I have not yet seen the film Dear Dom but I intend to. I am pleased that, at last, someone has managed to produce a docu/film on Mr Mintoff.

I returned to Malta after many years overseas in 1993. I was not here during the 1970s and 1980s so what I know is what I heard and read and even at a young age those years made an impression on me.

On my return, I found that a chunk of Maltese history had been omitted or altered to suit those who didn’t want the full story of the shameful 1950s and 1960s to be told. What I can say is that thousands of Maltese families, mine included, had to leave for a better life.

Mr Mintoff changed Malta through the introduction of social services, free education and so on.

I remember my mother and father leaving Sunday Mass along with many others disgusted at the way some priests conducted themselves – the fear they instilled in people who were Mr Mintoff’s sympathisers.

We are told these days that Mr Mintoff did not want independence for Malta. This also is an untruth. He did not want it under the conditions that were agreed upon.

The bottom line is that now is the time to start teaching students our recent history without bias or hate.

Malta would not be where it is today without Mr Mintoff’s contribution. The same as it would not be where it is without Eddie Fenech Adami’s contribution. A number of people have demonised Mr Mintoff, so it’s time for our historians and the Labour Party to help set the record straight.