maltatoday special report maltatoday special report

Straying from the straight and narrow path In the second ment, we read about the prema- narrow path of episode of the how the personal ture downfall of true socialism chronicles which enmity between the and had done so record how Dom Mintoff and in government. while trying to Mintoff Mintoff felt that remain, at least contributed to served as one of the Labour Party in appearance, a the fall of the the main cata- had strayed from traditional social- Labour govern- lysts that brought the straight and ist party . . . 16 maltatoday Sunday 16 June 2002

maltatoday special report ‘Mintoff is a traitor he is betraying Ma

15 June, House of Representatives 1998 DOM MINTOFF: After I day, nobody told me: Listen had told him that, he told me: you! Today we’re going to dis- "Don’t you trust me?" I replied cuss! Not that I would have that I did not and he asked gone, but I would have sent me why not. I told him: them a letter so that they "Because you were one of would have known what I was those who maintained that the going to do. There is no need cabinet had not done any- for them to put pressure on thing to hurt the small worker me to force me to go to the – I am referring here to the parliamentary group by force. water tariffs – and so I can’t And they never put pressure know what you’re going to do, on me to go. But on that day, and from today on, I’m not neither Joe Mizzi who is the going to trust anybody. I will Whip – He’ll excuse me if I trust only what I can see with don’t refer to him as Minister my eyes and touch with my Joe Mizzi, but I’m not in the hands." And he took offence habit of complimenting my and said: "After all, not you, friends – and if I did call him nor the Prime Minister provide minister its not to pester him, me with a living; I do what is because I’m meant to call him right." If I’m not reporting Parliamentary Secretary, but exactly what we said to each we’re not going to stay split- other, he can correct me. ting hairs between us – and Then I interjected and told nobody even told me that him: "I’m glad you’re telling there was going to be a meet- me this in front of the deputy ing of the Parliamentary leader of the party, because Group to discuss me. As if for me this is a confirmation somebody who wants to jus- that I’m not trying to bribe tice somebody else and is a you." This is what I told him. serious person doesn’t even Now what would somebody tell that person what he’s plan- else do – that day I did not tell ning to do! I am St Sebastian him this, but I’m telling him who gets filled with arrows! I today – It’s not my business. am the victim. But I would not have expect- ed that when I came here in MADAM SPEAKER: Hon- the evening and asked like a ourable Mintoff, I’m still wait- beggar for the motion not to ing for your allegations of a be voted on that evening but breach of privilege. the following day so that we could discuss it, neither one DOM MINTOFF: Yes, I’m side of the house or the other going to continue. (Interrup- the rules, because he has Then who controls it if not he? from the executiv wanted to postpone it. And tions) Is he taking offence at done wrong. That is why he Do I control it? It has become anybody else, be you are witness to this what I’m telling him? He said did not go in front of the his personal property; he is - He wasn’t Madam Speaker. I am saying this, not I! I repeat, Madam board of discipline, because Nobody else commands in against anyone b this because these things are Speaker, nobody told me any- he has committed a sin. He there. It has become his per- wasn’t there; here not in the minutes, meaning thing. But worse than this, he did not come to speak to me sonal property and he is – let’s see if he’s they are not recorded. To went there, told them that he because he has simmed. He helped by Evarist Bartolo. away from these those who were fooled into wanted to resign and asked spoke on television because Everybody knows this. You all went there and to believing that I was in cahoots them if there was somebody he sinned. He did not post- know this and you laugh! So ple: Mintoff is a tr with the other side, I tell them that could take his place. As pone the debate by one day what right did he have to hold betraying a that had they wanted to use if this is the way things should because he had sinned, a meeting in , in the party. What reas their heads that day, they happen Madam Speaker! because if he had, nothing heart of where I’ll be…And give? That I voted would have noticed that the Even I had resigned but I would have happened. But it don’t you think that I’m afraid party’s programm most obvious thing that gave plenty of time for people wasn’t enough that he did of going to Birgu! I am only this very same pr proves I was not ganging up to reflect and to think. Not this. The following morning afraid that the party is going in this programm with the other side was the frivolously! This is pretence, he held a so called press to break up, but if he wants to Prime Minister, m fact that they did not want to This is make believe. Natural- conference – I don’t know break it let him; I cannot stop whoever spoke u support my proposal to post- ly the Parliamentary Group what kind of police we have him. You are the ones who are we saying tha pone the vote, like I had told him that there was and whether they really want can stop him; you who are going to hire out asked them to. But the gov- nobody to take his place and to see that things are being there and who are telling him; for ninety-nine ye ernment side of the house had I been there, even I done in the proper legal way Destroy, destroy, destroy. there anything tha were so against me and were would have told him the because when you hold a at this in the prog so gullible that not only did same, because I don’t want conference you don’t come But I was not scandalised Are we, perhaps, they not give me a chance to him to resign, but to change equipped for a mass meeting that day because he held a in the programme talk, but, worse than that, they the path he has chosen . And and neither do you call the meeting, I was scandalised party we are sayi did not even tell me that there he knows that he has chosen Super I crew….And the Prime because off his own bat, ple are not going was going to be a meeting of the wrong path. That is why Minister cannot say that he without a mandate from the allowed to go the the parliamentary group! That he is not acting according to does not control Super One. parliamentary group, either they have to get t maltatoday Sunday 16 June 2002 17

