The cost of being right
When she whom we dare not mention by name, chanted Glory Glory Alleluia celebrating Dom Mintoff’s death, many, even die-hard Nationalists, said that they felt disgusted.
Surprisingly, even those who never had a good word to say about the man were suddenly of the opinion that no one should talk like that about the dead.
Whether they truly felt this way, or whether they were keeping up appearances, is anyone’s guess.
Quite frankly, death doesn’t change my feelings one bit, and I’ve only ever wished someone dead to end their suffering.
As I’ve already stated publically, had I to hate someone so much, which thankfully to date I don’t, I wouldn’t wish them dead, I’d wish him long term misery. Call in the psychotherapists if you wish, but if I despised someone to such levels of spite, I’d want them squirming in pain for as long as their heart would permit.
But I digress, so back to Mintoff - I don’t remember much of the Mintoff years, and I can’t for the life of me form a clear or objective opinion of what really happened back then. I’ve read every article, every history book and every blog; I’ve watched every documentary and news report; I’ve also listened patiently (and not so patiently) to people who loved him and those who loathed him, but, unfortunately, I’m none the wiser.
What I’m convinced about is that the bad was not so bad and that the good wasn’t so good either, that the truth lies somewhere in between and that it is entirely subjective and dependent on those whom you speak to.
There is something I do remember first hand however, something that has drastically affected my life and my family’s life, an angst that we will all have to live with, forever.
You see, the infamous doctors’ strike that started in 1977, coincided with my brother’s birth, and ever since I can remember, I’ve always been told that had there not been the strike, had the hospital been in good working condition, and had his Maltese paediatrician not been forced out of the country, chances are that my brother would not have suffered brain damage.
When my brother was born at St. Luke’s hospital, he was sent home with a clean bill of health, but within days, my mother noticed something wrong with him and returned to the hospital. She was promptly sent back home because according to the medical geniuses Mintoff had employed nothing was wrong with her baby.
The blatant symptoms persisted and she went back a zillion times, until finally, a Pakistani doctor who had already poked 700 holes in my brother’s little body, told her once and for all that nothing was wrong with him, and that if she returned he would lock her up at Mount Carmel Hospital.
That’s when my parents flew to Great Ormond Hospital in England and found out that my mother was right all along - my brother was suffering from hypothyroidism – a simple condition which would not have had any long term consequences had it been diagnosed in time!
Unfortunately, thanks to the doctor’s strike, and Mintoff’s hard headedness, the diagnosis was missed entirely, and the consequences were catastrophic - permanent brain injury and continuous health issues.
I’ve must have had this story repeated to me a thousand times, every time with a bit more anger, hurt and frustration, every time with more fingers pointed at Mintoff for not being reasonable and for pushing every decent doctor out of Malta.
Naturally I grew up detesting doctors and Mintoff pretty much equally, but truth be told, in principle Mintoff was right and the doctors were wrong!
That he handled the situation in the worst way possible is unquestionable, that his Machiavellian methods left innocent victims in its wake is indisputable, but in principle, he was still right.
Most, not even my parents, knew what the strike was about at the time, and even less people remember today, so here’s a refresher for those who like me have to rely on subjective sources of information - the strike was regarding the introduction of the Houseman Law which says that students who qualify from the University of Malta are obliged to work as Housemen in the state’s hospital for two years, after which they would be granted their full doctor’s certification.
This law has been adopted by practically the whole of the Western World. It ensures that medical students get some real practical experience before venturing out ‘on their own’, and it is also a way of ensuring that after costing the state an arm and a leg to train, medical students give something back to society ‘in kind’.
Back in 1977 the doctors protested against the introduction of this law. They went on some form of strike and true to his nature Mintoff put his foot down by locking them out of hospital. He then replaced them with low budget medical mercenaries from Czechoslovakia, Tunisia and Pakistan.
His stubbornness was wrong, his lack of negotiation skills were fatal, but in principle he was right, so much so that when the Nationalists were elected in 1987, they kept the Housemen Law in place, and it still stands to this very day.
But is the cost of being right always worth it?
As J.K Rowling wrote in The Half-Blood Prince ‘….people find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right.”
