Berta Sullivan
Living a 17-year nightmare
Belonging "to the losing generation of Lab-ourites", a columnist of this daily wrote that "in the past, I sometimes reflected on how tough it must have been for those Nationalist activists who lived through the years 1971-1987 little realising that I myself would eventually go through the same experience". My God, what cheek! How can he compare what the Labourites experienced under a Nationalist government to what the Nationalists suffered through the years 1971-1987? Those years were not "tough", they were a nightmare, a 17-year long one which not only traumatised Nationalist activists but the whole nation!
The state was the be all and end all of all of us. It decided who was privileged and who was not; who would be given a licence to operate a business and who would not; who was given a building permit and who was not; what could be imported and what could not; who could have a telephone line, or a coloured TV set or who could not. Importation quotas were the order of the day and computers and cordless telephones were verboten, so were foreign pasta, toothpastes and chocolates. Private hospitals, clinics, schools etc. went through hell and back!
Under Labour, human rights were non existent. And, to top it all, for more than a couple of years with the non-constitution of the Constitutional Court, victims politically discriminated against simply had no remedy to right any wrong! But the negative ramifications of institutionalised corruption, political transfers and tight-knit monopolies fade in comparison to the constant unbridled violence the PN endured under Labour.
Spontaneous or otherwise, it took many forms: physical, verbal and psychological: abusive police raids, arrests, beatings and torture at the Police Depot. But by far the most atrocious crimes committed under (condoned by?) Labour were the murder of Raymond Caruana (December 5, 1986) and the infamous frame up when the weapon used for the crime was planted by the "powers that were" inside Pietru Pawl Busuttil's farm.
While repeated bombings and attacks on the PN Stamperija (printing press/headquarters) and clubs took place, the Labour regime turned a Nelson's eye, to say the least. No arrests were ever made and although various ministers were found guilty by the courts of breaching human rights there was not one resignation.
For the benefit of the columnist (cum readers) here are a few examples of Nationalists' life under his precious Labour: April 9, 1975 at 10.50 p.m. an explosion shook the Stamperija causing severe structural damage; August 13, soon after Parliament adjourned, Labour supporters attacked the PN clubs at Floriana and Valletta and then proceeded to break into the Stamperija . most workers were suffering from shock and a reduced version of the newspaper was printed; September 20, 1976 the party newspaper was not published as Labour supporters barred Stamperija employees from entering into their workplace; August 20, 1982, two armed men broke into Stamperija and beat up the night security officer; November 27, 1983, the police savagely raided the Stamperija leaving a trail of destruction in their path. In their frenzy they destroyed everything in sight forcing locks and bursting office doors open and even spat on the bust of former PN leader and Prime Minister George Borg Olivier. PN officials were forbidden from entering although they had the keys to all the offices they broke into! During this midnight search (for cordless phones!) these law enforcers, some 100 of them, armed with dogs, large crowbars and other war-faring tools were not even wearing uniforms.
Labour terrorising tactics varied. To create severe financial difficulties for the PN, via a judicial letter (April 9, 1975), the Stamperija was given two days to pay up its loan account with Bank of Valletta - an obvious attempt to shut down the Stamperija (the chairman of the bank at the time was Danny Cremona).
Moreover, the PN had to change the name of its newspaper In-Nazzjon Tag?na (November 1, 1978) because the government of the day, led by Dom Mintoff, censored the word "nazzjon"!
But Black Monday (October 15, 1979) was definitely the culmination of this reigning anarchy. Labour thugs, loose on our streets, burned down the Progress Press building (a reduced edition of The Times was printed at Stamperija), attacked the offices of the Church newspaper Il-?ajja in Valletta and the PN Birkirkara club and raided the residence of Eddie Fenech Adami, the PN leader - employees, families and kids flattened in one fell swoop.
We all remember the wild "aristocracy" of the 1980s, armed to their teeth, breaking into the Archbishop's Curia (bang opposite the police headquarters in Floriana!) and creating mayhem. The Stamperija continued calling in doctors urgently to cure the injured supporters.
The day after Mnarja (June 30, 1982) PN workers were beaten up by their fellow workers at the Drydocks. Nationalist supporters were regularly attacked by the Police Corps during and after their mass meetings, the most atrocious happening on November 30, 1986 when the Labour government decided that Tal-Barrani was a no-go area for some Maltese nationals in Malta! Instead of protecting the assaulted, the police aided and abetted the aggressors who were throwing missiles left, right and centre and mercilessly fired tear gas on the crowd. Many of the wounded had to be hospitalised.
