No, the Mintoff years were neither inevitable nor part of an essential process of change
Some people say (and think) that the Mintoff years were inevitable, part of an essential process of change in the post-colonial era.
They are wrong. Mintoff’s brand of post-colonial change wasn’t necessary, nor was it inevitable.
We forget that seven years went by between independence from Britain and Mintoff becoming prime minister. In those seven years, George Borg Oliver and his Nationalist government had got the country on the right track towards becoming a modern European democracy with a market economy.
They even had the correct recipe for tourism, with glamorous hotels (laid-back glamour of the European kind, not the Middle Eastern variety) which attracted the right kind of crowd. I am actually old enough to remember a time, in the 1960s, when Malta had a south of France relaxed glamour about it, a touch of Ibiza long before the hordes hit, a fabulous Greek island where Athenian tycoons spent their summer.
If we had carried on that way, we would have been in clover by the end of the 1970s, and there would probably have been no need for half the women of the country to spend their days machining zips into pairs of jeans or standing at a conveyor belt putting things into boxes.
When Mintoff came in to power, he undid all that, put the country into reverse, and began implementing the North African method of taking Malta out of colonialism – when it was long out of colonialism already.
The result was as disastrous for Malta as it was for North Africa. Had Mintoff been a dictator like his 1970s and 1980s counterparts there, rather than an elected politician or one who governed when he wasn’t elected to do so (1981-1987, through his puppet), today we would be where Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Algeria are now.
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Reading your blog posts, I learn something new every time. Thank you.
Tourism alone would not have been Malta’s saving grace- it is too seasonal. Low cost manufacturing was inevitable.
Every developed economy has evolved from a combination of agriculture and low cost manufacturing, which unfortunately means, as you put it, women putting things into boxes. It is the speed at which an economy can progress from being a developing economy to a developed economy, which is the critical point here.
Investment and sound policies in education and other sectors over the past 20 odd years has allowed Malta to diversify it’s economy to include high value added manufacturing and professional services. Whilst the Maltese could only wish to have experienced the same rate of economic growth as, say, Singapore – who gained independence in 1963 and have no natural resources either- Malta surely has not done too badly.
http://markanthonysammut.blogspot.com/2012/01/big-divide.html
Mintoff was the proverbial spoke in the wheel, that vitiated a new born country into a culture that unfortunately persists.
If anyone could monetize the damage he did to this country whilst feeding crumbs to pathological losers, the sum would be in googols. And he did this when the rest of the world was booming, save for the oil crises in the early 70s which Mintoff passed on to the consumers.
One of the things I cherish most is my father’s collection of tourist postcards and hotel brochures, in bright Kodakcolor.
The Imperial was Roger Moore’s favourite, The Phoenicia one of BOAC/BEA’s finest.
The Riviera is pictured overlooking a bay dotted with Chriscraft motorboats.
Sliema, St.Julians, Msida Creek, Floriana and every other centre had flower beds everywhere. One could easily mistake them for Cannes or San Remo.
Valletta, with its boutique hotels, was as splendidly manicured as Taormina.
Bugibba was a sleepy residential enclave next to a fishing village. Paceville was the locality where the Dragonara, an example of organic architecture, similar to Porto Cervo’s, stood.
British actors, writers and painters had themselves photographed mingling with fishermen in Marsaxlokk, playing cards next to piles of fishing nets.
Malta’s film industry kicked off when Michael Caine made Malta his holiday place. Nadia Cassini, glamour girl, kicked off her career with his ‘Pulp’.
Malta’s budding yachting industry, wasted, was, in those days, a potential competitor to Viareggio’s. Ferretti was looking into the possibility of setting up a charter base and service center.
The pageantry designed to celebrate Independence carried an abstract idiom, which he degenerated into literal depictions of cactus plants and farming implements.
When ornament is reduced to addenda, the decadence is assured.
Having made sure he imposed squalor, Mintoff didn’t restrain himself from his daily horse ride or, as Yana confirmed, his own private beach.
