What I clearly remember is having to study Arabic not because of any inherent tie to the Maltese language but because Mintoff believed it would surpass the standard of education at the time – yeah right, close the church schools, base our economy on factory floors, limit university education and learn Arabic.

And the teachers came from Libya, of course.

Daphne, are you obliged to refer to Malta Labour Party as Partit Laburista? Nothing’s changed, same mentality and same people so why help them ‘rebrand’?

‘It seems both parties are more interested in seeing who had the closer ties to the Gaddafi regime’

The Nationalist Party did not have ‘ties to the Gaddafi regime’. The Nationalist Party in government maintained official relations with a bordering country.

Richard, it’s called soul-searching and it’s an essential process in any civilised society with a historical memory.

If you want to live among people who move from one day to the next without addressing or assessing the past, find a hunter-gatherer tribe and join it.

Or a photo of one of Mintoff and Gaddafi’s many get-togethers. Someone needs to go through Aisha’s albums.

They’re called skeletons in the cupboard.

A potted history of Mintoff’s relations with Gaddafi provides interesting background to that 2008 agreement between Joseph Muscat’s PL and the Jamahariya.

What did Muscat sell, for how much? Note that the net beneficiary could not have been Malta, as the country was not party to the agreement.

1971
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Svc0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=uZADAAAAIBAJ&pg=5342,4430701&dq=gaddafi+malta+nato&hl=en

See the background here (1977 article) http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=3e4gAAAAIBAJ&sjid=vXIFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2569,1613333&dq=gaddafi+malta+nato&hl=en Mintoff…His particular chum is Libya’s Muammar al-Qaddafi who gave him a loan against Mintoff’s personal signature as an individual in 1971, when the island faced bankruptcy if Britain refused to renegotiate a base agreement. Mintoff warned Qaddafi he couldn’t repay if London declined a new rental pact. The libyan was preared to write off the loss. But the deal was concluded in the end and Mintoff paid back Qaddafi. This encourage Mintoff to elaborate his present policy of active nonalignment, seeking to bring the norther and southern Mediterranean halves together.

and here (1977 article) http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=s4ksAAAAIBAJ&sjid=AM0EAAAAIBAJ&pg=5615,3127479&dq=mintoff+nato+gaddafi&hl=en
It is also no coincidence that Mintoff has close relations with nearby Libyan dictatr muammar el-Qaddafi, the oil-rich wildman. They are as close as tiles in a mosque and totally cemented. When Qaddafi says ‘frog’, Mintoff jumps. In fact, Qaddafi personally loaned Mintoff USD60million when Mintoff’s regime brought malta to bankruptcy. The wily Qaddafi tied his loan to Britain’s renewal of its lease on Malta’s bases. But Britain renewed thema nd Mintoff repaid him the USD60 million.

The editor is too busy sampling wine and making inane comments

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002527937723&sk=wall

[Daphne – X’imbarazz ta’ nies.]

David Ellul, if not for you, then for people old enough to remember Gaddafi’s presence and influence in Malta, it is very relevant indeed.