Second-class citizens - Denis Tanti

On November 30, 2016, former Parliamentary Secretary for the Elderly Justyn Caruana announced with great pomp and ceremony at a media conference that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had appointed the first Commissioner for Older Persons in Malta, in accordance with legislation passed by Parliament the previous month.  

The government had informed the European Union about its intention to appoint the commissioner a long time before it actually did. In fact, merit was already given to Malta for its initiative in a report on the Active Ageing Index that was published by the EU more than six months before.  

Caruana said that a big step forward had been made by the said legislation. Rightly so, because despite being recognised as a minority group by the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality, up to that point older persons did not have a commissioner to safeguard their rights and interests.

The appointment of the commissioner had put older persons on a par with other disadvantaged groups in the country including children, people with disability and refugees, which all had their own respective commissioner for a number of years. 

The Commissioner for Older Persons is...