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Antoine Zammit
Aug 31st 2012, 13:42
Great article Alison!!! :)
Joe Xuereb
Aug 30th 2012, 23:33
Somebody's quote: ' We all have to appear before the One True Judge!'. And Antoine Vella, on another blog, sarcastically and in a covert way, intimated much the same thing, hoping for just desserts for Dom Mintoff. Medieval! And this is the problem, the stumbling block, in this country and its people who would I experienced Roman Catholicism had they been born in a country other than Malta. I love my country but the minute I was conceived, it branded me something terrible. And it is pointless to single out Malta as being somehow better off than non-RC countries. Considering its size and its fervour, Malta has more than its fair share of criminality. And its pointless to think that criminality is the job of the tepid, or non, religious. Malta's malaise is indeed this but it could also be the malaise the is like foetid water from within its righteous Institutions. Dysfunction comes in different guises.
Mintoff was a man of his time, a true revolutionary. Like any social revolution before, the 'fight' is always against a powerful - often inherited - elite the often rules by its mere presence, such it its strength. 'Let them eat cake!' is not a myth. He appealed to the underclass (why have a revolution if it is not to benefit the dispossessed?). In Malta these are called 'ħamalli' and anything untoward is pinned onto them. PN supporters of course are not 'ħamalli' because their affiliation has aspiration to middle-class status, and that other bugbear, religion. They could be jobless, and penniless and when push comes to shove, they too can behave like proper little 'ħamalli'. It does not take much to move them to intimidating tactics and aggression, and this because........
Someone here is cited as questioning why the PN did not charge Mintoff in a Court of Law to answer for his misdemeanours. Probably there was no answerable charge or such a charge would have opened a veritable can of worms. What Mintoff thought about aggression we may never know. That many of his supporters were angry young men and the reason for this anger must have been more than eloquently proferred by Mintoff when speaking to his followers. Since when can anyone rein in angry young men?!
Mintoff was a man of the moment, with Malta fresh from a devastating war and not much to show for it other than rubble that is still around today, currently being replaced by more of the same, if at a cost. The average family was much larger than now and along comes Mintoff, an inspired man whose dream was secularism, not a household name then, and certainly not in the devilishly arch Gonzis, he of the Curia, Malta. Mintoff wanted payback from England and according to some, none too tactfully. British bureaucracy does not do tact never mind tactless so the outcome was what it was. Which is just as well as who in their right mind would want to be the nth shire of Britain NOW (according to one newspaper headline today, a law is to be enacted to sort out the illegal immigration once and for all - GonziPN please take a leaf from THAT tome!). And an imposed divorce forty, fifty years too early for Malta (as if there were a time scale for divorce liabilities to mature and ripen). Mintoff failed and turned elsewhere, never the sort to acquiesce with anything that's is thrown at him.
With no integration, but gratefully, an inherited British no-how, he set to to build Malta worthy of its independence. The social model took off - with some still preferring the poor going hungry than they not going through the Pearly Gates. Works like a charm every time, the stumbling block (see my first quote right at the very top of this comment, now fairly spinning out of control, just like I luv em). So Malta was set up, including the Tourism package, a precarious, fickly industry if ever there was one! Malta could so easily have sunk to the level of some post-independence African States but Mintoff would have none of that.
Would socialism in today's Malta work? The Benefits System is still in place with children allotted a 6000 (pound? euro?) yearly amount for their education and future dreams, this according to the PM WHILST HE WAS EULOGISING nientedimeno, let's not beat about the bush, his arch enemy(no love lost between any of them). But what about future jobs? Thankfully, Maltese women are given to fecundity as they once were but others are more than willing to make up the deficit. This would have worried Mintoff but it seems not an issue for the Curia and the PN. Of course the Curia would just love to see the numerically huge families of old. But how does it implement this without stepping on painted toes? Thank god the ball is in their court now. And I have a front-seat.
Mintoff is a controversial figure, and certainly so for Malta. Approaching him can only be done addressing the different layers. Personally, I believe the man did not have a single evil bone in his body. The Church, and its followers, demonised him then as now because he did the unthinkable - he dared challenge that most untouchable aspect of us humans, our spiritual standing as an all-embracing identity of who we are. I believe more and more people in Malta are losing the fear to question and this tempered by the uncertainties characterising the age. And I would not opt to be a MP even with guaranteed dubious accolades from dubious hangers-on and hefty pay rises.
Sean Swain
Aug 29th 2012, 15:58
A well balanced, well written, thought provoking article. Well done.
Joseph Borg
Aug 27th 2012, 23:56
Ms Bezzina
There is one fundamental difference to the law that Mintoff sought to impose in 1977 to that which was eventually applied. Mintoff wanted newly graduated doctors to work for free. A rather crucial detail i think. So you can hardly compare the two. So no Mintoff was not right.
