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His Excellency Dr. Ugo Mifsud Bonnici was born in the sixteenth century City of Cospicua on the 8th November, 1932 and is the younger of two brothers. His father, Carmelo was Minister for the Treasury at the time.
Dr. Mifsud Bonnici received his Primary Education in various state and non-state schools before moving on to the Lyceum, the then prestigious and only state secondary school for male students. On finishing his secondary education, Dr. Mifsud Bonnici entered University as a Law student. He was quite active in student literary societies and was, for a time, president of the Società Universitaria di Letteratura Italiana, in which role he edited the quarterly Malta Letteraria, and committee member of the Maltese Language Association. In 1952 he graduated Bachelor of Arts and in 1955 Doctor of Laws . He practised law in his home town of Cospicua until he was appointed Minister in May 1987.
On the political front Dr. Mifsud Bonnici successfully contested the March 1966 General Elections for the Second Electoral Division under the banner of the Nationalist Party and was returned for the same Division in all subsequent elections in 1971, 1976, 1981, 1987 and 1992. In 1972, whilst his party was in opposition, he was appointed Opposition Spokesman on Education and was a member of the Shadow Cabinet up to the May 1987 elections, when his party was returned to power. In 1977 he was elected President of the Nationalist Party's General Council and of the Administrative Council, two prestigious and high-ranking party posts he continued to hold until 1987. He also represented the Nationalist Party in the talks which culminated in the Constitutional Amendments of 1974 and 1987.
In May 1987, Dr. Ugo Mifsud Bonnici was given the portfolio of Minister of Education with responsibility for the Environment, Broadcasting, Libraries, Museums, Culture, Youth and Sport whilst in 1990 he became Minister of Education and the Interior, responsible for, among other things, the Police like his father before him. After the February 1992 General Elections he was appointed Minister of Education and Human Resources. On the 4th April 1994 the Maltese Parliament elected him to the highest post in the country, that of President of the Republic.
While Minister of Education, Dr. Ugo Mifsud Bonnici was responsible for such reforms in the educational field as the 1988 Education Act which provided amongst other things for the grant of Professional Status to teachers and the initiation of the decentralisation process of state schools thr ough the setting-up of School Councils; the introduction of Kindergarten classes for children aged three; the introduction of the Technician Apprenticeship Scheme; the refounding and development of the autonomous University of Malta; the widening of subject options studied at Sixth-Form level; the agreement for the subvention of Church Schools and for the method of the teaching of Religion in state schools. As Minister responsible for Museums and the Environment, Dr. Mifsud Bonnici reorganised the National Archives and was responsible for the Law for the Protection of the Environment.
On his appointment as President on 4th April, 1994, Dr. Ugo Mifsud Bonnici became a member of The National Order of Merit in the grade of Companion of Honour. As President, he is the Head of The National Order of Merit and of the Xirka Gieh ir-Repubblika.
On 9th October, 1994, Dr. Ugo Mifsud Bonnici was honoured by the conferment on him of the Knight Grand Cross of The Order of Christ by the Portuguese Republic.
On 4th February, 1995, during the Official Visit to the Holy See, the Secretary of State of the Vatican conferred on him the Order of Cavaliere di Collare Di Pio Nono, (dell'Ordine Piano).
On 16th November, 1995, during the State Visit to Malta of The President of Italy, H.E. Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, he was conferred with the Cavaliere di Gran Croce, Decorato con Gran Cordone al Merito.
On the 5th January 1996, he was conferred with the Doctorate (Honoris Causa) in Literature by the University of Malta.
During his chequered political career he also presided over the Nationalist Party Bureau of Direction of the Party Press. During the late 1960's he frequently, almost daily, contributed editorials to the Party paper Il-Poplu and later In-Nazzjon Taghna and during the late 1970's and throughout the 1980's he regularly contributed an article to the Party's weekly Il-Mument. These articles were mostly an analytical study of the prevailing political situation and contributed not only to the upward surge of the paper's readership, but also to the education of the general public about the beliefs of the Nationalist party.
Dr. Mifsud Bonnici published three books: Biex il-Futur Jerga'
Jibda;
Il-Linja t-Tajba - L-Ahjar Artikli ta' Dottor Ugo Mifsud Bonnici
and Biex
il-Futur Rega' Beda, the last two being anthologies of the weekly
articles that
had appeared in Il-Mument.
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