It is childish of the two major parties to be pointing fingers at each other over who was closest to Muammar Gaddafi, according to commentators.

The Nationalist and Labour parties have been at each other’s throats, both claiming the other was more “intimate” with Col Gaddafi’s regime.

“This is not the time to enter into such recriminations. Leave that for election time,” former Ambassador to Libya Evarist Saliba said when contacted.

Writing in The Times, former Labour minister Lino Spiteri said he was sure both Labour and Nationalists acted that way in the perceived interest of Malta, not out of love for the dictators: “So can they please stop behaving like children?”

Historian and former Labour general secretary Dominic Fenech said the discourse was not mature enough “to admit that it was in the national interest to have good relations with a close neighbour – be it under Labour or under PN. Pointing fingers is completely petty and childish,” Prof. Fenech said.

Fellow historian Henry Frendo said: “Malta has had diplomatic relations with Libya since 1964 and socio-political connections for centuries.”

He acknowledged that “both administrations honoured Gaddafi but the closest ties were from 1972 to 1986. Gaddafi even addressed public meetings under Mintoff, ironically even in connection with ‘freedom day’ in 1979.”

“Given the momentous events unfolding now it is rather unedifying to quibble about recorded events,” Prof. Frendo says.

On Monday, the PN lashed out at Labour leader Joseph Muscat, saying that “Labour and Gaddafi were intimate bedfellows” and “blood brothers”, while Labour replied saying the Prime Minister himself was the last Western leader to have met Gaddafi prior to the uprising.

If something is clear, however, it is that Malta cannot afford to have bad relations with Libya, whoever the leader.

“Malta had no option. When Gaddafi came to power, the Nationalist government immediately recognised the regime. Mintoff not only recognised it but strengthened the relationship, particularly when Malta was in difficulty... There was a special relationship. Every country wants to have the best relations with their neighbours, if possible,” Prof. Fenech said, adding that the PN then retained relations with Libya as it saw they were mutually beneficial.

“Good relations with our neighbour Libya, with which Malta had good trade links even before our independence, were, are and should remain important for Malta,” Mr Saliba said, saying however that “history must not be distorted:

“Mintoff relied too much on funds from Libya to make up for Malta’s lacklustre economic policies which did not attract sufficient foreign investment from the western industrialised nations. To woo Gaddafi, Mintoff made many gestures which were not beneficial to Malta and its image abroad,” Mr Saliba said, citing Arabic being made compulsory in schools, a mosque with diplomatic status and a preferential friendship agreement as examples.

“I would point out that under Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici the relationship could almost be described as servile.”

Mr Saliba said there was a very pragmatic reason for the honours Col Gaddafi was given by two successive governments:

“The exchange of honours is routine as long as relations between countries are good. The only difference that I see between the first and the second award is that the former was given when Gaddafi’s international reputation was low while the second was given when he had taken steps, appreciated world-wide, to rehabilitate his international reputation.

He said that it was not worth courting trouble by not giving him honours, especially because a lot of Maltese businesses in Libya depended on the strongman’s blessings to succeed.

“Is there an interest to disturb calm waters?” Mr Saliba asked.

Meanwhile, the Nationalist Party yesterday issued yet another statement, saying Alex Sciberras Trigona had gone into hibernation following the Libyan Spring.

“The man who can speak and write volumes about the ‘blood brother’ relationship Labour had with the Gaddafi regime is nowhere to be seen or heard,” the PN said.