The truth is that by locking Maltese doctors out of hospital and making it illegal for them to work in any other hospital even going as far as to close down the blue sisters hospital to make sure they had nowhere to work, Mintoff was trying to break doctors into submission. Doctors who went on strike were just exercising their democratic right to strike in sympathy to those doctors just out of university or soon to be. Please remember that doctors were still providing services for emergency cases. it was Mintoff who locked them out and prevented them from doing that. By then importing doctors from countries with much lower standards and putting them at consultants' levels, Mintoff subjected the people of Malta to great risk and people such as your brother are victims of this. Not all Maltese doctors were negatively affected. There were those who took advantage of the situation by not following the strike and thus getting promotions to levels at the expense of their colleagues.
There is no doubt that Mintoff was vindictive and he hated to lose. To my mind, the 1977 strike was Mintoff's comeback for losing to the doctors in the '50s. He bore a grudge against them and waited for the first opportunity to get his back at them. Many a family was broken up because of this as many left the country to start over. Many other families suffered tragic consequences as did yours. For this is only Mintoff to blame. For all the eulogies to the man, individuals such as your brother and the rest of your family who undoubtedly suffered because of this, are forgotten by those who idolise the man.
To applaud the man but not his methods is not acceptable. The methods are what made the man and the disaster he left in his wake is still around to see. Not least the division he purposely nurtured in this country in order to control it. This is Dom's legacy.
Mario Camilleri
Aug 30th 2012, 12:32
You're wrong. The definition of 'House doctoring' and that's how it was meant at the time by no means is defined as working for free. Who's so stupid enough to work for two whole years for free? Don't exaggerate!
House doctoring was meant to instead of starting practise in ones private clinic or house visits the graduated would have to serve at the national hospital for two main reasons which were, 1: the nation would get something in return for the students' expenses paid out of public coffers, knowing how much it's costing us taxpayers and 2: the students would be under experienced medical supervision and thereby would gain their first experience hand on and on different illnesses.
Remember, it's doctors and patients we're talking about not plants.
I Bugeja
Aug 27th 2012, 13:05
Alison, I like yourself am (somewhat) young since at an age of 29 do not recall many of the things that happened. I used to listen to quasi civil war stories which saw the Labourites as the good persecuted guys. Then of course I also listened to the good persecuted Nationalists.
History in this case seems blurred and hearing what your parents have to say about the hospitals of that age is just but a spec.
Nowadays, I don't really care what Mintoff did or did not, because the only memory I have of him is that of 1998 when I recall the government being toppled by an old hard-headed man. To me he was no superhero and he was no villain for sure. He was just a politician who everyone will remember him in their own way.
I have these memories perhaps because I was raised in a way as to not expect anything for free from anyone irrispective of whether they are labourites or nationalists.
Mario Camilleri
Aug 27th 2012, 11:48
One thing needs to be said, that is, when things come our way and everything is in our favour, there's always silence, not even a thank you. But when one single thing goes sour, bad, not in our favour or not to our likings, then hell breaks loose. This is what makes us humans different from animals.
What this person took from foreigners, he gave it to the Maltese. What he took from the rich, he gave it to the poor. And finally what we all have today, we owe it all to him.
If not mistaken, doctors' first moral rule and by law are warranted to heal the sick not become rich, strike and walk away form patients to sustain their egoism. Although, I know that there are doctors out there who are generous, kind and considerate but unfortunately the bad ones outweigh the good.
As for what happened in the 1977 era sometimes a leader has to take hard decisions, whether good or not so good, un/popular but as you said Alison, the same law that was then introduced is still there today, so ultimately it was a good decision.
If I were to blame someone for any of my relative's who would have suffered back then, I would blame nobody except the doctors. It was their total responsibility and duty to attend to the patients needs not Mintoff's.
Reuben Cutajar
Aug 27th 2012, 01:06
I am also a young person (if twenty nine is still young)... and I have heard a lot about Domnic Mintoff. Unlike the person writing this article, I have not suffered any personal loss due to his administration HOWEVER, I have suffered personal losses over the years and as some of the comments refer to loss of opportunity simply because I have an opinion.
Handling the situation "well" often seems giving in to unfair tactics. Should doctors simply strike and walk away in a situation where (as Ms. Bezzina even states) a law was to be introduced, one which was already present all around the world.