I could go on and on as I will never forget that living hell. To rub salt in the mega-wounds afflicted under Labour, last month Mr Mintoff, Labour Prime Minister (1971-1984), won the Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights "in appreciation of those honourable leaders. who have stood by justice and rights and defended the causes of oppressed peoples". Oh well, in 1998 Fidel Castro received it too. Enough said.
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Gerard Cassar
Sep 15th 2008, 21:00
@ Leonard Zammit. Some static bombs don't explode unless they are thrown and there is a violent impact. I am no expert but common sense explains things.
Does this explain why the bomb taken out of the club exploded when thrown away on the rocky shore in front of the P.N. club? Who handled it had the presence of mind to throw it on the hard shore. He knew what he was doing and what was to happen on impact.
Leonard Zammit
Sep 14th 2008, 18:53
I experienced from start to finish the bomb incident on Boxing Day of 1984 at the San Giljan PN Club. I and a friend of mine were the only ones to see the bomb/s explode on the rocks as we were in the balcony of the club. That was indeed a nightmare for me something which I can never forget. Yes indeed, shame on them.
Michael A. Vella
Sep 13th 2008, 18:41
Ivan Galea: "Consider someone born in the late mid eighties...all he has experienced are PN years with the PN recounting horror stories of those dark days!!!! "
Yes, Ivan, having duly considered the situation you refer to, and having read the blinkered attitudes of the MLP supporters commenting on this board, I am now even more conscious of the need for the regular publication of articles such as that written by Berta Sullivan, that those who have only experienced the good post-1987 years may be spared from experiencing a repeat of the abuses rampant under the generation-long MLP regime.
Michael A. Vella
Sep 13th 2008, 18:32
Charles J. Buttigieg: "on the contrary I find it most entertaining, the style and the exaggerations reminded me of ‘The Kama Sutra’ in reverse order." Which leads one to understand that CJB finds himself in an abyss of profound dismay, despair, and discontent whenever he reads the Kama Sutra in its 'correct' order.
Michael A. Vella
Sep 13th 2008, 18:24
Charles J. Buttigieg: "We are proud of our past mainly because of our associations with bodies like AAPSO, Socialist International, PES and other left wing progressive movements. "
...so how come that, with MLP's many associations with progressive progressive, Malta after 16 years of MLP rule lagged so far behind the rest of the civilised world?
Michael A. Vella
Sep 13th 2008, 18:15
Ivan Galea: "unfortunately history as they say is written by the Victors and thats what happening in Malta."
...one of whom, it seems, is a Victor surnamed Caruana.
Michael A. Vella
Sep 13th 2008, 12:19
A. Zammit: "Enough said indeed Ms. Berta. You are a waste of blogging space - get a life and move on. "
Yes, Ms Berta, such articles are of grave discomfort to the MLP and its supporters.
Wading through all the comments from the oldest up, it is noted not one has yet sought to disclaim the institutionalised abuse highlighted in your article. Which is why the MLP has always been a complete mess and why it is destined to remain so, unless and until the realities listed by Ms Berta are formally acknowledged and apologised for by the MLP leadership.
Michael A. Vella
Sep 13th 2008, 12:07
Charles J Buttigieg: "Sounds like Beirut! I know of one Prime Minister...."
Yes, but even given that what you seek to imply was indeed so, how does all that justify the ongoing and escalating incidence of abuse throughout the 17-year MLP regime.
Michael A. Vella
Sep 13th 2008, 12:03
Charles J Buttigieg: " What was the arson, found by the police, doing at the PN head quarters in Pieta? "
...apparently he was running away from policemen shouting "Quick. Arrest that huge-bottomed guy over there"
Michael A. Vella
Sep 13th 2008, 11:55
P. Micallef: "Who cares what happened 5, 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago. "
PM, that is exactly the attitude that enables cancerous growths as had sprouted under the 17-year MLP regime to take root and prosper.
Michael A. Vella
Sep 13th 2008, 11:51
Victor Caruana: "A concerted plan to destabilise the country with civil disobedience, opposition to all policies just for the sake of putting spokes in the wheels and even saboutage. "
So that OK's all the abuses listed by Berta Sullivan then?
It is obvious that VC had supported MLP throughout its 17-year period of infliction upon the people of Malta - and very likely for some years beyond. What is strange is that he should have moved to support AD now, at a time when MLP is seeking to clean up its act instead of helping out in that process.
Michael A. Vella
Sep 13th 2008, 11:42
Muscat Peter: (Still not broken the classroom roll call habit, eh?) "[Berta Sullivan] intentionally never mentioned that when the MLP came to power in 1971 Malta was practically bankrupt. the poor roamimg our streets day and night, the problems of unemployent, housing etc etc. " ..and, if that were indeed so, how would that justify the ever escalating incidence of abuse of power, lawlessness, and atrocities that characterised the 17 year MLP regime, as diligently listed by Berta Sullivan.
