Friday, 13th February 2009
The real Dom Mintoff
It is a pity that for reasons of partisan political advantage, many pro-Nationalist Party writers try to depict former Prime Minister Dom Mintoff as a politician who was totally negative and undemocratic in most of what he did. This is unfortunate because although it is true that Mintoff had his defects, as all great leaders do, his merits far outweigh his negative points.
A young person who does not remember Dom Mintoff in power recently asked me what was so special about this former Labour Leader and Prime Minister, given that he is regarded by many foreigners as Malta’s greatest politician. My reply was that Mintoff had charisma and was an excellent orator. Furthermore, he never considered himself inferior to foreigners because he was Maltese. Mintoff always led from the front, i.e. he was always at the head of his supporters, even in the most dangerous situations such as public protests in volatile times.
Those of us who remember Dom Mintoff, cannot fail to recollect the man’s strong personality and especially the way he appealed to the Maltese people. Mintoff had that unique quality of born leaders : the ability to immediately capture the undivided attention of an audience when one starts speaking and also to get the audience to identify itself with the speaker’s stand on an issue and make it its own. Being an excellent orator, Mintoff was able to get people vociferously shouting approval just a few minutes after starting a speech.
Many Maltese also identified themselves with the Labour Leader because he protected the dignity of Malta and the Maltese. For him the Maltese were second to none and his battle cry “Malta l-Ewwel u Qabel Kollox” (“Malta First and Foremost”) became legendary. One must remember that in Colonial times and for several years after Independence, there were still many Maltese who looked up to foreigners and considered themselves inferior because of the small size of their own country. Mintoff put a stop to this way of thinking and inculcated in the Maltese people a belief in themselves and their ability to equal anything foreigners could achieve and even to surpass them in their achievements.
In his dealings with foreign statesmen, Dom Mintoff acted as their equal and made it clear that he would brook no nonsense from them such as treating him as an inferior because he came from a small country, as the British Lord Carrington found out to his surprise! At Helsinki, in 1975, Mintoff took on the whole of Europe’s cream of the diplomatic services and got his own way. No wonder that the Maltese people adored him! After centuries of humiliation by the foreigners who controlled Malta, here was a Maltese Prime Minister who upheld Malta’s name and dignity and outwitted the best foreign statesmen.
On the domestic front, Mintoff was always at the head of the Labourites in the most dangerous situations. One can mention the 20th September, 1964 incident. On that day, the Labourites entered Valletta where the Independence celebrations were being held. Mintoff, as usual, was at the head of his supporters. The police, including the cavalry, shamefully attacked the Labourites and the Labour Opposition Leader even fell and was dragged along in the dust during one of the police attacks. As a leader who shared the same dangers to which his supporters were exposed, Mintoff earned the highest respect.
Mintoff brought progress to Malta. He created the Welfare State, he improved education and eradicated ignorance and superstition, His social measures gave Maltese workers the dignity denied to them for centuries. When Mintoff stepped down, he left Malta in a prosperous state, with a thriving economy and sound public finances.
It’s also true that Dom Mintoff had his defects. He was intolerant of petty and unjustified opposition and was sometimes crude and rough in his approach to solving problems and would ride roughshod over other people’s feelings. In 1998, he was totally wrong in the way he treated Alfred Sant. Still, surely these defects will not blind anyone to the fact that Dom Mintoff remains Malta’s greatest-ever Prime Minister.
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Comments
Whatever pension I am receiving now is due to my hefty compulsory contribution during my working life and not to any Mintoff generosity.
Prior to 1971 the vast majority of workers had to retire from work without a pension or at best, some, with a pittance. A common sight was to see old age people collecting dog-ends, rolling them and then smok them in their village squares. They would buy a cup of tea without milk to save a penny, they would smell because they had no hot running water, many of them had rarely enjoyed the nice taste of a bar of chocolate, they had never brushed their teeth and rarely used a telephone, a car for them was a luxury which very few could afford. Their only source of entertainment was to listen to the ‘Radio Muskettieri’ on refiffusion.
Before the end of 1986, our retirees with a prior annual income of € 14,000 were getting €9320 plus cost of living increases as pension. Today if your annual income prior to retirement is €28,000 or even more a pensioner would not get a Euro more than the same €9320 plus cost of living that the Mintoffian dictatorial regime afforded them during its years of tyranny when Mintoff was murdering pregnant women in the streets. (Sic)
You are evading the most important point at issue, which is:
after the murder of Nardu Debono there was a criminal, concerted, long and successful campaign to conceal the truth about the events inside the Police GHQ on that day, falsely asserting that he had escaped from custody and even suggesting that he had then been murdered by the PN. That was a politically motivated derailing of the course of justice that from many years succeeded to abort genuine investigation of the crme by the too facile acceptance of a few perjured affidavits by the police presented to KMB by an involved Commissioner of Police.