I would also like to ask WHY SUCH SYMPATHY?... Are you all relative of doctors or what? Why should I sympathize with a professional earning five times my salary? People who at the time put lives at risk so that they could get away with receiving a free education and give nothing back in return? These ideas keep amazing me.
Ms. Bezzina, I believe the Mintoff was right and the doctors were wrong for they should have never initiated a strike across the board. It is ultimately the doctors who's conscience allowed them to let people suffer for their personal gain.
George Amato
Aug 30th 2012, 11:20
The doctors were locked out after working to rule - NOT STRIKING. Please get your facts right. M<y father was a doctor and I was not even allowed to enter university at the time. There goes justice.
leo briffa
Aug 26th 2012, 07:51
The real conflict came when the Government wanted to take beds from the private sector and use them as his,...as what is happening today. any NHS is doomed to bankrupt a nation , not today,not tomorrow but it will eventually. there is nothing free in the world. we are paying around 400 million (that's 1000 euros yearly per citizen) yearly to keep open a system which gives us over worked people who are under paid. resulting in the best possible treatment just cause the workers are dedicated. but how long will this work out. Mintoff's intentions were socially right but economically unbalanced for today's way of life.
I Bugeja
Aug 27th 2012, 12:13
1billion yearly is the cost of maltese healthcare
S. Calleja
Aug 25th 2012, 17:08
I'm not sure I understand. So if Mintoff's intentions were good, but ruined the lives of so many people along the way because the only way he knew how to achieve those intentions was to bulldoze his way through, then it makes it all right? In my books, it would have been all right only if his intentions were achieved without harming anyone, as any good negotiator would strive for.
Antoine Vella
Aug 25th 2012, 20:31
Mintoff's intentions were not good: he was moved by personal grudges and private ambitions.
Joe Vella
Aug 25th 2012, 14:43
Mintoff was a total failure in every sense of the world. Mintoff failed Malta Economically. Mintoff left Malta with a Human deficit. Mintoff left Malta infrastructure in tatters. The list is endless. There are those who says that Mintoff left 500 million liri "fl ' Kaxxa ta Malta". Those who say so do not recognise that the 500 million liri where Malta's foreign reserves to make good for the Maltese Lira and Malta's Balance of Payment. Those who say so cannot distinguish the difference between budget surpluses and reserves. Those who say so do not know that when Mintoff got elected in 1971, those reserves were already there. You won't hear Joseph Muscat repeat the claim abut Mintoff leaving 500 million liri fl Kaxxa ta \Malta, because he will be criticised by every economist on the island.
Mintoff left Malta under British rule in 1958. George Borg Olivier in a very short time negotiated Malta's independence. Malta's Tourism industry took off in the 1960's. Malta was experiencing a Building boom under GBO. Malta's Manufacturing base was expanding under GBO. 1971 came MIntoff, distributed the wealth that was being created, took credit for it , and won the 1976 Election. After that it was all downhill for Mintoff. Came 1981, he had lost the confidence of the Majority, and like a tyrant continued to Govern with an iron fist. Mintoff vision for Malta was to be the ALbania of the Mediterranean.
Antoine Vella
Aug 25th 2012, 20:29
Joe Vella, well said.
Antoine Vella
Aug 24th 2012, 23:26
“. . . the bad wasn’t so bad . . .”
Dear Alison, would you mind enlightening us which part of the burning down of The Times, “wasn’t so bad”?
You also seem to have reached the conclusion that it “wasn’t so bad” that Fenech Adami’s house was ransacked, his wife beaten up and his family terrorised.
Likewise the routine use of mob violence to intimidate dissenters, the ransacking of literally every PN club on the island, the use of shotguns (donated by North Korea) by the police to fire on a crowd and hundreds of others similar cases . . . all this “wasn’t so bad”.
Alison, if you tell us what it is that you find “not so bad” in this, I promise to tell you why the “good wasn’t so good”.
Joseph Calleja
Aug 24th 2012, 13:07
This article deserves a thumbs down, again!
Paul Konti
Aug 24th 2012, 11:35
Alison, you are much too young to write on this matter. I suggest you leave it to us old people who lived that quasi-dictatorial era.
Peter Xuereb
Aug 24th 2012, 14:37
She is too wise to successfully transmit her message to the likes of you on this matter. I suggest you leave it to the younger generation, who are not tainted by the subjectivities of the past, in order to objectively find a solution that will move the country forward.
Frank Zammit
Aug 24th 2012, 20:59
Why is it that when the truth is told your (diehard PNs) attitude becomes somewhat doolally? I like Alison's style; she is sincer, objective and to the point. I tot tally agree; yes in principle Mintoff was right but could have handled better.
