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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 2 MARCH 2014 16 News News The 'edification' of history Eddie Fenech Adami's memoirs have stirred memories of political tensions of yesteryear. But how accurate are those memories? RAPHAEL VASSALLO takes 'A Journey' to find out BIOGRAPHIES of the great and the powerful will often provide unique insights into a country's his- tory. But, by definition, they will also tend to look at history from a uniquely personal and ultimately questionable perspective. So it was when former British Prime Minister Tony Blair wrote his memoirs, and was criticised for try- ing to whitewash his involvement in the 2004 invasion of Iraq. Bill Clin- ton's 'My Life' was similarly panned for its mulish self-defence over the Lewinski affair; and a recent biogra- phy on Lady Margaret Thatcher was seen as a posthumous attempt to gloss over the more divisive aspects of her leadership. Eddie Fenech Adami's recent auto- biography 'My Journey' is no differ- ent, except perhaps in the scale and character of the events described. And spanning 40 years of political activity, there is certainly no short- age of historical vicissitudes for the former prime minister to relive as he turned 80 last Friday. That he does so from the same self- exonerating perspective common to all political biographies is perhaps unsurprising. And like all such mem- oirs, it was expected that its publica- tion would bring dissenting voices out of the woodwork, forcing us to question various interpretations of an otherwise factual historical ac- count. 'Eddie Fiducja' At a cursory reading, the book it- self – compiled from interviews with journalist and editor Steve Mallia – makes no secret of its inherent bias. Fenech Adami candidly admits that the Nationalist Party he steered for almost 30 years was not perfect and had 'made mistakes'. But underpin- ning all such admissions is an un- swerving confidence in the moral and political direction of his own leadership… the same unshakable conviction that once inspired the electoral slogan, 'Eddie Fiducja'. One of the mistakes he attributes to himself was his underestimation of Labour leader Alfred Sant in the run-up to the 1996 election, which Fenech Adami lost seemingly against the odds. "We had our faults as a govern- ment, but at least we had a strategy and knew where we were going," he recalls. Sant, on the other hand, failed to embrace Fenech Adami's own aspi- ration for a Malta anchored in the EU port – and refused to change his position despite repeated pleas by the Nationalist Party. Fenech Adami's verdict? "Under Sant, Malta had no vision for the fu- ture." Predictably, Alfred Sant himself disagrees… not only on his own lack of vision, but also on the direc- tion taken by his former rival when in government. In a formal reaction to the book launch, the Labour MEP candidate reminded an interviewer that history is inevitably a "two-way affair". "When you talk about someone of the political stature of Dr Fenech Adami, you must neither canonise nor demonise him. In his own per- spective and that of his party, he ob- tained considerable success. He won various elections, and was a prime agent in the fact that Malta became a member of the European Union, as he himself wanted." But a more complete account of his career, Sant adds, would also have to include the inculcation of a "money no problem" attitude that, "in the longer term, led to the introduction of aspects which resulted in waste, in negligence on the administration of government assets, and also in a cer- tain carelessness regarding the need for the country to modernise its ad- ministrative structures". Sant also takes the former prime minister to task on promises of jus- tice that were never fulfilled. "For years in opposition, Fenech Adami claimed to have information of the murder of an innocent child" – a ref- erence to the death by letter-bomb of 13-year-old Karin Grech in 1977 – "but then, when in government, he never took action on what he said he knew". Nor did he cleanse the police or other national security nexuses of corrupt or dangerous elements, as he had earlier promised. "All this leads me to conclude that the two-way history of Dr Eddie Fenech Adami has yet to be written," Sant said. 'Prime liars' An even earlier rival, former prime minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, was altogether more scathing in his reaction to the 'edification' of recent history. "Politics brought out bad qualities in Eddie Fenech Adami that I never knew existed, when we were friends in the law course and the 'apostolat'," he recalls. "He was the most divisive Opposition leader this country has ever seen. Let us not forget the acts of terrorism, both psychological and material, that took place in those years…" Naturally, it is debatable which of these two versions of the 'terror- ism' of the 1970s and 1980s – which Fenech Adami ascribes to forces close to Mifsud Bonnici's govern- ment – is closer to the truth. The full history of those years has evidently not yet been written, either. But Mifsud Bonnici's reaction alone is enough to recall an echo of the political tensions of the time, and which have never fully evaporated: "The fact that [Fenech Adami] de- scribes me as the most corrupt poli- tician ever, because I tolerated things that were being done by the party, is something I think he should attribute to himself, because he blessed and sponsored everything the Opposi- tion did at the time… But the thing I resented the most, and that I object- ed to the most, was the way he com- pletely twisted facts… so much that I nicknamed him, not prime minister, but 'prime liar' ('prim giddieb')…" The Dalli Code But while all this may be expected from the recollections of rival politi- cal leaders, there are moments when Fenech Adami's memories seem to conflict with those of the protago- nists from within his own party. The ill-fated leadership bid by former finance minister John Dalli, and the subsequent clash with Ed- die's successor Lawrence Gonzi, stands out as perhaps the most vivid example of a tale which alters with the telling. Fenech Adami devotes a substan- tial part of two chapters to the con- troversial former European Commis- sioner who had engineered so much of Malta's financial metamorphosis under the PN. But John Dalli himself adds a somewhat different perspec- tive to these memories. In comments to MaltaToday, the only area where he agrees with Fenech Adami regards his own as- sessment as a vital component of the cabinet between 1987 and 2004. "I appreciate the recognition of my contribution to the governments that Dr Fenech Adami ran," Dalli says. "I did contribute a lot and must say that I was instrumental in the By Raphael Vassallo But how accurate are those memories? RAPHAEL VASSALLO takes 'A Journey' to find out The ill-fated leadership bid by former finance minister John Dalli (centre) and the subsequent clash with Eddie Fenech Adami's (right) successor Lawrence Gonzi (left), stands out as perhaps the most vivid example of a tale which alters with the telling Former prime minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici: "Politics brought out bad qualities in Eddie Fenech Adami that I never knew existed"