Herman Grech
PN backed out of deal to make Mintoff President in 1987 - KMB
Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici and Dom Mintoff, days after the transfer of power.
The Nationalists reneged on a secret agreement to appoint Dom Mintoff President in 1987, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici claims today in an interview with The Sunday Times.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici says that as part of the discussions over amendments to the Constitution, it was originally agreed that the President would be granted wider powers - taking responsibility for the police corps among others - and that Mr Mintoff would be the first to assume such a role.
He says Mr Mintoff did not wish to take on the post but would have accepted it because there would have been political consensus on the issue.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici, who succeeded Mr Mintoff as Prime Minister in December 1984, says Mr Mintoff had always insisted that the President should be appointed either by two-thirds majority in Parliament or through a general election - though the latter proposal was opposed by a number of members of Labour's parliamentary group.
He claims that the Nationalists never objected to Mr Mintoff assuming such an important role.
"I can never forgive the PN for abandoning its commitment to appoint him President. That was one of the main objections to Censu Tabone's appointment as President in 1989. He was one of the MPs who had agreed that the President should be appointed through a two-thirds majority or a general vote. I expected the government to do what it did today - 20 years on - and appoint a President from the Labour camp."
It was actually Josie Muscat, then a Nationalist MP, who first came up with the idea of widening the powers of the Presidency in an attempt to find a breakthrough in the political crisis in the early 1980s.
However, in his autobiography President Emeritus Guido de Marco - who was heavily involved in the discussions over the Constitutional amendments - says that "at no time had Mintoff proposed to make a final agreement conditional to his being nominated President of the Republic."
(See also: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090125/local/the-pn-was-the-violent-party-in-the-1980s-kmb)
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Dr Francis Saliba
Jan 27th 2009, 20:33
@IGalea
Any Commissioner of Police is expected by his oath of office to maintain law and order. After Nuremburg no one could defend himself that he was obeying orders, not even from his Prime Minister. At that stage in our history De Gray was ultimately responsible to the Secretary of State for the Colonies. That is why when the MLP shouted "Either De Gray or us" it was Mintoff who went.
That episode of police "previously unseen violence against the "MALTESE protestors" pales into insignificance when compared with the shameful decades of tear gassing and shooting by our Korea trained police of law abiding Maltese compatriots exercising their court authorised assemblies!
Evarist Saliba
Jan 27th 2009, 14:12
Mintoff and K. Mifsud Bonnici were prime ministers for many years after Malta became a republic. Did they ever suggest the name of a politician from the opposition for the post of Presdent? NO. You had the chance and history provides the evidence we need to know your true beliefs.
Yes, there was Sir Anthony Mamo, a non-politician. Nominating him as President was one thing. Showing him respect as the Head of State was another. The prime minister who nominated him did not call on him to brief him on developments, but expected the President to join politicians and civil servants and call on him to be briefed. The President was even stopped by a soldier from entering his palace courtyard by car on orders from the prime minister.
Actions speak louder than words, or a convenient selective memory.
lgalea
Jan 26th 2009, 08:51
Efrem Buhagiar
You dare mention De Gray who not only disobeyed his Prime Minister and used the police force to commit violence unseen before on MALTESE protesters who were protesting against the British Government but also told his Prime Minister that he "nobdi biss lill-kiruna"?
Efrem Buhagiar
Jan 25th 2009, 21:47
Would really Mintoff have been the person to represent all Maltese as Head of State after all what happened in the past? Furthermore, how could the police force be trusted in the hands of this man? Justice is normally depicted as a female figure with bended eyes symbolising impartiality, however there were times under MLP were justice was not bended but blinded, just as perhaps some temporary blinded policemen who didn't see some acts, such as the fires at the Times building. Other examples such as Mintoff's dispute with Commissioner DeGray and the prosecution of a former Police Comissioner can also give us perhaps a hint to how things may have moved on in the field of justice.
Etienne Ciantar
Jan 25th 2009, 21:31
Suddenly what Mintoff said (or at least what he was quoted to say by KMB) makes sense. The President is the highest institution of the State and should certainly be elected by a two-thirds majority or, better still, by the people. How can the political parties continue dealing "sotto banco" promising each other the Presidency as a reward!
V Fenech
Jan 25th 2009, 19:06
@ Francis Saliba
Is this the way PN want to win votes (stop loosing them)? By calling names to its rivals and anyone who does not agree with them? Or by defending himself by means of religion?
If what I asked is true, then the Nationalists party is totally made up of "Oqbra Mbajda"!
lgalea
Jan 25th 2009, 18:42
c.camilleri
Why not?
They would have got him out of the political scene to their own benefits but then had second thoughts.