That is not "speculative inference" . Irrelevant "speculative inference" is the introduction of alleged unconnected abuses in other countries involving coloured detainees. That is a red herring.
I consider what you consider as a "positive catalyst period" as traumatic.
I beg to differ on your assessment that Mintoff transformed Malta into a "thriving nation"... on the contrary, he instilled a culture of mediocrity, isolation and pride in managing to obtain what others throw away.
I recall the Xandir Malta proudly announcing that our Socialist Government managed to obtain a second hand telephone exchange from Palermo, some second hand turbine from another country, a prototype of wood-heated oven was developed in the Drydocks with the assistance of Albanian expertise; Caucescu's wife getting an honoris causa in engineering, Kim il Sung awarded Gieh ir-Republika, a secret treaty with North Korea to train the security forces to control unrest, Izra u Rabbi, Dejma, Dirghajn il-Maltin, Bahhar u Sewwi, the qeues to buy a TV in G'Mangia; waking up at night fo fill the pots with water, embassies instructed not to talk to the Opposition, etc, etc.
We're really lucky that we haven't had a comporable leader.
I challenge the Labour Party to sing Mintoff's praises today... They won't; they're ashamed.
Good night.
So you prefer to ignore the principle in my contribution and fly off at a tangent with your own interpretation of events, adding nothing to the debate.
My argument is simple.
Whenever deaths under custody occur, it is the workings of the police force that come under scrutiny.
To this day, an arrested person has to face the police force without the initial support of a lawyer.
Calling into account the involvement of Government especially when such calling is made through speculative inference, short-circuits healthy debate to seek better practice.
Do the names of Nuur Saeed, Michael Powell, Paul Yorke, Sponford Antonio Green, Kwame Sasu Wiredu, Fosta Errol Thompson, Lee Duvall, Joseph Crensil, Ricky Bishop, Derek Bennett, Sultan Khan, Asif Dad, and many others ring a bell?
These and many others are members of black or minority communities who died while in uk police custody. The debate has been ongoing for years whether UK police practice needs to be revised to limit such incidents to a minimum.
No major political party in the UK would resort to cheap politicking by laying intentions at the door of any political party or person.
Cheap politics make for a mediocre nation.
@ Dr Francis Saliba
Police brutality is a dastard act and has to be unreservedly condemned by all of us; Nardu Debono was a victim of such brutality committed by ranking police officers at the police head quarters. The motivation factor, although still condemnable was not political and the perpetrators were of different political creed. It was a cold blooded vendetta. All the details came out during the trial by jury.
Nardu Debono was being interrogated after allegedly arson was found in his fields and he was the prime suspect of being the person who planted the bomb on the doorstep of the then Commissioner of the Police.
It was a joy exchanging views on a major positive catalyst-period in Malta's recent history.
I am pleased that you are comfortable with the following key unchallanged aspects of this period :
'Mintoff used his attributes to transform Malta from a poor country to a thriving nation with the potential to aspire to become a true modern society.
The economy grew at a significant pace as activity from tourism and industry doubled and tripled.
The benefits were justly spread out as Malta became a leader in home ownership etc. The Maltese started to travel abroad in numbers and to enjoy the benefits of a modern society.
And what is amazing in all of this (who would believe it nowadays?) is that all was achieved through positive budgets with not one single deficit budget in sight.'
You did make a mention of 'people beaten up and killed while in police custody' but failed to prove that this was some kind of culture and not a reference to individual incidents (equally regrettable may I add).
The lack of a comparable leader since, makes Mintoff's star shine that much brighter.
Keep well dear friend.
The killing of deMenzies was an accident of mistaken identity in the alarm and confusion immediately following a murderous terrorist attack. The police officers concerned were not given any covert protection but the incident was properly and thoroughly investigated at once.
Nardu's murder was a cold blooded murder/manslaughter of a detained person under interrogation. This murder was succesfully concealed throughout the rest of the MLP administration by the blind acceptance of false police statements and perjured affidavits.
Spot the difference?
Corrections, please - (in brackets):
"..... excesses allegedly (proven in the law courts to have been ) pepetrated under Labour Governments ..."
" ..... were later promoted by the Nationalist Government ....." (were permitted to continue with their carreer in the police force after making amends for their previous MLP misconduct by exposing perjured affidavits and other abuses enabling the conviction of their Commisioner of Police for complicity in murder). The MLP, as soon as it was briefly returned to power, wreaked vengeance on them for not keeping their mouth shut.
"One must also remember that arms were found at the PN headquarters" ( a handful of much needed for self-defence purpose in view of the scores of repeated ransackings and burnings of PN party clubs. Contrast this with a veritable arsenal accidentally discovered at the old Vilhena Barracks and whose key were produced by an MLP stalwart!
