Last Monday, former Prime Minister and Malta Labour Party leader Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici lambasted the present Administration on several counts.
I can never forget that this silly old man played a very important part in the evolution of Malta’s vibrant democracy
These included the disclosure that he considered the invitation he received to join the celebrations commemorating Malta’s EU membership as an insult, as well as his unrelenting pooh-poohing of the idea of the ‘founding’ of a second Republic through a constitutional convention and of the notion that the constitution’s neutrality clause needs updating.
He even openly criticised his successor in the Labour Party leadership, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, by saying that: “Anybody who is serious does not simply say the constitution should change but will outline the principles that have to change or be introduced.”
Mifsud Bonnici is undoubtedly Malta’s last surviving political dinosaur. His reading of the local political scene as well as his approach to Malta’s international relations seems to be the result of the weird idea that nothing has happened in the last half century. In short, he lives in a time warp.
Yet the man has his redeeming features. When Mintoff anointed him his successor, he did so to avoid the possibility of Labour falling into the wrong hands. He did so also to ensure the transfer of power to the Nationalist Party if Labour were to fail to get the support of the majority in the 1987 election.
Mifsud Bonnici suited this purpose and fulfilled this mission adequately, even if Mintoff at one point in time publicly regretted the mistake he had done in choosing him as his successor.
Sure enough, Mifsud Bonnici had to pass through the test of fire to be acknowledged as leader by the aggressive pack – a test that made him a bête noir to many. His infamous participation in a demonstration that went on to attack the Curia in Floriana – even if after he was no longer present – is, perhaps, the moment when he became loved and hated most. To some he proved his mettle. To others he proved his sheer helplessness.
I need not mention names, but there were people within Labour who would not have accepted a Labour election defeat in 1981 when Labour won the majority of seats with a minority of votes. Ironically that perverse result, which put a discredited Labour in power, avoided a much worse predicament.
By 1987, the power game within Labour had somewhat shifted, with Mintoff’s successor, Mifsud Bonnici, recognising the limits of the dangerous game Labour had been playing in the very core of the framework of Malta’s democracy.
The security forces surrounding the Ta’ Qali counting hall in 1981 were in the hands of people whose commitment to certain elements in labour was unquestioned. If Labour did not garner the majority of seats in that election, Malta would have probably ended up in the most tragic situation of its post-independence history.
That it did not happen can be attributed to many factors, although there was also an element of luck. Mifsud Bonnici was in the counting hall all the time, but he had no power except to offer a number of PN candidates and counting agents to escort us back home out of the counting hall and through the armed security rings that surrounded it.
Not so in 1987. Much later, I once had the opportunity to discus the matter with the late Brigadier John Spiteri who was head of the Armed Forces and who in 1987 was personally entrusted by Mifsud Bonnici to be responsible for security in the counting hall and to ensure that the democratic process is not undermined in one way or another. Spiteri reversed the security arrangements that were in place five years previously and ensured that the key positions were under his control and in the hands of people he could trust.
When it was obvious that the Nationalist Party had garnered a majority of votes but before the new Prime Minister was sworn in, Mifsud Bonnici came under intense pressure to resign the Labour leadership. This would have made it possible for others to take over the party and hence the country, irrespective of the election outcome. Eventually, Mifsud Bonnici ended up in hospital and Labour was run for a short period by others, rather than by the would-be leader of a coup.
Malta is one of a few former colonies where there was no coupd’état after the attainment of independence. This is to our credit. But also to the credit of Mifsud Bonnici, who knew quite well where the buck stopped and the importance of the rule of law as well as the basic tenets of democracy that put the people’s will before all else.
So when I read the silly and inane statements that Mifsud Bonnici utters from time to time from his chair as president of the Campaign for National Independence, I do not laugh as much as some others do.
After all, I can never forget that this silly old man played a very important part in the evolution of Malta’s vibrant democracy.
micfal@maltanet.net