What Alison forgot to mentions is that an innocent girl was murdered because her father came to Malta to give a service to the people of Malta.
I have doctors in my family, and I am told that those doctors who wanted to give a service were allowed to do so. It is only those doctored who were on strike were locked out, whic in any case, they would not have given a service because they were on strike.
Julian Borg
Aug 25th 2012, 09:11
@Frank Zammit
I think you watch Super One too much. If the doctors were on strike they were only following a legitimate directive to protest a situation. Dom Mintoff and his government had every obligation to respect the right to strike. After all were they not 'it-tarka tal-haddiema'?
The MLP has always exploited 'workers' under the pretext that they are being protected but unfortunately facts speak louder than words - and behind the rhetoric are facts about doctors, bank employees, C&W employees and many others' rights simply being squashed.
In a funny sort of way it is happening again. If a nasty Nat dare say something that the PL and its supporters don't like then instead of challenging with argument they are denigrated and insulted. PL followers are so like Mintoff was it is uncanny.
Alex Ellul
Aug 23rd 2012, 23:11
"....the bad was not so bad and the good was not so good.."
If you were to put one foot in the oven and one foot in the freezer the two extremes will not balance out. You will lose both feet, one due to burns and the other due to frostbite. That was Mintoff. Mintoff was a man of extremes and such a person may make the international news headlines but he would never make a good politician and Mr. Mintoff will always be regarded as a man of extremes under whom many people suffered a lot.
He made sure that his voters/supporters got what they wished for, by giving them what they wanted; money, cushy jobs, cheap if not free housing, etc, while taxing and practically demolishing the finances of many, some ending 6ft under prematurely because of the desperation.
His dream of making a Cuba out of Malta was thwarted by the other political parties during the early sixties. Then the PN made sure that Malta became industrialised and was ready so by 1971 after which no Mintoff could stop the progress in the industrialisation of Malta. The Maltese had by then understood that manufacturing, the service industries and tourism were the back-bone of our economy. Mintoff then tried to make a sort of cultural revolution by means of failed Chinese factories, military style labour corps and industrija tal-kappar, but failed miserably there too. I stand to believe that he tried to do all this because he honestly believed that this was the best way for Malta, which was not, which confirms the oft quoted adage that the road to the proverbial hell s paved with good intentions.
May he rest in peace.
Frank Zammit
Aug 24th 2012, 21:58
Mintoff was a man who got things done. There are always two sides to a coin; the side you and I will like may be different depending from which angle the coin is viewed.
What I mean is that, if you come from a family that had the means to live comfortable, you most probably think that Mintoff was a tyrant. If on the other hand, your family never had the means to educate their children, put decent food on the table, buy proper cloths and start living instead of existing, then the chances are that you think that Mintoff was a God's sent ( unles the church had already poisend your mind and heart.)
Another thing that irritated a lot of well to do families was the fact that, children of poor families were given the chance to compete for things that children of rich families use to take for granted. Hence, the reason why they use to call him a communist. I mcome from a middle class family; we always had enough of what we needed and that's why my family use to sympathised with the PN.
In 1981 I left the island because I use to believe that what the PN was saying was all true and as a young man I didn't want to live in a communist country. In all honesty, it was the best thing that I could have done because I had the chance to look at Malta from a distance. And from a distance what the Nationalist were saying back then was full of untruths , exaggerated criticism and opportunistic behaviour. RIP dear MINTOFF. In time history will do you justice.
Franco Farrugia
Aug 25th 2012, 01:29
Frank Zammit didn't hear about The Times building being razed to the ground.
Zammit didn't hear about Fenech Adami's family home being attacked and his family never die of terror, his late wife included.
Zammit didn't hear about the terrifying police force we had at the time, led by ......
Zammit didn't hear about so many people were attacked, the violence that was the order of the day.
Zammit lies when he suggests that it was well-to-do families that were against Mintoff. It is a lie and Zammit is a liar to suggest so.
Zammit didn't hear about the lack of freedom that pro-PNs had in their towns and villages.
Zammit didn't hear about the Church's hospitals and schools being attacked.
Zammit speaks about the education of the poor - but there was no real education going on in the country. Perhaps a little indoctrination, yes.
Zammit, by writing in this manner, has a lot to answer for. We all have to appear before the One True Judge!
