Sir Paul Boffa was no ordinary man. As in the case of all extraordinary people, he led a life that changed and affected the lives of Maltese society of his time. And he did this with grace, gentlemanly conduct and a lot of sacrifice for him and the family who suffered with him.
... the Labour Party leadership at the time could have done more to build bridges again with Sir Paul (Boffa)...- Owen Bonnici
Post-war Malta was an exciting time. The winds of change blew with decisive force and there was a total sense of transformation in our streets, villages and cities. Even on the political level, the political parties endured a painful soul-searching exercise and a whole rethinking.
The Nationalist Party at the time was still handicapped by the passing away of that great gentleman, Sir Ugo Mifsud, who, at the age of 34, become the youngest Prime Minister in Maltese history and the youngest Prime Minister at the time in the Commonwealth.
He died, as we all know, while defending in Parliament a number of fellow Maltese citizens from being illegally shipped to Uganda and elsewhere.
“Qed inħossni ħażin” (I am feeling sick) were Sir Ugo’s famous last words as he was listing the reasons why the British Empire was committing a grave injustice with the so-called internati.
The Labour Party had been set up only 26 years before and during that period it had seen a steady downfall in popular support following the quasi-coalition with Gerald Strickland’s party.
Sir Paul Boffa was the only Labour Party representative elected to the Legislative Assembly in the last election held under the Amery-Milner Constitution (1932) and to the Council of Government (1939).
Yet, during this exciting post-war period, substantial demographic moves and shifts were taking place with mass emigration, new communication systems (aviation, Rediffusion and so on) and accelerating secularisation. And, of course, the MacMichael Constitution, promulgated by Letters Patent of September 5, 1947, restored responsible self-government on the island.
In the first election under the new 1947 Constitution, the people of Malta and Gozo at that point in time saw in Sir Paul Boffa the man for the future. He was determined to reconstruct a new Malta and came out with a grand legislative programme aimed at creating social justice at a time where there was none. The people elected him, with a landslide, the first ever Labour Prime Minister in Malta and probably one of the first Labour Prime Ministers in Europe (perhaps second only to Clement Atlee).
In that legislature, Sir Paul’s party secured 60 per cent of all the votes and 24 seats out of 40. Over 100 laws of a social character were programmed for the following three to five years and Sir Paul, with the benefit of hindsight, can be claimed to be one of the fathers of social legislation in Malta as his were the ideas for the creation of a true and proper welfare state and investment in the fields of compulsory education, old-age pensions, public health and social policy and voting rights to women. He was also an ardent advocate of the Maltese language.
As we all know, Sir Paul was dispatched from the headship of the Labour Party on October 9, 1949 when his deputy, Dom Mintoff, secured 244 votes in the party’s general conference as opposed to Sir Paul’s 141. Sir Paul quickly formed a new party, the Malta Workers’ Party, along with other 14 MPs and, through his skill and experience, managed to secure crucial Democratic Action Party and Gozo Party votes to keep on leading the country for another nine months until he was defeated on a vote on the general estimates for 1950-1951.
It was said in the Bulletin of July 1, 1950 that the Gozo Party’s decision not to support Sir Paul was due to the government’s refusal to employ a candidate recommended by the Gozo Party for the post of hospital cook. From what I have heard about the erstwhile Prime Minister from his family, Sir Paul would not bend the rules for whatever cause, so much so that he had even refrained from intervening when his mother needed hospitalisation and he was the minister responsible for hospitals in the subsequent PN-MWP coalition.
Sir Paul holds the record of being the only Prime Minister to date to serve as a minister in subsequent governments – something which happens recurrently in countries like Italy – under the headship of another Prime Minister, in this case Giorgio Borg Olivier, in 1951 and 1953 until his retirement.
Sir Paul and his family passed through hard times following the split within the Labour Party and I believe there were instances where the Labour Party leadership at the time could have done more to build bridges again with Sir Paul, particularly at the end of the 1950s. It would have only been historically just and fair had things happened that way.
Fifty years have passed since the passing away of this gentleman. To his family and admirers I say: I am sure you are proud for all the good it-tabib Boffa has done to the people who needed most help and assistance in the post-war period. I, as a Labour MP, am humbled at the privilege of serving the people through the very same Labour Party that Sir Paul nurtured and led and remained attached to his heart till the very end.
Truly, he was no ordinary man.
owen@owenbonnici.com
Dr Bonnici is a Labour MP.