Charles J Buttigieg
Sep 12th 2008, 21:25
@ E. Fenech. It was I who said that your friend’s contribution sounded like Beirut and now you are telling us it was worse. Try Hiroshima or Nagasaki. According to your fellow blogger I am the Elf-in-Chief and therefore I can assure you that I didn’t get upset with Ms.Sullivan’s article; on the contrary I find it most entertaining, the style and the exaggerations reminded me of ‘The Kama Sutra’ in reverse order.
Living in denial because our past is too painful to contemplate upon? Did ‘your fellow blogger’ convince you about that? My my you are so easily influenced! We are proud of our past mainly because of our associations with bodies like AAPSO, Socialist International, PES and other left wing progressive movements. It looks like you are in state of abnegation or you haven’t the foggiest idea of your party’s past history. Ask your ‘fellow blogger’ to tell you about General Franco, Benito Mussolini and your other friends the Christians Democrats. And you’ve got the impertinence to equate the times of the Labour Government with the war ridden times of The Lebanon? God give me strength! And you talk about hatred in the Socialist camp? Tal biza.
P.Schembri
Sep 12th 2008, 21:17
Hi Bertha. It's still a long way to election time. So why start the scaremongering now? What's the agenda behind all this? Or you haven't any clue want to criticise the MLP for now that we have a new Leader? If , and that's a big if, Labour has tainted its hand in the violence mentioned, the PN has its fair share of that violence. For, was it not, the present President of Malta, who tried every means to topple the Labour government between 1976 and 1987? Or that doesn't count? Bertha check your facts first then scribble your article. And any way, I bet y our article was scanned by HMV His Master's Voice) before being printed here?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080911/local/mlp-leader-to-quit-european-parliament-by-september-2first before being printed here.
Ivan Galea
Sep 12th 2008, 19:31
How pathetic......how sad.....as if life as we know it began in 1987 the year PN got back in power and has been there ever since. Whilst I agree that certain practices under the MLP government of the eighties are surely to be condemned, the same can be said of certain practices under this 'saintly' government. Look at all the appointed, one criteria BLUE EYED, they blame MLP for the lack in control in building permits...now we have MEPA - the Maltese environment scourge, responsible for the continuing uglification of Malta. They say that we did not have computers, color TVs, fax machines in the eighties and seventies...however one must also say that in Europe these gained popularity in the start of the eighties...and by the way I grew in those dark labour days...but I had a pc as did most of my classmates with whom we shared many evenings glued infront of our monitors playing the latest games.
Anyway unfortunately history as they say is written by the Victors and thats what happening in Malta. Conider someone born in the lates mid eighties...all he has experienced are PN years with the PN recounting horror stories of those dark days!!!!
Gerard Cassar
Sep 12th 2008, 19:26
I do not know her age, but if Ms Sullivan was of age to write during the government of the workers, was she ever precluded to write her thoughts as she is doing to-day.
If she was not of age then her writing is ersatz*.
Alternatively. She might go to the public library and peruse the newspapers of the time, take notes and make a graph of articles written criticising the Workers’ government and those that did not.
The result: she would like to have a shredding machine to dispose of her article. Unfortunately there are too many copies in circulation that will be historical witnesses of her aberrations.
Ms Sullivan lacks imagination. She is following the herd just like the sheep of panurge This lady is surely aware of the allusion to sheep of panurge, others might not. It simply stands for “someone who follows the lead of another blindly”
This is the present trend when P.N. scribblers write their article or blog; they refer with the worst invented stories to the time when the workers elected their government.
*Ersatz: pretend, fake, imitation, synthetic, bogus, simulated, sham, counterfeit, spurious, phoney or phony
Raphael Vassallo
Sep 12th 2008, 17:10
Well, the teaching of arithmetic must certainly have been lousy under Mintoff.
The Labour Party was elected in June 1971, and the Nationalist Party came into power in May 1987.
That's 15 years 11 months, not 17.
Charles J Buttigieg
Sep 12th 2008, 16:34
@Antoine Vella.
Says he “There is not one sentence in Ms Sullivan's piece that can be refuted.” And if there were he will be the one who will do it. You surprised us with the omission of your traditional ending ‘They never learn do they?’ You did however maintain your traditional sweeping statements.