It's incredible that you want names of victims of police abuse during Mintoff's tenure. You must have been living somewhere else. Is it true that you haven't heard of Nardu Debono? the Vellas from Qormi? etc
Please don't compare this with the Stockwell Tube station killing. In that case, an inquiry was held immediately. In Nardu Debono's case, Mintoff refused the Opposition's call to convene Parliament to discuss this issue.
By the way, never heard of Pietru Pawl Busuttil? Admittedly Mintoff wasn't the Prime Minister, but I cannot understand how the "Malta's greatest ever Prime Minister" remained silent even though he wielded much and much power then.
Re Census and illiteracy. Very simple. Look at those who received their compulsory education between 1971 and 1987 and you can see the lieracy rates. The best certificate to the "generazzjoni socjalista".
Why today's "media control" is "as diegraceful" as during Mintoff's time. Are the offices of this site burning? Is Richard Muscat still exiled because he dared transmit some programmes to this "statesman's" liking?
Thanks.
Ms Vella, who of "Mintoff's hardened critics" confirmed his "democratic credentials"?
Governments of civilised nations are never dragged as motivators whenever deaths occur, as is the case even locally (apparently other than when Mr. Mintoff was our PM?).
Mintoff's democratic credentials have now been even confirmed in their bio by hardened opponents, yet some seem to find it hard to let go of their old prejudices.
One must also remember that arms were found at the PN Headquarters in Pieta`.
And what about the violence on Labour supporters during the Politico-Religious Dispute of the Sixties? What did the PN do about it? Did it protest in the name of democracy? Of course not, it simply did nothing! Two weights, two measures.
Finally, who has forgotten the PN manoeuvring to sabotage the Alfred Sant administration? Was that democratic?
Let me state once again that any violence perpetrated on PN supporters in the past is to be condemned without reservations. I hope that the lessons of the past will serve to create a better political future for our children. Labourites and Nationalists are both Maltese, they are not "enemies", "opponents" or "adversaries". I would use the term "rivals" in the sporting sense of the word. Politics should be positive, not negative.
Telephones became a standard element in Maltese households by the end of Mintoff's tenure. Comparison between pre and post telephone directories provides ample proof. My family, that was of avid anti-mintoffian persuasion too had their telephone service.
ATMs were first introduced under labour administration. My first pay was handed to me in notes from the back of a vehicle while computerised distribution of pay was introduced under Mintoff way before his resignation.
You suggest that under a Mintoff administration ''people (were) beaten up and killed while in police custody'. I do not seem to recall any such situation and would therefore appreciate if you would give me names of some of these victims.
Illiteracy: Are you suggesting that our high rates are due to labour, even after 20 years of nationalist rule?
I can point to to many reports that pin illeteracy to the inability of educators to manage the progression of a student from the informal kindergarten stage of education to the subsequent formal stage. We all surely remember how the reception class proposal was dealth with.
Media Control under a Mintoff administration was a disgrace. Today's sbd style of control is as disgraceful.
Warm regards
Foreign leaders praising him... You mean like the beloved colonel south of us?
The cause of Malta's loss of reputation abroad was not caused by "PN representatives" because there were foreign embassies locally who were observing and reporting what was happening to them here and how they themselves and foreign press representatives were being undemocratically treated by Mintoff's administration.
The trouble with the MLP "excesses" that you admit ,is that they were not "committed by a few labour extremists" but that they were carried out consistently throughout that administration with the connivance and support of the topmost people among the echelons of the MLP and the state police.
Thank you for engaging in the dialogue.
I disagree with you that "most if not all families" had a telephone by the end of his tenure. My family, for one, and a lot of my relatives did not have because we were second class citizens. I recall calling for my Oxford results from an ironmonger.
Do you mean that the police abuse behaviour was not state-sponsored? Unbelievable. The facts (and photos) are there.
Re illiteracy rates, if you study the 2005 Census indicate very clearly the impact of the socialist experiments in the education services.
Re correctness of facts: do you deny that Mintoff stated "nigi nitmejjel mill-Kostituzzjoni"? that we did not have sufficient water supply? that the Constitutional Court was suspended? that media and dissent were brutally controlled? that foreign speakers in Opposition activities were arrested and deported? the sugar coupons? etc, etc. True, lack of space is a very serious limitation.
Do you honestly believe that such a discussion could have been possible in Mintoff's time?
Thanks and regards.
One can also mention the harm done to Malta's name and image abroad by PN representatives. I am saying this for the sake of accuracy and not to excuse the excesses committed by a few Labour extremists. Excesses for which the Labour Party has paid a heavy price, too heavy a price in my opinion.
I lived in Malta during Mr Mintoff's time.
