A book chronicling the life and politics of Dom Mintoff was unveiled yesterday at the former Prime Minister’s favourite residence, L-Għarix, under the imposing chimney of the Delimara power station.
“There could not be a more fitting place for this launch,” said the book’s editor Mario Cutajar, adding that the house was a witness to Mr Mintoff’s personal and political life, as well as the place he used to practice his hobbies: swimming and walking.
“Many of us know this house well and it reminds us of when it was one of the most beautiful places in Malta... before it was ruined and given the worst possible mark of unsustainable development,” Mr Cutajar said, sardonically. His cue was immediately taken up by Mr Mintoff’s daughter, Yana Mintoff Bland, who sighed aloud and described the development as “shameful”.
The house, situated on the once idyllic coast of Delimara, was the subject of an infamous and lengthy lawsuit which saw Mr Mintoff awarded more than €800,000 in 2006 for its de facto expropriation.
He had sued the authorities for building the power station in 1987 five metres away from the house, depriving him of the enjoyment of his property. The Mintoffs also got to keep the property.
L-Għarix, which is not often accessible to the public or the press, has seen better days.
Though someone seems to be taking care of the small fields around the farmhouse, the broken glass of some of the house’s green-coated wooden apertures gives the impression is has been abandoned.
But under the branches of a budding olive tree, some of Mr Mintoff’s old friends, family members and admirers, breathed life back into the house yesterday as they enthusiastically unveiled a book they had been working on for almost a year.
Printed by the publication house of the Labour Party, Sensiela Kotba Soċjalisti, the book, titled Mintoff: Il-Bniedem u L-Istorja, is a collection of essays in Maltese by academics and people who knew Mr Mintoff closely.
It includes contributions by Labour MEP and economist Edward Scicluna, philosopher Oliver Friggieri, priest Mark Montebello and anthropologist Jeremy Boissevain, among many others. It also features some of the former Prime Minister’s key speeches and writings.
“This book is intended to seriously begin the discussion on Mintoff,” Mr Cutajar said, pointing out the book’s limitations in terms of its exhaustiveness. However, he said, the book did not shy away from the controversial aspects of Mr Mintoff’s career.
“Facts are facts. We tried to be as objective as possible,” he said.
The foreword, written by Labour leader Joseph Muscat, says the book was not written to glorify Mr Mintoff’s cult but to start carefully weighing the actions and understanding the work of the complex personality who changed so many lives.
The book also includes a final chapter about Mr Mintoff’s death at the age of 96 last August, closing with an elegy, written by Charles Flores, all about Mr Mintoff’s last words: “Itfuli ħa norqod” (Turn off the lights, let me sleep).
It is available from leading bookshops for €30.