Dr Francis Saliba
Jan 25th 2009, 17:25
@MartinHammet
Not only "they" but all of us will, one day, have to appear before our Maker (M in upper case, please). Unlike the younger MLP generation He cannot be brainwashed by any persistent "terminological inexactitudes" churned out by anybody's propaganda machine!
c.camilleri
Jan 25th 2009, 17:24
Can anyone in his senses believe that the Nats ever wanted Mintoff to be President.? What is a known fact is that one presumptuous ex Nationalist's candidate did have talks with Mintoff on this issue behind Dr. E.D. Adami's back. And for that as he always repeats he paid dearly by being out of politics since then.
J.Mifsud
Jan 25th 2009, 15:09
Just imagine Mintoff as president,and with more power. Malta would have ended up being run by a dictator. This would have been the worst mistake that the P.N would have committed,after the long time it took to get elected in 1987.
J Martinelli
Jan 25th 2009, 14:55
Why does KMB not retreat under that little rock of his?
Mintoff for President? He must have been joking!
NP a violent party? Since when is defending oneself and the country's democracy a violent act? KMB should remember the ransacking of the Curia right across from Police HQ after he badgered church schools with his 'Jew b'xejn, jew xejn' policy. Who's kidding who? Leave us alone KMB.
One thing is certain, KMB has lost none of his bitterness of not having control on his own government, not having been elected ever. He accuses today's government as being 'a puppet on the EU's strings. From what he admits, was he not a puppet on Mintoff's strings?
Time is the curer of all and all of us are getting older. Some of us get wiser with age, then there is KMB.
Martin Hammet
Jan 25th 2009, 13:29
In another part of this article Dr Mifsud Bonnici says that we have forgotten or pushed aside the Machiavellian machinations of the PN in the '80's. I can assure him that we haven't and what's more those who perpetrated them haven't. They are still around,most of them, and as they slip into old age they will have the time to think and contemplate wheter the end justified the means.I think it didn't and they will have to bargain with their maker(whom they often invoked )soon enough, to see wheter they will at least bag a place in purgatory. History is written by the winners but that doesn't mean that it's the truth.
Evarist Saliba
Jan 25th 2009, 12:59
The claim by K. Mifsud Bonnici that there was a secret agreement between the NP, then in opposition, and the MLP then in government, at some unspecified moment between December 1981 and March 1985 on Mintoff being elected President of Malta with powers over the army and the police, is too grave a historical allegation to be ignored by the PN politicians identified by the former prime minister. Silence on their part can justifiably be taken as confirmation of the allegation.
As far as I am aware, the negotiations that took place at that time, with the help of intermediaries one of whom was Edgar Mizzi with whom I discussed the matter at that time,
were on four points meant to ensure that there would be no perverse electoral results like that of December 1981. There was NEVER any agreement during these negotiations, and the allegation of a secret agreement seems to be outrageous.
After the 1987 elections new negotiations on constitutional reforms took place. I was present during a conversation between two cabinet ministers on whether Mintoff should be nominated as president. While one hesitated the other said an emphatic, "NO".
This was no secret agreement.
C Chircop
Jan 25th 2009, 12:56
That the President would be given greater Constitutional Powers and that there was speculation that Mintoff might be the next President is entirely true.
You may refer to the Xandir Malta News footage just after the election victory of 1987 on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOrRb9l8XjM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmKwRF99IYY&feature=related
Most 30+ Maltese remember that period, some may also recall that actual news program.
What is not clear is whether what KMB has started was ACTUALLY the case i.e. increase in Presidential Constitutional Powers AND giving the Presidency to Dom Mintoff.
It did not make sense anyway - can you imagine Dom Mintoff taking under his tutelage the Police Corps while the Nationalists would be in government? It does not make sense even today to have such distribution of power, let alone in those times.
C. Scerri
Jan 25th 2009, 12:11
If this is true (very much doubt it) - thank God that the PN did not keep its word!
Dr Francis Saliba
Jan 25th 2009, 10:37
Good grief!
According to KMB the amendments to the constitution were subject to a commitment that Mintoff would be appointed President with control of the police! This was the same person who as Prime Minister had appointed Dr Lawrence Pullicino as Commissioner of Police and who was responsible for the police force when the MLP mob burnt down the printing presses of the The Times and ransacked Eddie Fenech Adami's residence and terrorised his family with absolute immunity!
No wonder that Mintoff is reputed to have declared that his biggest mistake in life was selecting KMB as his successor!
s.micallef
Jan 25th 2009, 09:36
Just thnk of the repercussions if mintoff had been elected president with wider powers during a PN legislation. Just the thought sends shivers down my spine. Remember what mintoff did to his own party in 1998. mintoff is not one to be dictated to and a PN government would not have lasted a week with mintoff as president. Just because KMB idolises mintoff doesn't mean that the whole of malta should do the same.