Example: I remember before Mintoff's time when only one family on the next street had a telephone that we used in emergencies. By the end of his tenure most if not all families had a telephone.
You state that at this time : 'people beaten up and killed while in police custody'
Are you suggesting that any such occurence was state sponsored? do you refer to an incident or a widespread culture? if the latter, can you mention ten or so cases of the sort? After all I may have missed something and am open to enlightement.
I see that you did not dispute any of my recollections. However, if you feel that any testimony of mine is incorrect, I would likewise appreciate if you were to correct any statement of fact (example Mintoff's Government did not run deficit budgets).
I can of course list negative experiences under Mintoff's tenure but lack of space is a limitation and I only write to put forward what I see as being the net balance/the great achievments of this great man.
Thanks and Regards
Surely you haven't been living in Malta in Mintoff's time.
What infrastructure you're speaking of? Water at home? Television? Telephone? Computers? Electricity? You must be joking.
However, these are insignificant compared to the human rights' abuses; the control of the media; people beaten up and killed while in police custody; the tear gas and police beating and shooting at us while protesting peacefully; suspension of the Constitutional Court; a Prime Minister who declare that "nigi nitmejjel mill-Kostituzzjoni".
Come on!
Mintoff used his attributes to transform Malta from a poor country to a thriving nation with the potential to aspire to become a true modern society. The economy grew at a significant pace as activity from tourism and industry doubles and tripled. The benefits were justly spread out as Malta became a leader in home ownership etc. The Maltese started to travel abroad in numbers and to enjoy the benefits of a modern society.
And what is amazing in all of this (who would believe it nowadays?) is that all was achieved through positive budgets and not one single deficit budget in sight.
Mintoff's achievements shines through because it can be easily compared to the subsequent 20 years of nationalist admin as the old Marsa Power Station continues to fuel our domestic light, roads continue to be a singular source of embarrassment, as is city gate, our transport system, our highest levels of illiteracy in the EU...the list is endless.
No matter how much his historic detractors re-write history, his name is engraved in the essence of Maltese being...
A small sample of Mintoff’s greatness if you do not mind the Time magazine to answer you sarchastic question instead of me.
The Savior
Monday, Apr. 10, 1972
•
•
Prime Minister Dom Mintoff was hailed as "Is-Salvatur ta' Malta' (Malta's savior) last week as he returned home to a celebration with waving flags, palm fronds and giant portraits of himself. Even Mintoff's enemies had to agree with his boast that he had won a "great victory." After nine months of will-he-or-won't-he negotiations with Britain, he had finally signed an agreement extending for another seven years Britain's right to use Malta as a naval base. Mintoff did not get the $72 million in annual rent that he had originally demanded, but he did get a handsome $36.4 million—about three times what Malta received before Mintoff started setting deadlines for British withdrawal.
It is perfectly correct and reasonable to use the hackneyed phrase "one and only" immediately followed by the name and surname of an individual, for example, "the one and only Charles J Buttigieg". It is however incorrect to write "the one and only labourite" when referring to the same Charles J Butigieg because that would be clearly untrue.
Stop waffling man. "One and only PATRIOT" means that beside Mintoff there were no other Maltese patriots, past or present - that as a patriot he was "unique". I would restrict the phrase "One and only" for introducing performers on a stage and not to describe patriotic individuals.
I thank you for spontaneously expanding my list of patriots away from the red end of the spectrum. My omission of those names (and others) was done with a purpose.
I was only quoting what EC Schembri wrote about Mintoff in 1998 and one may reasonably assume that he was asserting a fact that Mintoff was the true Patriot after Sant allegedly stated that Mintoff betrayed the Labour Party. Nevertheless I do not think that the phrase ‘One and only’ may necessarily be taken to literary mean ‘The only one’. I stand to be corrected on this however whatever the interpretation I consider all the personalities that you mentioned, including Mizzi, Strickland, Borg-Olivier, KMB, Fenech Adami and other leaders as patriots because, in their different ways, they all gave their utmost to our Country. Yet, with all his faults, of which he had more than the others, in the final analysis, Mintoff was the greatest. Of course you would not agree and we all know why.
Dom Mintoff falls in this category
What a nasty piece of one-sided attempt at re-writing history.
The only problem you find with Mintoff is the way he treated Alfred Sant???
What irony! That same newspaper that had its quarters nearly burnt to the ground, now is hosting such eloquence at Mintoff! Disgusting.
Mintoff, "Malta's one and only true Patriot"?
What about Manuel Dimech, Sir Paul Boffa, Alfred Sant, Joseph Muscat among others just as conspicuously excluded by you?
and despised him.
EC Schembri. ‘Dom Mintoff-Malta’s living legend.
Keep up the good work on this blog, very interesting.