Eighteen years after Eddie Fenech Adami was controversially appointed President of the Republic, the man who succeeded him as prime mi­nister says he would have no qualms in nominating him again should the clock be wound back.

Fenech Adami was made President on April 4, 2004, amid stiff opposition by the Labour Party, which viewed him as a divisive figure after his long term as prime minister.

But Lawrence Gonzi, who at the time had just taken over the reins of government, stuck by his decision in comments to Dione Borg, author of Eddie – Is-Sewwa Jirbaħ Żgur, the latest biography on Fenech Adami.

“I chose Eddie to become President of Malta despite cri­ticism which sometimes came from unexpected quarters. Despite everything, the decision worked. I remember that when I went abroad for talks, they immediately asked me about Eddie,” Gonzi said.

“Were I to wind the clock back to that time, with the same circumstances and decisions the country was facing, I would take the same decision because at the time, we needed Fenech Adami’s personality.”

At the time, we needed Fenech Adami’s personality- Lawrence Gonzi

That was a time when Malta was about to take its place in the European Union. Gonzi says although there were some within the EU who knew him from his time as social policy minister, he lacked contacts among EU prime ministers. Malta, therefore, needed a well-known politician and it was only Fenech Adami who had those qualities, especially as Malta geared to negotiate its first financial package with the bloc.

The front cover of Dione Borg's book, Eddie ‒ Is-Sewwa Jirbaħ Żgur.

Gonzi would later go on to make another controversial presidential appointment, when he nominated George Abela to succeed Fenech Adami when the latter’s five-year term ended. George Abela’s son, current Prime Minister Robert Abela, said recently that he did not view Gonzi as suitable to become president, since he considered him as too divisive.

Dione Borg’s 570-page biography delves into the length and breadth of the former PN leader’s life. Borg saw many of Fenech Adami’s political milestones first hand, working as a journalist with the PN media. The book, which was several years in the making, also draws heavily on interviews with Fenech Adami and other personalities, and local and foreign government documents.

The attack on Fenech Adami's house in 1979.

Mintoff’s promise to ‘save democracy’

Among those documents is correspondence between the PN, the Labour Party and the office of then President Agatha Barbara following the anomalous electoral result in 1981, the PN’s boycott of parliament and talks mediated by Barbara.

The documents include two drafts by PN deputy leader Guido de Marco for constitutional changes. The drafts were made in 1983 and eventually led to the amendments on majority rule in 1987.

On February 18, 1983, then Prime Minister Dom Mintoff wrote to Barbara after receiving the drafts, assuring her that, although he was bound by his Cabinet, the Labour Party and the General Workers’ Union not to reach any agreement with the Nationalist Party, he was promising to ensure constitutional amendments were made after talks between the two sides before the election. He was to keep that promise, effectively pushing the Labour Party to amend the constitution in a dramatic speech in parliament in late 1986 after the fatal shooting of Raymond Caruana.

A copy of the 1986 parliamentary speech by Fenech Adami, which was infamously torn up by Labour minister Lorry Sant.

But back in 1983 there were also tense talks within the Nationalist Party over whether the party should end its boycott of parliament, instituted in the wake of the 1981 election result. The decision ultimately was to head back to the House, although powerful voices, such as dockyard workers’ leader Furtu Selvatico, warned that the PN would become Mintoff’s lapdog. Frank Portelli and Josie Muscat were also against ending the parliamentary boycott, while party veteran Ċensu Tabone feared that staying out would turn Malta into a one-party state, not unlike what happened in Italy in Mussolini’s time.

The book goes through Fenech Adami’s early political years, the difficult time in opposition, including the attack on his home and family, the 1981-87 constitutional crisis, the party broadcasts from Sicily and the Raymond Caruana murder.

The years in government were just as eventful, a journey which started with regaining credibility for Malta among Western nations, and ended with EU membership, Fenech Adami’s crowning achievement.  

But his government’s credibility as seen abroad received a serious setback in 1993 with the early release of convicted Egyptair hijacker Ali Rezaq, who benefited from various amnesties – notably one given by the Labour government in January 1987 to mark the constitutional changes – and other legal quirks which saw his 25-year jail term effectively reduced to eight. He was released in July 1993.

Ali Rezaq (centre) only served eight years in prison in Malta.

The book describes the barrage of complaints that Fenech Adami faced from the US and Egyptian ambassadors as well as EU representatives, among others, including, eventually, a stinging resolution by the US Congress. Fenech Adami had personally alerted the US ambassador to Rezaq’s pending release in February, the book says, even though she was later to mistakenly complain of not being given advance notice.

The ambassador pleaded for Rezaq to be kept behind bars, but Fenech Adami insisted he was bound to observe local laws and could not discriminate, although he was prepared to cooperate with the US in any way he could. The US ambassador even contacted the Soviet ambassador in Malta, asking her to hold the Aeroflot flight Rezaq was due to leave on. Rezaq eventually left as scheduled, but Malta provided the Americans with his itinerary. US agents eventually intercepted him on a flight from Ghana in July 1993 and took him to the US, where he underwent a fresh trial and was jailed for life.

Eddie ‒ Is-Sewwa Jirbaħ Żgur was published by BDL.