Eric Soames
Aug 23rd 2012, 20:38
How strange the gatekeeping. For a comment offering kudos to you, while musing how hearts filled only with hate must be pretty small, to NOT be carried. So once again, well done Ms B.
aldo Attard
Aug 23rd 2012, 17:53
I took pleasure of reading your article.
You seem to hate the building of your article without being faithful to the truth.
I admire that.
Please keep it up.
Thou the end results does not always justify the means, I think in this case at that time there was no other alternative.
Sure there were some who got unintentionally hurt in the process.
But to whom should one pin the blame???????
Julian Borg
Aug 24th 2012, 08:31
How very naive and blinkered. Many of us were deprived of the opportunity to go to University; were treated in sub standard hospital facilities by foreign doctors who could not communicate; were bereft of any industrial rights; human rights were totally ignored; the economy was in shambles; people were killed for political reasons; democracy did not exist; freedom of expression did not exist; the opposition was muzzled and so on. THAT was Mintoff. All the progress happened in the last 25 years but if you watched Super One you would be forgiven for thinking that it was Mintoff that brought about all this change.
But they forgot to mention that it was Montoff that brought down the Labour Government of 96/98 - must have slipped their little minds while stage managing the mass hysteria.
Franco Farrugia
Aug 23rd 2012, 15:02
Dear Alison,
Only those who were at the wrong end of Mintoff's stick can say how hard times were under his and KMB's regime.
You see, there were people with different sets of values. Mintoff roder roughsod over certain values and therefore, these people were hurt, they suffered and they lost their youth.
Others didn't mind the way he ruled with an iron fist and allowed his cronies to run amock, scaring the wits out of honest, law-abiding people.
We have short memories: even this newspaper has a short memory since facts are facts and I simply cannot for the life of me understand why this newspaper forgets whose cronies razed it to the ground one evening, and yet, these days, has such a tongue out like never before: lick, lick, lick!
A Zammit
Aug 23rd 2012, 14:54
Mela jekk pazjent allegatament jinsab b'imhadda nieqsa l-Ministru ghandu jkun responsabli...jekk tifel innocenti jispicca marid b'kundizzjoni serja minhabba s-sitwazzjoni kerha li fiha kien jinsab il-pajjiz, cittadin Malti ghandu jkun responsabli. Grazzi Alison talli qied tilluminani.
Irbahtu r-Rolex please?
Anthony Scicluna
Aug 23rd 2012, 14:18
I find this claim: "I’ve read every article, every history book and every blog; I’ve watched every documentary and news report; I’ve also listened patiently (and not so patiently) to people who loved him and those who loathed him" completely unsubstantiated. Further, the article makes it so simple and gives the edge - Mintoff was right all along - so the end justifies the means.
What a load of baloney! So separating families was all ok since it ended well? So beating these people who had a right to oppose something was ok since it ended well? So the dumpsters that were our hospitals was ok as long as the ends justify the means?
I am sorry. It is not! And dear Ms Bezzina while I respect your right for an opinion what you are saying is utter codswallop. You simply cannot judge the man on one thing but on aggregate. Further, you are talking from the point of view of a young lady who had the luxury of not living in those times.
I can tell you war stories but I could never narrate the horrors of war that my grand parents lived through because I was not there. I can tell you Vietnam was a despicable war but I will not go into the stories I heard from the soldiers who lived through the hell and cannot shake the sound of helicopters or the smell of napalm in their noses.
Your intentions are noble. You appease the tempers raised when really and truly old wounds should have not been opened but you offend all those who suffered. For what? Is it not ok to offend those grieving while at the same time offend those who are not? I am for reconciliation and wish no one harm, heaven or hell. But please do not offend me while you are praising a person who was seen by half of the population as a dictator.
We should allow people to grieve but please do respect does who do not grieve and are silent about it by not showing off and actually taking for granted the fact that if it werent for the Nationalists who gained our freedom from the oppressive regime, you wouldn't be publishing your articles.
Anyway, please keep on writing - I always enjoy your articles
Alison Bezzina
Aug 23rd 2012, 14:09
Towards the end of the blog I ask - is the cost of being right always worth it? I left the question unanswered because I thought an answer would be stating the obvious.
Clearly though, to some, my position is not that obvious - so let me be loud and clear about it - OF COURSE IT'S NOT WORTH IT, WHEN LIVES ARE CONCERNED IT NEVER IS !
Victor Laiviera
Aug 23rd 2012, 13:47
"his lack of negotiation skills were fatal ....."
