Nationalist Party MP Beppe Fenech Adami has recounted the horrible scene, 40 years ago when as a boy of 12, he witnessed Labour supporters ransacking his parents' house and beating up his mother.
The attack on October 15, 1979, was organised to the extent that the gang used a bus to travel between Valletta, where they burnt down Times of Malta's offices, and Birkirkara. They also attacked PN clubs in Valletta, Floriana and Birkirkara, he said.
Speaking in Parliament, Dr Fenech Adami recalled how he and his younger siblings were at home with their 82-year-old grandmother at the time. Their mother had just left to go to Mass.
Suddenly they heard a huge noise and a big number of men stormed in and started destroying everything they could lay their hands on.
He said he could still remember how men dangled under a chandelier until they pulled it down and how others toppled a grandfather clock and jumped into it.
Others rocked the banister until they smashed it. Drawers was emptied and thrown out into the street. So too were items from his father's study.
Dr Fenech Adami said he and his siblings ran upstairs and hid under beds.
By this time his mother had returned. She tried to enter the house to look for them, but the gang trapped her between the front door and the secondary door, kicking and punching her all over.
She then ran off and came back through a neighbour's house, encouraging them to escape over the roof, jumping a height of one storey and helping their grandmother down as well.
That attack was not coincidental, Dr Fenech Adami. PN clubs had been destroyed innumerable times before, but the level of violence went up a notch on that day because impunity had taken root and criminals felt they could do what they wished.
Instead of condemnation, what the country had seen at the time were claims that it was the Opposition leader's fault, because of incitement [tixwix].
One would have thought since then, the rule of law had been restored, that Malta would not have a repeat of the sort of fake news as heard at the time, when state broadcasting claimed it was actually the Birkirkara Labour Party club which was being attacked.
But the culture of impunity had now reared its head up once more, as evidenced by the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. She had had the courage to reveal the corrupt and the criminal. But instead of the criminals being arrested, Ms Caruana Galizia was ridiculed.
And the culture of impunity led to a tragedy on October 16, 2017 - when Ms Caruana Galizia was assassinated.
The events of 30 years ago and two years ago were horrible turning points in this country's history. This government had failed to investigate and arraign the corrupt, and the country was now paying the price, he said. Ms Caruana Galizia paid the highest price.
"We must not let the country slide back to the very difficult times of the past," Dr Fenech Adami said.
Everybody needed to understand that if they did not stand against the scandalous culture of impunity, the price would continue to be high.