Belonging "to the losing generation of Lab-ourites", a columnist of this daily wrote that "in the past, I sometimes reflected on how tough it must have been for those Nationalist activists who lived through the years 1971-1987 little realising that I myself would eventually go through the same experience". My God, what cheek! How can he compare what the Labourites experienced under a Nationalist government to what the Nationalists suffered through the years 1971-1987? Those years were not "tough", they were a nightmare, a 17-year long one which not only traumatised Nationalist activists but the whole nation!
The state was the be all and end all of all of us. It decided who was privileged and who was not; who would be given a licence to operate a business and who would not; who was given a building permit and who was not; what could be imported and what could not; who could have a telephone line, or a coloured TV set or who could not. Importation quotas were the order of the day and computers and cordless telephones were verboten, so were foreign pasta, toothpastes and chocolates. Private hospitals, clinics, schools etc. went through hell and back!
Under Labour, human rights were non existent. And, to top it all, for more than a couple of years with the non-constitution of the Constitutional Court, victims politically discriminated against simply had no remedy to right any wrong! But the negative ramifications of institutionalised corruption, political transfers and tight-knit monopolies fade in comparison to the constant unbridled violence the PN endured under Labour.
Spontaneous or otherwise, it took many forms: physical, verbal and psychological: abusive police raids, arrests, beatings and torture at the Police Depot. But by far the most atrocious crimes committed under (condoned by?) Labour were the murder of Raymond Caruana (December 5, 1986) and the infamous frame up when the weapon used for the crime was planted by the "powers that were" inside Pietru Pawl Busuttil's farm.
While repeated bombings and attacks on the PN Stamperija (printing press/headquarters) and clubs took place, the Labour regime turned a Nelson's eye, to say the least. No arrests were ever made and although various ministers were found guilty by the courts of breaching human rights there was not one resignation.
For the benefit of the columnist (cum readers) here are a few examples of Nationalists' life under his precious Labour: April 9, 1975 at 10.50 p.m. an explosion shook the Stamperija causing severe structural damage; August 13, soon after Parliament adjourned, Labour supporters attacked the PN clubs at Floriana and Valletta and then proceeded to break into the Stamperija . most workers were suffering from shock and a reduced version of the newspaper was printed; September 20, 1976 the party newspaper was not published as Labour supporters barred Stamperija employees from entering into their workplace; August 20, 1982, two armed men broke into Stamperija and beat up the night security officer; November 27, 1983, the police savagely raided the Stamperija leaving a trail of destruction in their path. In their frenzy they destroyed everything in sight forcing locks and bursting office doors open and even spat on the bust of former PN leader and Prime Minister George Borg Olivier. PN officials were forbidden from entering although they had the keys to all the offices they broke into! During this midnight search (for cordless phones!) these law enforcers, some 100 of them, armed with dogs, large crowbars and other war-faring tools were not even wearing uniforms.
Labour terrorising tactics varied. To create severe financial difficulties for the PN, via a judicial letter (April 9, 1975), the Stamperija was given two days to pay up its loan account with Bank of Valletta - an obvious attempt to shut down the Stamperija (the chairman of the bank at the time was Danny Cremona).
Moreover, the PN had to change the name of its newspaper In-Nazzjon Tag?na (November 1, 1978) because the government of the day, led by Dom Mintoff, censored the word "nazzjon"!
But Black Monday (October 15, 1979) was definitely the culmination of this reigning anarchy. Labour thugs, loose on our streets, burned down the Progress Press building (a reduced edition of The Times was printed at Stamperija), attacked the offices of the Church newspaper Il-?ajja in Valletta and the PN Birkirkara club and raided the residence of Eddie Fenech Adami, the PN leader - employees, families and kids flattened in one fell swoop.
We all remember the wild "aristocracy" of the 1980s, armed to their teeth, breaking into the Archbishop's Curia (bang opposite the police headquarters in Floriana!) and creating mayhem. The Stamperija continued calling in doctors urgently to cure the injured supporters.
The day after Mnarja (June 30, 1982) PN workers were beaten up by their fellow workers at the Drydocks. Nationalist supporters were regularly attacked by the Police Corps during and after their mass meetings, the most atrocious happening on November 30, 1986 when the Labour government decided that Tal-Barrani was a no-go area for some Maltese nationals in Malta! Instead of protecting the assaulted, the police aided and abetted the aggressors who were throwing missiles left, right and centre and mercilessly fired tear gas on the crowd. Many of the wounded had to be hospitalised.
I could go on and on as I will never forget that living hell. To rub salt in the mega-wounds afflicted under Labour, last month Mr Mintoff, Labour Prime Minister (1971-1984), won the Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights "in appreciation of those honourable leaders. who have stood by justice and rights and defended the causes of oppressed peoples". Oh well, in 1998 Fidel Castro received it too. Enough said.