Mintoff's consummate skill as a negotiator is practically the only facet of his character that is universally acknowledged, even by his worst enemies.
Joe Fenech
Aug 23rd 2012, 15:08
Spot on!
Franco Farrugia
Aug 23rd 2012, 15:58
@ Victor: He never 'negotiated' internally. He always violently and stresfully took over what was never his to take! He governed like the tyrant he was.
Gordon Galea
Aug 24th 2012, 15:16
Victor, there's 'negotiation skills' - trying to achieve a win-win situation amicably and 'negotiation skills' - including threats and violence, aka intimidation. Mintoff's 'negotiation skills' were the latter.
John Grech
Aug 23rd 2012, 12:56
@ Peter Gee
I agree with on most points your mentioned, but the blog above was not on the points you mentioned, but on the doctors strike of 1977.
As for the beatings by the police, which is definatley wrong, we all now promotions were give to some of the involved after 1987. Again,...in my opnion, these some could have had a hidden agenda.
Having said that, I cannot agree with you more that under the Mintoff administration huge mistakes were made that left a scar on some of the people involved.
Peter Gee
Aug 23rd 2012, 14:34
Ok, I'll be blunt. What hidden agenda did poor Nardu Debono have? What was Lino Cauchi's hidden agenda?
Lucienne Dimech
Aug 23rd 2012, 12:47
I believe that the journalist in question was one of the few if not the only person to express what she really felt and thought. Amidst all the hypocrisy of the last few days her comments were a breath of fresh air.
Raymond Vassallo
Aug 23rd 2012, 12:44
Dom Mintoff is a saint or saviour to his sympathisers, and a demon to his adversaries. These extreme perceptions tend to concentrate towards the two ends of the spectrum, thanks to the highly polarised make-up of Malta's two-party arrangement and the single-party rule that it spawns.
Like Alison, Dr. E. Fenech Adami was hit hard by the consequences of Mintoff's authoritarian style, yet he was mature enough to give the devil his due. Balanced minds would agree that Mintoff kick-started Malta's evolution from its post-war colonial status, with its weak and servile identity, to a modern state that matches and sometimes surpasses other European states in terms of its identity and of its welfare infrastructure.
It is also generally agreed that Mintoff worked assiduously to improve the condition of the lower strata of Maltese society . As he often stated "when you lift the basket (qoffa) wholly from its base, all its contents get lifted". The democratisation of wealth promoted by Mintoff contributed no end to the prosperity that Malta has enjoyed within recent history. EFA and LG deserve credit for continuing to build on the solid foudations laid out before them.
Mintoff allowed no issue to obstruct or else to delay the achievement of his political visions. Should he be lauded for focusing totally on his goals or should he be chastised for allowing his ends to justify his means? The re-negotiated Rent Agreement with the UK, together with his Machiavellian transformation of Malta into a neutral Republic attest to his negotiation skills and to the effectiveness of his style. As Alison aptly demonstrates, that style produced much suffering for many, her family included, as well as mine.
The general criticism expressed by many is not that the ends he pursued were wrong or else left unfulfilled. On the contrary, his impatience caused him to run too fast and to be insensitive to collateral damage. The problem was more with the means he adopted.
Today, with the passage of time, some of the wounds he inflicted may have healed and one can reach a more objective evaluation of his achievements - a situation amply attested by the balanced comments of so many of his political adversaries.
Alison, may I congratulate you for your excellent piece. Your quotation from JL Rowling sums it all.
ANTHONY PAVIA
Aug 23rd 2012, 13:27
Hear! Hear!
Franco Farrugia
Aug 23rd 2012, 17:41
Fenech Adami did not give Mintoff 'his due'. Fenech Adami spoke like a politiician would in such circumstances and at the present time. And remember that Fenech Adami is now a former president of the Republic and therefore, he has to mince his words well. But history cannot be negotiated; history cannot be re-written, simply because history is based on facts.
R. Azzopardi
Aug 24th 2012, 08:00
@Franco Farrugia,
I just wish that I had the skills that Dr. Fenech Adami has. I still cannot forget the financial pain that my family went through thanks to the implementation of Mintoff's ideas (the ideas were all right, it was the implementation that was flawed) that I have nothing but deep-rooted anger built up within me and I have flown at a great number of people's throats during the past week. If only I knew how to mince words the way Dr. Fenech Adami would have, I would have saved myself and others a lot of grief.
Mark Anthony Fenech
Aug 23rd 2012, 12:19
There are so many divergent opinions about Dom Mintoff, may he rest in peace, that for some of us we may never truly know who he was.
