Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/470920
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 1 MARCH 2015 10 MATTHEW VELLA AT midpoint through the Mintof- fian playbook comes a violent turn in the Labour record. The daring foreign policy that made Helsinki wait, the aspiration towards non- militarised, republican independ- ence and neutrality, the welfare state and the creation of the manu- facturing industry, are but one side of the Janus-like prime minister that was Dom Mintoff. Bomb attacks perpetrated on both sides of the divide, murder, thugs protected by government ministers, unchecked violence endangering the rule of law, and restrictions on consumer spending will forever be etched into Mintoff's legacy. Beyond the trite adjectives the late premier often invites – fiery, stub- born, hot-headed, demagogic – his- torians have so far left the 1980s a matter of unresolved business. The journalistic reference point comes from the Nationalist stable with Di- one Borg's Libertà Mhedda, while novelist Alex Vella Gera aptly cap- tured the anti-Mintoffian psychosis of the time by devising a failed as- sassination plot for Is-Sriep Regghu Saru Velenuzi. But a new book of interviews rises above the hagiographies and vanity publications in the wake of Min- toff's death in 2012, to provide 60 intimate insights into the Labour prime minister's modus operandi. L'Elf Lewn Ta' Mintoff perhaps sows the seed for a much-needed analysis of the aggression permeat- ing Maltese politics and institutions between the 1960s and 1980s, cap- turing the disparate views of pro- tagonists from opposing camps on a fundamental question: was Mintoff ultimately responsible or culpable for the violence under Labour? Historian Dominic Fenech bookends this tome with one of the more rational evaluations of Mintoff's days. A Labour secretary- general between 1977 and 1983, he is quick to apportion the blame on Labour ministers of the time, con- textualising the evolution of the vi- olence from the pre-Independence riots under British rule and police commissioner Vivian De Gray. "The Nationalists would hold a mass meeting in Qui Si Sana, only to be hailed upon by stones – so I'm not saying Labourites were saints. But a history of violence in Malta requires its own investigation and that does not seek to apportion blame. Everybody suffered violence, both morally and physically," the historian tells author Claire Xuereb Grech. His insight into Mintoff's own ex- planation for what happened, years after he stepped down from prime minister, is revealing. "Mintoff had told me that under colonial rule between 1958 and 1962, and even during the sixties under the Nation- alists, Labour was under siege. The Church was against them, the Brit- ish were against them, the police were against them. The police were brutal towards Labourites under both British rule and the National- ist administration. He told me, 'God knows had we not had four chaps who could fight it out and get their hands dirty, or we would have been brutalised and decimated'." Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth – Fenech suggests – a party in Op- position that needed its hard men to ward off the overweening power of the Crown. "Let's not exagger- ate – what happened in Malta was no Cyprus. My interpretation is that what started as a strategy from a position of weakness, suddenly lost its bearings. In government there were ministers who believed in having men ready to show force. And there were bullies who rev- elled in this: but they were a party News Bombs, state-sponsored thuggery, and even murder are part of the political mythology of the 1980s. A new book that interviews those closest to the late former Labour Prime Minister, Dom Mintoff, sheds some light on the spiral of violence that split a nation CALL FOR APPLICATION Post of Junior Legal Officer in the Agriculture and Rural Payments Agency The Director Corporate Services, on behalf of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry for Sustainable Development, the Environment and Climate Change, invites applications for the post of Junior Legal Officer in the Agriculture and Rural Payments Agency. Applicants must be able to communicate in Maltese and English, and should be in possession of the warrant to practice the profession of Advocate in Malta or persons having the academic qualifications to obtain such a warrant. Eligible applicants will be assessed by a Selection Board to determine their suitability for the post. Interested candidates can find a job description on the Government's website, in the Employment's Opportunities section. Applications, together with a Curriculum Vitae showing qualifications and experience, will be received by the Director of Corporate Services at the Ministry for Sustainable Development and Climate Change, 6, Triq Ħal Qormi, Santa Venera SVR1301 by not later than noon (Central European Time) of Friday, 6th March, 2015. Applications can also be submitted through the Online Government Recruitment Portal on http://recruitment.gov.mt by the said closing time and date of this call for applications. MINISTRY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, THE ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE From left: the late Minister Guze Cassar, Karmenu Vella, Joe Debono Grech and Dom Mintoff The height of the violence, PN MP Louis Galea looks on the body of Raymond Caruana in a pool of his own blood Bully beef politics: one of the recurring questions Claire Xuereb Grech asks her interviewees is what role Mintoff had in either fomenting or quelling the violence of the 1980s MATTHEW VELLA Bombs, state-sponsored thuggery, and even murder are part of the political mythology of the 1980s. A new book that interviews those closest to the late former Labour Prime Minister, Dom Mintoff, sheds some light on the spiral of violence that split a nation A theory of violence