Post-Boffa

I quote from the article in The Times of July 6, Sir Paul Boffa: The Doctor And Politician:

“The 72-year-old former Prime Minister (Boffa) had passed away, completely cut off from the Labour Party which he had helped set up.

And in the past 50 years he has not been given the due credit for all the achievements he brought about for the benefit of all Maltese.

“In fact, according to his biographer Desmond Zammit Marmarà, ‘the verdict of history on Sir Paul Boffa has been distorted and unfair’.

“Most of the political and socio-economic progress in Malta achieved by the government of Dom Mintoff was based on the pioneering work carried out by Sir Paul before him.”

And further down we read: “In the 1945 Council of Government, the Labour group, prodded the British Administration to better education. The result was the Compulsory Education Ordinance of 1946 which made it compulsory for children aged six to 14 to attend school.

“Another important achievement for Sir Paul was the granting of the vote to women over 21.

“All his efforts were rewarded in the general election of 1947 when the Labour Party won hands down. He reached the apex of his career by becoming Malta’s first Labour Prime Minister.

“During that legislature, there were another number of achievements including the Old Age Pensions Act of 1948 and the Income Tax Act of the same year.”

Maybe it’s because since childhood I’ve always had a soft spot for Dr Boffa as a politician, but I couldn’t resist feeling a little offended when – during the week following Mr Mintoff’s demise – I kept hearing the mantra that before his advent on the local political scene there was nothing done with measures favouring the working class.