21.
"We are edging towards a world where reality has become a matter of personal opinion, as opposed to a compendium of informed knowledge and ‘facts’"
– Lecturer and executive director of the Commonwealth Centre for Connected Learning Alex Grech, July 28.
"A man called me ‘ugly’. What does this have to do with us teenagers who want to save the environment?"
– Activist Sasha Vella describing how she was insulted by passers-by as she protested against the destruction of trees in Santa Lucija, August 4.
"What is being proposed is nothing short of barbaric, just falling short of what the Taliban did to the Baymar buddhas of Bamiyan, and the wilful destruction of the Palnyra monuments by Isis"
– Architectural historian Conrad Thake rubbishing the proposal to build a three-storey industrial garage complex next to the Ottoman Muslim Cemetery in Marsa, August 18.
"Justice must not only be public, but must also be seen to be public"
– Retired ECHR Judge Giovanni Bonello on the need for Constitutional Court proceedings to be streamed live online, October 6.
"Malta is not being a Brexit vulture"
– Outgoing Finance Malta chairman Kenneth Farrugia denying Malta was attempting to entice UK companies to move entirely to Malta after Brexit, but was opting for a co-location model, October 20.
"Walking alone, being drunk, high, wearing a short skirt or being who you are in any capacity, is not an invitation to be raped, brutally assaulted or victimised in any way"
– US Judge Rosemarie Aquilina, who sentenced serial rapist Larry Nassar to 175 years in jail last year, November 3.
"I am grateful to Malta, and I think the world should be grateful to it, for it was there that the final line was drawn under the Cold War"
– Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev speaking on the 30th anniversary of the Bush Gorbachev summit in Malta which ended the Cold War, December 1.
"At first, I was disappointed. But the disappointment has now turned to anger and betrayal"
– Illum editor Albert Gauci Cunningham, who had voted Labour and whose sense of disillusionment when the Panama Papers emerged switched to outright fury in the aftermath of the investigations into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, December 8.
"Obviously I feel it’s overwhelming at times. There is a great sense of urgency and we’re trying to find unity that can incorporate the needs of billions of different people around the world. But we have to remain hopeful"
– Simonne Borg, Malta’s Climate Change Ambassador, speaking during the Madrid COP25, which ended in failure, December 8.
"I have very little patience with those who say that the President has very little power under the Constitution. The President has the moral authority, the moral duty, to stand up and denounce whatever could be eroding the ‘constitutional morality’ of the country or undermining its institutions"
– Former chief justice Vincent De Gaetano urging the President to take a more proactive role in helping to solve the country’s constitutional crisis, December 15.
"The downhill of Joseph Muscat would make for a very interesting doctoral thesis in any department of psychology"
– Columnist Kristina Chetcuti, December 22.