Labour still in travail

With just 12 days to go to the general election which could set Malta's course for generations to come, it seems unlikely that a full reconciliation will be achieved between Dom Mintoff and Alfred Sant by then, though electorally it must be something the Labour Party wants.

The Freedom Day ceremony at Vittoriosa last Sunday, or yesterday's Freedom Day itself, would have been an ideal occasion for a party announcement on that.

But the ceremony and the day itself came and went, and nothing was said. Obviously, the differences between the two so far remain unbridgeable - the party leader will not make any apology to Mr Mintoff, who wants the epithet of traitor implied about him withdrawn.

There can be no doubt that some form of contact was in being. Perhaps it still is. I do not doubt, either, that some headway had been made. The go-between, if not the driving force, must be Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, who followed Mr Mintoff as party leader and prime minister in 1984, and gave up the leadership in 1992 after a five year stint as opposition leader.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici must have moved from the anti-EU membership Campaign for National Independence to Mr Mintoff's Front Maltin Inqumu with the intention of achieving some reconciliation between Mr Mintoff and Dr Sant.

It would be interesting to know who originated the idea.

Reconciliation cannot but have been the reason behind the move, and Dr Mifsud Bonnici must have agonised over again associating himself so closely with the mercurial Mr Mintoff, who had expressed regret publicly at having anointed Dr Mifsud Bonnici as his successor.

Progress in the desired reconciliation was slow in coming and I assume that at least until March 15 there had been little, if any at all. Until then at least, Mr Mintoff was still being publicly critical of Dr Sant, though at each Front meeting the criticism seemed to be becoming more muted.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici, apparently a paragon of patience in spite of his wildfire remarks in his public speeches, cannot but have squirmed in his seat by Mr Mintoff as the latter addressed his listeners.

And he was careful not to be interpreted as trying to edge Mr Mintoff into a corner. Though 86, Mr Mintoff seems mentally as sharp as ever, and Dr Mifsud Bonnici would not have got away with it. On March 15, the Saturday after the membership referendum, by which time the election had already been announced for April 12, I listened to Dr Mifsud Bonnici addressing a crowd at a Front activity at Zurrieq.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici was speaking about the Nationalist government, or party, and the Labour Party, without referring to either by name. I don't remember his words, but I remember being struck by their obtuseness. For instance, he would not say "Don't vote for the Nationalist Party", but "Don't vote for those who...", and use the same formula when referring to the Labour Party. There was no way he would say "vote for the Labour Party". It would be "vote for those who...".

A listener next to me wondered out audibly to me that Dr Mifsud Bonnici seemed to be urging a vote for the Labour Party, which he was, of course. That is how careful Dr Mifsud Bonnici was.

Soon after that there must have been some progress, with Mr Mintoff saying that neither he nor Dr Mifsud Bonnnici aimed to contest the election. By then they both started urging a vote for the Labour Party. Recently, also, the party media started reporting Front activities.

And last Thursday, at a Front activity, I had goose pimples hearing Mr Mintoff briefly defending Dr Sant, though only weakly, against an article in that day's The Times.

But apparently progress, however slight, has stalled. Had any more been possible, had reconciliation been achieved, the party would have trumpeted it. Electorally, it would be an asset to it, at least on the face of it. Instead, Dr Sant came out with his income tax holiday proposal.

Why Mr Mintoff chose to come out of his self-imposed silence is anyone's guess. After his cataclysmic vote in parliament in 1998, which forced Dr Sant to call an election after just 22 months in office, Mr Mintoff did not make any public speeches. It is only in the last few months that he set up his Front.

Dr Sant must have been heartened to see the poor attendances at Mr Mintoff's activities. Maybe 200 go to listen to the grand old man of Maltese politics.

When Mr Mintoff voted his own government out, he lost his most prized possession, the army of unquestioning admirers, numbering tens of thousands, who adored him, then. He found out that in the Labour Party he was an icon, outside it he was a mere mortal who failed to draw big crowds.

His tediously long speeches no longer attract. Last Thursday, a group of women stood just three paces from me, gossiping, ignoring whatever Mr Mintoff was saying. In the old days they would listen attentively, and clap or gesticulate as the occasion demanded.

His threats - the bully in him had to come out again last Thursday - cannot go down well today. The country does not want the trouble that marked the Mintoff years. There is enough division as it is, with the historic opportunity of joining the European Union unfortunately still driving a wedge between the people.