maltatoday special report alta and the party’ Calling Mintoff a traitor - the most abysmal statement Sant ever made Former Foreign Minister and a Labour deputy in the 1996-1998 government, Alex Sceberras Trigo- na talked to MaltaToday on the 17 June 2001 and had this to say about the Mintoff-Sant Saga "I told him that during the first two there could have been an alterna- years in government, we had tive. become ‘PN2’," he says. "I’m not "I was recommending a summer for that, since we would end up break, which would have cooled with a military dictatorship. I don’t off heads and enabled us to estab- think that is at all useful for working lish bridges to help sort out wran- people in this country. Labour is gles," he explains. "This would Labour and should remain so." surely have been a better alterna- I am interested in why he tive to taking a massive gamble believes the former Prime Minis- and dashing to the polls." ter’s decision to opt for a prema- He also believes it was unrealistic ture election was unwise, since of Dr Sant to have expected the Sant himself, along with others, party executive to support him on described it at the time as some of his actions during that unavoidable. time of crisis. "We were elected for five years "Calling Mintoff a traitor - the most and I think the party should have abysmal statement Sant ever held fast, rather than risk abdicat- made - and then coming to the ing early," he answers. "We should- executive of the party in the n’t have denied Malta the three- evening and expecting them to and-half years we still had left. We ratify what he had said was asking didn’t even deny them that when too much," he says. "I raised my Fenech Adami was speaking of a hands and said I’m not going to be moral majority in 1981 – 1987. We a rubber stamp in this executive. carried on, despite the taunts, You called him a traitor yourself ve or from sion of a company? hidden anything from Malta, because we were the Constitution- this morning, so you bear the eing the bully or he who says all these al government." responsibility." t fighting But what did he say that is things without actually know- Dr Sceberras Trigona also points But Dr Sciberras Trigona’s ques- because I more important than this? ing anything?! Yesterday he out that the damage done from tioning of whether events in the e I am today First of all they included the patched things up and said losing the 1998 election is serious, summer of 1998 could have been going to run Libyans like Pilate in the Holy that I had the duty to tell and not yet quantifiable in all dealt with in a better way is not lim- facts – he Creed. He said: "Mintoff had them why I went to Libya. areas. ited to the Labour government; he old the peo- no right to go and to Libya But I say: Who did I have to "What is evident is that the situa- also questions whether the Presi- raitor he is and speak in the name of the inform? When I wanted to tion regarding certain issues high dent was empowered to grant the and the Labour Party, the Nationalist speak to George Vella about on Labour’s agenda will have calling of the general election and sons did he Party or of anybody else. " foreign affairs, he didn’t turn worsened even further by the time suggests he might have been d against the First of all he should have up. So who am I to talk to? it gets back into government," he swayed in his decision-making. me. But in asked me. In the first place, Who did I have to speak to, says. "The public sector deficit will "There are rules for a motion of no rogramme; he should have asked me had I wanted to tell them? have worsened and cronyism will confidence," he says. "It was mere- me; of the what I went to do in Libya Now I did not need to speak have increased, for example. ly a resolution on a yacht marina, "The centre of political gravity has not a bill to enact a law, so I don’t mine and of and not stoop to such a level to anyone because I did not moved much more to the right and believe the President should even up to now, where he asked the Libyans do anything against Malta, it will be much more difficult to pull have recognised Sant’s subjective at we’re what I went there for. And if and later on I’ll show him how it back, even if there is a Labour characterisation of it as a motion of the quays the Libyans decided not to much I worked in Malta’s victory. These are the costs of no confidence. His decision ears? Is tell him why I went there, how interests while I was there abdicating power and the whole showed he had ‘some winds blow- at intimates was he going to get satisfac- and I’ll make him blush. country is having to bear them." ing’ and couldn’t resist the oppor- gramme? tion? He has not, to date, Because I did not go there to But isn’t it fair to say that the tunity." , saying that asked me why I went to further my own interests, but Labour government would have Dr Sceberras Trigona believes e of the Libya and yet he has con- those of Malta. And then I’ll remained a figurehead, unable to that the way the European Union is ing that peo- demned me! He has called show him who betrayed govern properly and pass laws, if overshadowing so much discus- g to be me traitor of Malta, but I ask Malta, whether it was him Dr Sant hadn’t gone to the polls, I sion at a parliamentary level has ere, or that him: Who is the traitor of or I. ask? put politics into a transitory phase. the permis- Malta? I, who have never Dr Sceberras Trigona believes