The Libyan spring has brought to an end Muammar Gaddafi’s 42-year dictatorship and the world looks forward, with enthusiasm, towards a new, democratic and free Libya.
...government-to-government relationship is entirely different from party-to-the-regime relationship...- Marthese Portelli
When, six months ago, the Libyan people took to the streets to, finally, bring down the Gaddafi regime, the Nationalist Party immediately expressed its support of their legitimate cause. The government, on its part, was the fourth in the EU and ninth in the world to express its support to the Libyan Transitional Council. Malta played a crucial role in the evacuation of thousands of men, women and children trapped in Libya. The government, notwithstanding the flak it got from the opposition, saved hundreds of lives at sea when neighbouring countries refused to help citing “national interest” as the cause for their shameful inaction.
Since then, a lot has been written and much has been said about which of the main political parties was closer to the Gaddafi regime. Many, including this newspaper, have described such squabbles as childish. Personally, I do not blame any Maltese government for having maintained close contacts with the Libyan government led by Colonel Gaddafi. We are very close, geographically, to Libya and we had no option but to have a working relationship with the Libyan government.
Of course, government-to-government relationship is entirely different from party-to-the-regime relationship and there is no denying that for more than 20 of the last 40 years, Labour maintained a too-close-for-comfort relationship with the Gaddafi regime. This has given rise to some very serious questions about how close and to what extent were the relationships between Labour and the Libyan dictator.
When a CIA document was published by Il-Mument, which revealed that, at least in one instance, the regime financed an MLP mass activity, the PN challenged Labour to come clean and rightly so. Unfortunately, Labour kept mum and the questions remain unanswered.
PN got the flak because, way back in 2004, it awarded Col Gaddafi an honorary medal. One may disagree with the honours given to Col Gaddafi by the then Nationalist Administration. However, truth be told, it was a PN Administration that revoked a shameful military agreement that an MLP Administration had signed with the Gaddafi regime. If that military agreement had not been revoked, Malta would have been unable to support all efforts to oust the Libyan dictator and help the Libyan people in their quest for freedom and democracy.
And it is precisely such military agreement and the too-close-for-comfort PL-regime relationship that raised eyebrows in Washington in 1986. Only recently, Il-Mument published a US policy document regarding Malta signed by US President Ronald Reagan in 1986. This document makes shocking reading and calls for a serious analysis on how the PL-regime relationship damaged Malta’s reputation and its international standing.
The document confirms, in black on white, that we were being suspiciously viewed and closely monitored by the US government, which considered Malta’s close ties with the Gaddafi regime as highly suspicious. Chunks of the mentioned document have been published. I find this analysis particularly worrying:
“The United States will maintain businesslike relations with the present regime but will not extend extraordinary support (eg, economic assistance or high-level visits) as long as the Maltese government’s erratic behaviour jeopardises Western interests and Malta’s democratic institutions.”
“Include Malta among those countries requiring close and continuous monitoring by the US intelligence community. Particular attention should be directed towards growing Libyan political, military and economic ties with and influence in Malta” – President Reagan; US Policy Toward Malta, The White House, February 12, 1986.
This document is worrying and confirms how damaging the very close ties between Labour and the Gaddafi regime were to Malta’s international repute. This is definitely not childish and confirms how fortunate this country was when, in 1987, there was a change of government and Malta’s relationship with Col Gaddafi was limited to a government-to-government relationship.
The man responsible for Malta’s foreign policy in 1986 was Alex Sceberras Trigona. Today he is the PL’s international secretary.
As recent as September 1, 2009, Dr Sceberras Trigona waxed lyrical about Labour’s love affair with the Colonel, describing as “glorious”, the relations Malta had in his time.“This Golden Age,” the PL international secretary mused, “in our bilateral relations is no more. There is no doubt about this. There is no special relationship between us anymore. Many contributed to construct that Golden Age in roughly the first 20 of the last 40 years. Many more contributed to destroy that Golden Age in roughly the last 20 years.”
The destroyer of the “golden age” Dr Sceberras Trigona refers to is certainly not the Labour Party.
Dr Portelli, a lawyer by profession, is president of the Nationalist Party’s executive committee.