The many sides of Dom Mintoff

A lot of people have accused former Prime Minister Dom Mintoff of being a miser. Maybe he was, I don’t know. What I do know is that the President Agatha Barbara told me, in an interview about a year before she passed away, that Mr Mintoff used to regularly give her money to pass on to philanthropic organisations.

He insisted with her not to tell anyone about his donations. Ms Barbara warned me not to mention anything about this in the interview. However, now that both have passed away, I thought I should share this experience with the readers of this newspaper.

Another thing I would like to share is what the late former President, the much loved and respected Guido de Marco, said about Mr Mintoff in my presence and in the presence of two mutual friends.

Prof. de Marco was speaking about his great friendship with “Dom” and the respect they held for each other, and then said: “Compared to Dom, we politicians are pygmies. He deserved to be a Prime Minister of a much bigger country and not a small island like Malta”.

To be fair to Prof. de Marco, he also said that, in order to attain his goals Mr Mintoff would not hesitate to resort to violence. Indeed, he added, Mr Mintoff once told him that he accepted the fact and almost justified Archbishop Michael Gonzi’s decision to impose the mortal sin on the Labour Party.

Mr Mintoff did not say so publicly, of course, but according to Prof. de Marco he believed that if his opponent had a weapon it was only fair that he used it as he would have done in the same situation, as if to say that for him “all is fair in love and war”.

At that time, Prof. de Marco was working on his autobiography, but when I asked him if he was going to include what he had told us, he just smiled.

It was also interesting to note what John Attard Montalto wrote in The Times (August 24) about his friendship with Mr Mintoff.

I was surprised, or rather flabbergasted, to read that Mr Mintoff had sent him to Archbishop Joseph Mercieca “with an offer to buy the Curia building in Floriana to convert it into a new Labour Party headquarters”.

Well, judging from what Dr Attard Montalto wrote, apparently it’s true what many close friends of Mintoff say about the man.

He did have a lovely sense of humour after all!