DOM MINTOFF – the man who smashed the Church + PN stranglehold exploitation of Malta by exposing ign
One has often had doubts as to the degree of sanity – or otherwise – that permeates from the Allied Malta Newspapers stable (the ToM and the SToM).
These doubts were dispelled by last night’s opening paragraph description of the unveiling of the new Dom Mintoff Monument at Castile in “The Times Online”.
The paragraph read:
“The monument dedicated to Dom Mintoff is a celebration of Malta's present and future, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said on Thursday evening moments before the unveiling of the statue of the conservative prime minister at Castille Square.”
Dom Mintoff, a CONSERVATIVE Prime Minister ... good Almighty God!!!!!! One has to be living in “Never-Never land” to come out with this description. It beggars belief. I had to read the paragraph several times to ensure I was reading and understanding it properly.
Mintoff created an overnight revolution to realise his vision that the one and only path for Malta to progress needed to have as its cornerstone the destruction of the stranglehold exploitation of the country by the Church and the Nationalist Party, working together to maintain general all-round ignorance and fear of change.
And he suffered for it and suffered badly. For being truthful and for being Maltese he suffered the consequences of being vilified in every possible way by both organisations – pictured to be a rabid Communist (which he was not), an undercover Soviet stooge (which he was not) and a man determined to stamp the Church and religion out of Malta’s culture (which he did not).
He and his followers were interdicted and ostracised. Church bells and jeering crowds blowing piercing whistles awaited him at every public meeting he held. Posters showed him destroying crucifixes, smashing churches, bullying priests and nuns and being in league with the Devil.
His other cornerstone vision was the elimination of Malta’s colonial status in the then British Empire. Mintoff strongly felt Malta had been hard done by, particularly after the great suffering and damage sustained during World War II.
He saw two solutions (1) Malta’s full Integration with Britain as a country with equal social and economic status (2) failing that, total Independence.
The British mainly viewed Integration poorly – the cheek of this upstart Maltese politician wanting his country Malta to have an equal social and economic standing with the British, even being represented at Westminster! Unbelievable – was he not aware that Britain had ruled India and Pakistan, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, many countries in Africa and for some time, even the United States? The cheek and audacity of the man!
On the home front some social and economic reform had already been brought about by his Labour Party predecessor and mentor Pawlu Boffa. But Mintoff reasoned that time was short and the road ahead a lengthy and difficult one. He ousted Boffa and took the Leadership of the Malta Labour Party – and the revolution began.
In 1955 he was elected Prime Minister but after failing to make headway with Britain, besides continual deliberate obstruction at home from the Church and the PN, he resigned in 1958 – and turmoil followed.
By 1971, the Maltese and Gozitan electorate had regained its sensibility and Mintoff was back at the country’s helm – and the revolution took off, full speed ahead.
In a span of ten years be brought about the greatest social and economic change that established the cornerstones of what Malta and Gozo are today – a totally independent country in charge of its own destiny and again, thankfully under a Labour Government with Joseph Muscat now at the helm, continuing the great revolution that the great Dom Mintoff had started.
And so – Dom Mintoff – the ONE AND ONLY. He was nicknamed “The Saviour” and I repeat that – not in the religious sense Edwin Vassallo style by naming a new Our Lady of Sorrows for Malta – but in the sense that first and foremost he saved Malta from eternal damnation under the Church and the Nationalist Party.
A “CONSERVATIVE PRIME MINISTER” indeed!
ALBERT JEROME FENECH
