There are two reasons why I was tempted to ignore the naïve and puerile arguments put forward by Klaus Vella Bardon (The Immorality Of Neutrality, March 16) when he chose to attack my stand on Malta’s neutrality.
The first is that the daily events in Libya are sadly vindicating the position I took on the uprising there. I urged Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi so that, instead of shooting from the hip and triumphantly stating the end of Muammar Gaddafi is inevitable, he should show real leadership and offer mediation between the rebels in Benghazi and the Gaddafi government in Tripoli.
The second reason why I was about to throw Dr Vella Bardon’s article in the dustbin was an excellent contribution by Richard E. Rubenstein (March 11) entitled Maltese Neutrality Still A Brilliant Idea. It is such a fine, clear and convincing defence of Malta’s neutrality that anything I would add to his arguments would be superfluous.
Dr Vella Bardon seems to be living in cuckoo land. His understanding of the harsh reality of world politics is zilch... He does not realise that, by trying to be more Catholic than the Pope, he seems to be living in an unrealistic state where everything is perfect.
A civil war is raging on in Libya, a neighbouring country.
Malta has no army, no fighter jets and no tanks to enforce peace. The best way it could exercise its moral influence is by mediating between the two sides and try to bring peace between the two parties fighting each other in Libya. Bringing peace is the best way to glorify morality.
Our neutrality assumes that Malta is an instrument of peace. The best way to use this instrument of peace is to be neutral.
How dare I suggest mediation between a dictator and the rebels who were fighting for freedom, I was told.
I still recall Henry Kissinger calling Yasser Arafat a vicious terrorist who should be captured dead or alive. Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton saw another side of Mr Arafat. He ended up winning the Nobel Prize.
Margaret Thatcher used to describe Gerry Adams the worst terrorist in Europe. In comes Tony Blair who became a friend of Mr Adams and managed to broker a deal between the Protestants and the Catholics of Ireland after long decades of brutally killing each other. Mr Adams is now a member of Parliament.
Ian Paisley, the fiery Irish Church leader who gave the impression that Protestants who kill Catholics would have a special place in heaven, is now in the House of Lords.
That, Dr Vella Bardon should note, is the harsh reality of the dirty world of international politics.
When I suggested Dr Gonzi, and indeed other people forming part of the political class in Malta, should mediate between Col Gaddafi and the rebels I was not reinventing the wheel.
Former Prime Mintoff Dom Mintoff had mediated between Robert Mugabe and Ian Smith on the Rhodesia question. It was at his humble place in Delimara that a deal was struck to end the white rule in Rhodesia.
Mr Mintoff also mediated between King Hassan of Morocco and the Polisario movement.
When, in 1972, Mr Mintoff was dealing with the UK and Nato to sign a new defence treaty, the greatest obstacle was not money but the demand that Nato would undertake never to attack an Arab state from Malta. Mr Mintoff remembered well that, in 1956, during the Suez crisis, the UK forces had launched attacks on Gamal Abdel Nasser’s Egypt.
The person who, by his bold action, responds to Dr Vella Bardon’s arguments is Foreign Minister Tonio Borg. Hands off Malta, he warned Nato. We are a neutral state. We are all out to help in the humanitarian mission but do not use Malta to launch any military attack on Libya.
This could have been Dr Gonzi’s finest hour. Had he offered to bring peace between Gaddafi and the rebels, history would have considered him a statesman. Instead, he chose to be a common politician.
Witness what is happening to Malta now. Maltese businessmen and companies are losing millions of euros daily. Hundreds of Maltese workers lost their job in Libya. The press has reported that Col Gaddafi is warning he will nationalise all Maltese companies based in Libya.
Finally, let me quote what the great British statesman Lord Palmerston once said: “Nations have no permanent friends or permanent enemies. Only permanent interests.”
The sooner Dr Vella Bardon and other politically naïve people in Malta digest what Lord Palmerston said the better Malta would survive in this harsh world of politics.