Joseph Cassar: Gonzi and Malta’s Break with Gaddafi – Recollections of a Premier. Kite Group, 2013. 440 pp.
Some people think that the news bulletin says it all. After having heard the news on various media, these same people feel confident to comment about events as if they knew better than the protagonists themselves.
This book is proof that news bulletins give us only the bare facts; sometimes not even all of them. More often than not, news programmes are determined by the agency’s or station’s agenda, or by the position taken by a newspaper’s management regarding particular events or situations.
In this book, the reader finds much more than the bare facts. While recounting the story of the fall of the Gaddafi regime in Libya, author Joseph Cassar brings to the foreground the emotions of the chief protagonists.
He describes vividly the thoughts behind every single move of Malta’s then prime minister Lawrence Gonzi during the ordeal, in which Malta was very much involved as a regional humanitarian hub. This is a role for which Malta is well-famed.
The account in this book is based on Gonzi’s recollections and reflections regarding the period, complemented by the author’s research and experiences, having served as Maltese ambassador to Libya for some time.
At the beginning of the volume, there are two forwards: one by Mustafa Abdul Jalil, ex-chairman of the Libyan National Transitional Council, and the other by Mahmoud Gebril, ex-prime minister of Libya and also former member of the National Transitional Council that took over from the Gaddafi regime after the colonel’s death.
These two, together with the author, highlight the courage, the high-level leadership and especially the values that were the guiding light that helped Gonzi come out victorious from the ordeal, and to be showered with praise from all quarters.
European leaders held him in the highest esteem because of the impeccable way in which he handled the situation.
The book tells of Gonzi’s choice between Gaddafi and the Libyan people: a choice which, knowing the character of the former prime minister, was not that difficult to make. However, what made it difficult were the risks involved for our country, for the Maltese entrepreneurs and workers in Libya and for the families of the Libyan workers in Malta (who are quite a few).
These suffered the greatest of risks when Malta refused to hand back to Gaddafi the two fighter aircraft which had defected, after their pilots had been given the order to attack their Libyan brethrens. But still Gonzi said no, showing the kind of mettle he is made of and how much he values human life.
The author creates tension gradually, with every chapter
The difficulties posed by the situation in Libya were rendered even more problematic because of the many other problems Gonzi had to contend with during the last legislature.
The former prime minister had to take drastic and crucial decisions while Malta’s international and European partners were grappling with the worst financial crisis since the great depression of the 1930s.
In Malta, the debate leading to the referendum for the introduction of divorce legislation was raging fiercely. There was dissent in the parliamentary group and the opposition was being revamped under a new leader.
But all this brought out Gonzi’s statesmanship. In this book, he is shown as the champion of the underdog, the shield of the worker, the lover of justice, a hater of violence in all its forms, and the antagonist of all kinds of abuse of power.
As the true, great man that he is, he recognises the fact that Malta could not have come out victorious from the Libyan ordeal without the help of many quarters. He gives the highest credit to the likes of Carm Mifsud Bonnici, then Justice and Home Affairs Minister, the Government Contingency Group, various government departments and entities; NGOs; the Armed Forces of Malta and the police corps, naming former AFM commander Martin Xuereb and former police commissioner John Rizzo.
The book is very well written, and the author creates tension gradually, with every chapter, to reach the climax with Gaddafi’s death and the takeover by the Libyan National Transitional Council. This makes it somewhat difficult for the reader to lay down the book, because the end of each chapter arouses the curiosity to read more.
Congratulations to all those involved in the production of this book. I look forward to other books like this, which throw a deeper light onto the events we read about in the news bulletins; events which have a bearing on the lives of all of us.