Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1483500
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 6 NOVEMBER 2022 OPINION 5 Saviour Balzan THE former Labour prime min- ister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, who passed away this week at 89, clearly benefited from a general consensus about who he was a man: a gentleman, exemplary, honest, unassuming, kind, and affable... all words that befit the humanity with which, it seems, he was disposed, especially in his outlook towards the Maltese working-class. Alas, there is a vast gap in per- ception between the private Mifsud Bonnici and the politi- cian that was to be hand-picked by Dom Mintoff as his desig- nate-leader, second-in-com- mand, and 'interregnum' prime minister in preparation for the 1987 election... and I find it very hard to treat the two personas, as two different people. The truth is that Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici – despite his ap- parent Christian piousness and socialist affirmation – was un- suitable for politics. It is a truth as clear as that. He had no charisma for the job, and perhaps even because of that, equally shorn of any need for ambition or vision, with the pitfalls of personal corruption that such qualities might beget. Yes he was 'honest', but that is not always something that makes effective politics. Indeed, I'd say he lacked any clarity in the way he thought. He was dangerously anchored in cli- chés of 'us and them', he foment- ed fictitious scenarios over fact- based politics, and he was unable to read the times. His shrill ser- mons to the public, very often outlandish ramblings, were all we could get from Mifsud Bon- nici. For in reality, he was just Dom Mintoff's pawn. In this unas- suming lawyer to the General Workers Union, an unmarried Christian man devoted to God and untouched by the sins of the flesh (interestingly, very much unlike the debauched Mintoff), the fiery Labour patriarch found the ideal successor – someone he could influence and control after his departure. Not one of the contenders from within his Cabinet, but his imposed choice for designate-leader, deputy PM and finally Prime Minister after announcing his semi-de- parture from politics after the 1981 election, when Labour re- gained power with less votes but enough seats for a Constitution- al mandate. For even after 1984's ascent to power for Mifsud Bonni- ci, Mintoff was still pulling the strings, barking orders from his personal office at the House of Four Winds in Valletta. He had manouvered it rather well – picking a low-profile lawyer specialising in industrial rela- tions for the GWU to scotch the leadership ambitions of Lorry Sant and other errant ministers; Mintoff feared they would take over Labour, and with their own criminal associations, lead the party further astray. But Mifsud Bonnici turned out to be a hopeless prime minister, with little appreciation of how his words and his decisions had an influence on the rest of the country. He was unable to be vigilant with his statements in public, often energising those thugs from the Labour Party to take the law into their hands. During his tenure, the forces of law and order, and the insti- tutions continued to deteriorate and he neither had the gravitas nor the authority to halt the mayhem around him. Only months into his premier- ship in 1984, Malta Drydocks workers ransacked and vandal- ised the offices of the Curia af- ter a demonstration at which Mifsud Bonnici was present and did nothing to calm the thugs at the demo. It was not a turning point, but confirmation that the same history of violence under the Mintoff years would contin- ue unabated with Mifsud Bonni- ci as premier. Mifsud Bonnici always made it a point a point to blame the Na- tionalists for creating the right climate for violence and even accusing the Opposition, and I quote his precise words, as "vio- lent". Certainly, nobody is with- out blemish for what happened in the 1980s, including the bomb attacks on state property and po- lice stations. But it was Mifsud Bonnici who was prime minister then. The messy reform of the Church schools continued to reaffirm Mifsud Bonnici's ability to propagate chaos without even trying. It was a period where many Maltese youths were dis- placed and confused by the un- certainty in education. His role in the EgyptAir hijack chaos showed the inability of a man propelled into a position that was too lofty for him to manage. And though the PN in oppo- sition were far from virginal, nothing could justify the La- bour administration's failures. The police, under Labour in the 1980s, were largely motivated by their political leanings. At the time, many people of my age who were left-wing and could not associate with the Na- tionalist Party found themselves alienated by Mifsud Bonnici's mediocre leadership. Not only did he conjure up fears based on pure fiction – such as link- ing AIDS with the European Economic Community! – but he fanned a foreign policy which brought us closer to dictators such as Libya's Gaddafi and a politics of near-autarky. Political division and tribalism was already a problem in the 1980s but with Mifsud Bonnici it became far worse. It culminat- ed in the murder of Raymond Caruana in a Nationalist Party club in December 1986, a mur- der that continued to raise the tensions in Maltese society and across local communities. Mifsud Bonnici's failure in controlling Police Commission- er Lawrence Pullicino and the Special Mobile Unit, with a com- plete disregard for basic human rights, culminated in the collu- sion of the police with Labour thugs as was the case at Tal-Bar- rani in Żejtun in 1986. Even with Lorry Sant, the min- ister responsible for what was a free-for-all in building permits, Mifsud Bonnici was simply too tame or powerless to take any action. In spite of his political failures, a drive to employ thousands with the State before the 1987 May election nearly cost Eddie Fenech Adami his chance of winning the election. In the end the PN won the election with a slim majority. I remember that period very well: I was in my early 20s, un- willing to vote for the National- ist Party but angry and frustrat- ed with a Labour Party that was rudderless and insensitive to the sufferings of so many people. After 1987, Mifsud Bonnici be- came an ardent anti-European spouting stupidities and wacky arguments about neutrality and EU accession, hosted by fringe TV stations such as Smash. Af- ter 1992, the former PM was not taken seriously anymore. When it comes to honouring politicians and public figures in Malta, there is always the ten- dency to adulate and praise the individual and forget the blun- ders and sins. The same applies to Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, who will be remembered as a serious and competent lawyer, a very nice guy with a gentle heart. But no matter what the obituar- ies will say, as a politician he was a fiasco, and he presided over a tumultuous period of political violence. It hurts me that the Labour Party had to pass through this period, but reneging on history and irrefutable facts is not the remit of a journalist. It is for the revisionists and apologists. Nice guy Karmenu. But Mifsud Bonnici as PM was a fiasco Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici