PN should apologise too

In a recent speech, Labour leader Joseph Muscat, for the second if not the third time, expressed regret for what happened on Black Monday, when a few thugs attacked The Times building and also Eddie Fenech Adami's home and family in Birkirkara.

Dr Muscat called for a similar gesture from Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi for acts of physical and psychological violence committed by PN supporters and PN governments against Labour supporters since the Nationalists took power in 1987.

Instead of imitating Dr Muscat's conciliatory gesture, Dr Gonzi described it as "crass hypocrisy". As if the PN in government and its supporters have never committed any despicable acts against Labour supporters! I shall mention just two.

The first was the barbaric attack on Tarcisio Mifsud (brother of former Labour candidate and economist Alfred Mifsud) at his home in Żebbuġ during PN victory celebrations. Mr Mifsud sustained head injuries. Was he a lesser human being than Dr Fenech Adami in Dr Gonzi's opinion?

The second was mentioned by Lino Spiteri in his column in The Sunday Times ('Apologies out of season', October 25). Mr Spiteri explained how he was deliberately kicked hard in the shin in 1962 in Parliament by a well-known PN supporter, who rose from the strangers' gallery to do so, and then boasted to the police about what he had done.

Mr Spiteri wrote that "no one from the PN ever offered me an apology during the 47 years that have elapsed from that date". Hence, neither Dr Fenech Adami nor Dr Gonzi have ever felt the need to apologise to Lino Spiteri. Talk about "crass hypocrisy"!

Is Mr Spiteri, too, a lesser mortal than Dr Fenech Adami?

In my view, even worse were the planned and systematic acts of political discrimination perpetrated against Labour employees in government departments and parastatal companies, when 'cleansing' was carried out against honest-working Labourites, especially those holding important positions, whose only sin was their party affiliation. I know, because I was one of them.

The Tribunal for the Investigation of Injustices has confirmed those vile acts of "psychological violence" in hundreds of cases. But, for Dr Gonzi, there is nothing to apologise for.

I have written this letter not to reopen old wounds, but to show that Dr Gonzi has, once again, failed miserably to do what he had promised on taking over the leadership of the party and the country, namely "a new way of doing politics".