Chris Gatt
Aug 23rd 2012, 11:43
"What I’m convinced about is that the bad was not so bad and that the good wasn’t so good either, that the truth lies somewhere in between and that it is entirely subjective and dependent on those whom you speak to."
Really? The beating of middle aged women for protesting the lack of water for days on end in their houses, the lack of a constitutional court for seven years so that not even your human rights were protected, the requisitioning of private property to hand over gratis to the Labour Party, the heart attacks suffered by many at the hands of ministers, the dismembering of an accountant's body to hide the corrupt audit trail, the bringing in of North Korean soldiers to stop Maltese protesting ( Malta ghall-Maltin, ironic no?), the protection of well-known thugs who would literally shoot down Paceville, a police force that you needed protection from, clandestine school classes arranged in garages , The total lack of proper political debate ( fighting in the House of representatives was so common it barely got reported), the total dismantling of our civil service, our education system , our broadcasting system under the guise of equality for all, the handing over of power to a bunch of thugs who Mintoff himself could not control, reducing a country of just 350,000 to a state of almost civil war ( and please don't say that this was Nationalist ply, the Nationalist can't rabble rouse a bunch of rabbits going to slaughter), the burning of the TImes, and the smashing up of the Opposition Leader's house. And more, much more All this in the space of a decade and a half? And you conclude it wasn't that bad?
In the words of Winston Churchill “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
Julian Borg
Aug 23rd 2012, 11:13
How sad that being right justifies doing the wrong thing with all its consequences. Mintoff also locked out the Cable and Wireless employees for taking industrial action - but still reporting for work. I guess in your eyes this is right too - the party that was elected on the back of worker protection and trade unionism locks out workers for 7and a half months - with no pay to feed their families with - for taking industrial action backed by their union. THAT is what I remember about Mintoff. My father coming home in tears because he had no work and had to rely on donations to feed us.
The man was heartless and didnt give an iota about the suffering he imposed - as long as he did it his way. THAT is NOT RIGHT.
Joe Fenech
Aug 23rd 2012, 12:55
Put things into perspective:
How do you think changes were achieved abroad? By smiling and saying "please, thank you very much"? After millenniums of colonisation, Mintoff had to catch up on 800 years of history. That's how backwards the island was!
Julian Borg
Aug 23rd 2012, 22:47
My perspective is the indignity suffered by my father who was left without pay for 7 months because he followed a union directive and still reported to work. THAT is the falsehood that the MLP under Mintoff really was. Watching Super One you would never understand the perspective of the many who suffered under Mintoff's regime. The PL with Super One is working very hard to change history but those of us who lived through the terrible times know the TRUTH.
Ethelbert Schembri
Aug 23rd 2012, 11:07
First of all I am sorry for all the pain your family and especially your brother have to endure because of that stupid political argument !!
You are so right by stating that, people find it easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right ! But think about it, let's say that Mintoff backed down and scraped that law! The problem of shortage of doctors still wasn't going to be solved. And that strike was clearly politically motivated, and we also have the Karin Grech case that in the sentence the court connected it to the doctors strike and even stated that it was politically motivated, the proof of that is as you well said that just after the election of 1987 the strike was called of and an agreement was signed on the same lines of Mintoff proposals ..... that now we also know it wasn't Mintoff's but Dr Cassar the PN Minister of health that in 1969 came out with that proposal backed by the opposition, be he got scared and retreated !!
John Grech
Aug 23rd 2012, 11:00
Al, this is a great piece. Even though your family suffered alot due to that famous strike, you still managed to put the whole picture.
Others would have just pointed their finger to Prime Minister of that time.
His stubbornness was very wrong,but sometimes I think that this was due to the fact that such strikes (very common at that time) had a hidden agenda.
Peter Gee
Aug 23rd 2012, 12:08
Well, ask all those who had their property requisitioned if there was a hidden agenda, or ask those who were beaten up by the police for being in the wrong place at the wrong, or even those who suffered years with a next to inexistant water supply, I wont tell you to ask those who arent around any more to be able to answer.
Desiree' Attard
Aug 23rd 2012, 10:43
Thank you for this article Ms Bezzina. Finally reading that yes, he was right, by someone other than loyal Labourites feels so good - we need more people like you!
Franco Farrugia
Aug 25th 2012, 01:32
Tell me how old you are and then I will tell you a few things about the man!
Please choose the reason of your report below: