A monument for Karmenu

Owen Bonnici (Minister for National Heritage, the Arts and Local Government.)

I never called Dr Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici by his name:  "Karmenu." To me, he was always Dr Mifsud Bonnici, or just Dr Karm. 

I had spent a good seven years studying and working with him in my years as a law student and in my first years as a lawyer in private practice in what were the most interesting, colourful and inspiring years of my youth. 

Sometimes we would walk down the small street that leads from the Courts to one of the pastry shops. 

Dr Mifsud Bonnici loved sweets and sugary food as much as I do. Often, a random elderly lady would spot him and with her face lighting up with joy she would wave and call out his name. "Ara Karmenu!" 

"Karmenu!" she'd shout, her whole face glowing. 

Or a young man might pass by and exclaim, "Karmenu! I've got a photo with you from when I was a kid!"

To the people, he was simply Karmenu. 

So today, when I speak of this man of the people, I will call him by the name the people used: Karmenu. That is how everyone knew him.

My first steps as a young lawyer were taken beside Karmenu.

From him, I learned not only the law, of which he was an undisputed master, but also how to interpret it. More importantly, I learned the value of humility. And in humility, Karmenu was a shining example.

He shaped me not only as a lawyer but, more importantly, as a man and as a person. And just as he helped form me, he shaped countless others. 

Many who are reading this column and had the privilege of spending law practice with Dr Mifsud Bonnici are probably saying to themselves right now: "Yes, that's true." Because like Karmenu, there was none before and there will be none again.

Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici was a deeply complex character. 

There was not the political Karmenu, the lawyer Karmenu, the devout Christian Karmenu, or the private man. There was only one Karmenu. Authentic and whole. 

A man who was as passionately Socialist as he was sincerely Christian, and who loved Malta and Gozo with all his heart... perhaps he loved Gozo a little more.

He came from a well-known family from the Cottonera, the Mifsud Bonnici. They were highly respected family with Nationalist and conservative traditions rooted in Christian-Democratic beliefs. That was the environment he was raised in.

I remember once, as we were leaving court, it started raining heavily. I immediately opened my umbrella to cover him so he would not get wet. 

Without hesitation, he took the umbrella from my hand and said, "Let me hold it. I'm used to being under the umbrella!" 

This he said with a broad smile on his face. 

He then told me stories from his youth, from his days as a young activist with the Church movements that were united "taħt l-Umbrella," under the umbrella.

That was his upbringing. Those were the values that stayed with him even later, when, through his own free choice and conviction, he joined the Labour Movement. There, he re-stitched the red garment of socialism with threads of his Christian faith, a faith he carried with tremendous passion.

It is no wonder that Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici was the most left-wing and most genuinely Socialist Prime Minister Malta ever had.

Perhaps even more so than Dom Mintoff, whom he greatly admired. 

Everything Karmenu did sprang from principle. Socialist principles deeply rooted in his religious conviction, always in defence of the small, the weak, and the poor.

In Karmenu's vocabulary, there was no grey. The grey was only found in the colour of his hair. 

There was only black or white. These absolute positions, perhaps too absolute at times, became even stronger whenever the rights of working families were at stake. Families like the one I come from, people who earned every crust they ate.

Much can be said about Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, and books will surely be written about aspects of his life that could do far more justice to his greatness than I can. 

He was kind and compassionate with his clients as a lawyer. As a lecturer at the University of Malta, he cared so deeply for his students that he would share his own salary with them, saying it was so "they'd get the first payment of their legal career." Money meant absolutely nothing to him, and that gave him a rare kind of freedom.

He loved the General Workers' Union and left a lasting legacy in the field of industrial relations law. 

He had a remarkable impact as a legislator on Malta's financial services legislation, drawing from his deep understanding of tax and administrative law. 

He reflected deeply on Malta's relationship with the European Union and the wider Mediterranean. 

And of course, there was his relationship with Dom Mintoff, who personally chose him to lead the Labour Party after him.

There are also lesser-known stories, such as his connection with Saint George Preca. There are many fascinating tales to tell. 

Did you know that Saint George Preca was buried wearing Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici's own clothes? I will leave it to you to find out why.

And there is the most important legacy Dr Mifsud Bonnici left behind him from his time at Castille: the Constitutional amendments which he carried forward which had a tremendous and lasting impact on the future of Malta. 

First, the entrenchment of the status of neutrality in our Constitution - an incredibly important steps which defined our steps forward as a nation. 

Secondly the entrenchment of a "safety-valve" mechanism in case the party obtaining the majority of votes does not obtain the majority of seats. That amendment gave us incredible political stability and was the basis for the ambient conducive to prosperity which all Maltese and Gozitans enjoyed from the date of that amendment onwards.

The monument we unveiled this week celebrates his humility, his closeness to the people, and the way he never let pride get to his head. 

We could not make a monument of Karmenu standing high on a pedestal.  Rather we wanted to portray him close to the people, with his satchel next to him ready to help the people in need through his genius legal mind. 

We wanted to portray him at work, in his shirt and tie but without a jacket, the sleeves rolled a bit up as he liked them.  That is how I remember Karmenu. 

Karmenu remained, until his last breath, the defender of the vulnerable. The friend of the worker. The lawyer of the weak. The voice of the voiceless. The authentic Socialist.

He was the politician who fought hard so that everyone could enjoy access to the same services, especially education. 

Money never moved him and he was never enslaved to it. 

He remained, until his final day, a man who believed in justice and social fairness. That is why, with full conviction, I can say that Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici was a gentleman in the truest sense.

He deserves far more than a monument, yet this is a small token of the immense gratitude we owe him.

"Ma' Karmenu aħna magħqudin"-  when I was a boy, I used to shout it out loud at the Labour meetings my mother and father took me to along with my brother. 

Back then, I did not really understand what that phrase meant. 

But today, I say it with complete conviction. 

Behind that kind heart, that humility, and that immense love he had for Malta stood a man whose legacy will never fade.