It is a tale of two articles. One an editorial which appeared in this newspaper on September 7 and the other an opinion piece of mine published in In-Nazzjon on the same day.
... surely we should be entitled to challenge and question why certain decisions surrounding Mintoff’s funeral were taken and by whom- Salvu Felice Pace
I’m sure it is not a case of great minds think alike. I do not consider myself a great mind. It was more a confirmation of the revulsion felt by thousands of Maltese to the excesses indulged in by the Labour Party from the moment Dom Mintoff’s death was announced on August 20.
At the centre of both articles was the misplaced kiss planted by Labour leader Joseph Muscat on Mintoff’s coffin as the cortege stopped briefly at the party headquarters. The Times’ editorial argued that the kiss went beyond what was necessary and described it an act of “political naivety”. I called it an act of political “dishonesty” performed by a politician who, back in 1998, wrote profusely in order to further isolate Mintoff from Alfred Sant’s Labour Party, particularly when Muscat then wrote that “the party has shown enough patience towards Mintoff. It is only because of Mintoff’s stature that he has not been expelled from the party”.
The Times’ editorial argued that so many thousands of Maltese who suffered under the administrations led by Mintoff may have been upset by that kiss.
I wondered how Sant must have felt and with him all those Maltese who suffered exile, penury and dehumanisation under Mintoff’s regimes. The use of the funeral of a political giant to offend half the population of our islands was a major case of political misjudgment.
I too called Mintoff a political giant but I quickly added that he was weak too as he consistently failed to use his strength and power to stop the excesses that marred his political and social achievements.
He ran roughshod over people’s rights, allowed the requisition of State and private properties for political purposes and did nothing to stop political violence, which used to occur very frequently without anyone ever being hauled to the courts. That kiss by Muscat was the most insensitive political act we have seen for a very long time.
But that was not all. Seeing Mintoff’s coffin entering several churches, culminating in the Pontifical Mass praesente cadavere at St John’s Co-Cathedral, raised several eyebrows.
Neither the Church nor the State should feel any awkwardness about this. They both did what they had to do. It is Mintoff’s family and the Labour Party that rightly took charge of the details once it was agreed that Mintoff deserved a State funeral. Mintoff wasn’t shy to declare, as far back as 1981, that “I know that in order to believe in Christ one does not need to go to church and I do not go to church”.
To my knowledge, Mintoff never publicly retracted that statement during the long life that God regaled him with. Neither did he ever retract the many insults he hurled at Church authorities and at the religious beliefs of the majority of Malta’s population.
Some would argue, of course, that Mintoff, a sinner like so many ordinary people, could have repented and, therefore, there was nothing wrong in giving him a Church funeral. But Mintoff was no ordinary person. He lived his life under the public gaze, leading from the front, and everything he said was said for a purpose. We have to assume that Mintoff did what he did in his relationship with the Church, and said what he said, in conformity with his own conscience.
The people have been left wondering whether Mintoff would have wanted a Church funeral. Is it possible that, as a matter of conscience, Mintoff made his intentions clear that he would not have wished for a Church funeral? If that were the case, were his intentions thwarted for political reasons? We have the right to know.
The lack of religious sensitivity exhibited during Mintoff’s funeral irked and hurt thousands of people. Mintoff, I have been told, once made a public declaration that he kissed no images of the Madonna.
Yet, a set of rosary beads were intertwined round his fingers for all to see. Is that what Mintoff wanted?
As our society reaches maturity, thanks to the liberty that we cherish and enjoy (the same liberty that Mintoff for a time denied us), surely we should be entitled to challenge and question why certain decisions surrounding his funeral were taken and by whom.
After all, we taxpayers, including those who suffered years of political persecution under Mintoff’s regimes, had to foot the bill for his funeral.