Now scroll down a little, peruse my last and simply ponder old boy, just ponder.
e. fenech
Sep 12th 2008, 16:23
why are the socilalist always in denial? it's bcause their past and immediate past show them up for what they really are, and that is too painfull for them to comtemplate. who said it sounded like beirut... in fact it was worse, berta sullivan captured it well, you can feel the hatred the socialists have for others, ooze out in the few comments on this blog. well said berta, to borrow from a felow blogger, you have upset the little elves!
Antoine Vella
Sep 12th 2008, 15:02
There is not one sentence in Ms Sullivan's piece that can be refuted.
In a few paragraphs she has summarised the reign of violence and State terrorism that characterised the regime.
As long as Labour denies history, it will remain unelectable.
A Zammit
Sep 12th 2008, 14:52
Enough said indeed Ms. Berta.
You are a waste of blogging space - get a life and move on.
Charles J Buttigieg
Sep 12th 2008, 13:49
Quoting Ms.Sullivan “While repeated bombings and attacks on the PN Stamperija (printing press/headquarters) and clubs took place, the Labour regime turned a Nelson's eye, to say the least. No arrests were ever made and although various ministers were found guilty by the courts of breaching human rights there was not one resignation.”
Sounds like Beirut! I know of one Prime Minister who did not resign after he was found guilty of violating human rights, lying blatantly on our National television, meeting under a bridge with known criminals at 2 am etc. I don’t think that Prime Minister was from the Labour Party as he was made President of the Republic after he made Gonzi a Prime Minister. Hallina Betta mela hsibt li ahna mhux Malta qed nghixu!
Charles J Buttigieg
Sep 12th 2008, 13:29
@ Berta Sullivan.
1.Who killed Raymond Caruana?
2.Who killed Karen Grech?
3.Who killed Wilfred Cardona?
4.Who tried to assassinate Richard Cachia Caruana?
5.Who planted the bomb on Dr. Laurence Pullicino doorsteps?
6.Who planted the bomb at the Sliema Police Station?
7.Who were the police officers who killed Nardu Balzan?
8.Why was the officer in charge of SMU who was also responsible for the fracas and shooting at PN supporters at Rabat, promoted to a higher rank in 1987 by the newly elected PN Government?
9.Who dropped the balustrade at Zebbug?
10.What was the arson, found by the police, doing at the PN head quarters in Pieta?
11.Who ransacked the residence of Joe Debono Grech?
12.What went on during the clandestine meeting under a bridge at 2 am between Zeppi l-hafi and EFA?
13.Why was Mintoff never taken to court for the alleged atrocities you are all talking about?
14.How many cases of discriminations committed by the PN were proved at our court?
15.Ditto as per above by Mintoff’s regime?
P Micallef
Sep 12th 2008, 13:00
Poor Bertha.
Stop the nightmare and start living.
Who cares what happened 5, 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago.
Please give it a try.
victor caruana
Sep 12th 2008, 11:48
In late 1970's, during the MLP second term in office all hell broke loose. A concerted plan to destabilise the country with civil disobedience, opposition to all policies just for the sake of putting spokes in the wheels and even saboutage.
But what was most frightening was what today we refer to as terrorist acts of placing explosives behind senior civil servant doors to frighten them from performing their duties. Obviously and naturally there were reactions from the MLP camp. That is the mayhem we had those days. Actors and provocators go hand in hand. Please do not censor this para for the tenth time.
Now we have had Labour snoozing around and even making U turns to fit into the PN government's plans. We have had Labour MP's socialising with PN MP's and other activists while at the same time Labour supporters were being discriminated against, even up to the present day.
I believe that Alternattiva Demokratika has been a bit of fresh air which has not been appreciated yet - but it will.
Muscat Peter
Sep 12th 2008, 10:51
Berta is well known for her spite towards the MLP in general. She is one the famous PN's oracles of gloom and doom. She is very well known for giving us half truths, twisted facts and 'one side' of a story.
She intentionally never mentioned that when the MLP came to power in 1971 Malta was practically bankrupt. the poor roamimg our streets day and night, the problems of unemployent, housing etc etc.
Nor did she mention the various attempts on Mintoff's life or the 'criminals' playing bodyguards with top PN officials or the attempt to buy 2 MLP Members of Parliament to cross the floor nor the arsenal at the PN Headquarters etc etc.
She even mentioned the brutal murder of Raymond Caruana who is still crying for justice.
She intentionally didn't explain why after more then 20 years Raymond's death is now a 'cold case' after the number of promises by EFA that he will bring to justice as soon as he is in power.
Apart all this half truths and twisting of facts, the picture that this 'oracle' gave us of the past is indeed very mild with the present situation we live in.Just different actors.