Such callousness.
Well, God give them wisdom that have it; and those that are fools, let them use their talents.
[William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act I, scene 5, line 14.]
In fact, the prattikament Prim Ministru and his prattikament Ministri, for want of wisdom, are showing off their really artistic talents… (yes those such as kukkudrilli, marmalja and hamalli type)…
Shakespeare sure had some insight into the human psyche, and this was written around 1602.
I do not agree with your prognostications of what would have been if Mintoff did not mark the political arena of the 1970s to 80s.
Without Mintoff, Malta would have had a succession of conservative governments (you know, the religo et patria brand which even you despise) just like Greece did.
We would have had a few wealthy Onassis in bed with government and the church amidst a mass of peasants terrorised by a small wealthy class and threats of hellfire to bind all (think of Mgr Gonzi, that should give you the right picture).
I hope you do not wish that Malta should have aspired to be another Greece, which incidentally had succumbed to several bankruptcies in its history besided the last one which we have to pay for. I do not recall the Mintoff government as ever being bankrupt.
Actually, we might very soon become like Greece when the real deficit is exhumed.
The Mintoff years may not have been optimal, but they could have been much worse. Remember Greece.
[Daphne – Total bollocks. And I shan’t bother going through every detail of why it is so. Suffice it to say that if Mintoff’s policies and his 16 years of government were so great, the governments which followed would not have had to dedicate all their time and resources to undoing what he did, taking the country back to square one, starting again, making up for lost time as far as this was possible (it wasn’t really) and taking Malta in the direction which was broken off in 1971.
I trust you realise that the incoming Nationalist government, in 1987, had to UNDO what Mintoff did, rather than build on it. Or don’t you? My God.]
I don’t think we risked conservative governments or a military junta. The internal split within the PN, between the republicans and Borg Olivier following independence, resulted in the formation of a liberal wing.
Malta had managed, unlike Greece and its military’s dabbling in politics, to strike the right balance thanks to a comprehensive civil service and a sound democratic system, not to mention British forces stationed on the island.
Mons.Gonzi’s reluctance to rush the process, even choosing to side with Britain, was something which made him extremely unpopular. Mintoff proved him right.
Let’s be realistic. During the 1960s to 1970s Malta was surrounded by fascists regimes in Greece, Spain, Turkey and Portugal (Italy was half fascist but would not admit it).
Locally we had a party, the PN, which was styled on these fascist regimes. Even the PN party tune is identical to an Italian fascist tune. If the PN remained in power in the 1970s we would have gone the way of these other Mediterranean countries. I wonder how freedom of expression would have fared?
[Daphne – That wouldn’t have been possible, Farrugia, because the British influence was too strong. It’s still very strong, which is why there is so much opposition to the Labour Party. Also, we did have our very own Fascist regime 1971 to 1987. Strange how you missed that. Perhaps because names are more important to you and the reality behind them?]
Not surprising, you comment that the PN wants to bring ‘Malta in the direction which was broken off in 1971’.
The way our PM voted on divorce legislation proves your comment right. Indeed, the PN wants to bring us back to an oligarchy reminiscent of Feudal Times. Even PN MPs are saying this.
[Daphne – I am talking about Europeanisation, Farrugia, not marriage law. You may have failed to notice that when your glorious Mintoff legislated for civil marriage, he specifically failed to do the obvious and legislate for divorce, which should be part of the same law.]
Italy had the compromesso storico at the time. Moro’s DC and Berlingeur’s PC decided, as the two major parties, holding over 60% of the votes at the time, to perpetuate a vast coalition including liberals, socialists and republicans to avoid such event happening. Both Berlingeur and Moro had multiple assassination attempts.
Malta wasn’t under any risk, even because both Britain and Italy were wary of Gaddafi. Moro was actively involved with the British government to broker the republic, and had set the path to Italy’s protocol, as soon as the British would have pulled out.
We didn’t have Onassis. We had millionaire Mintoff and Lorry the crook, both still worshipped by the PL’s top brass.
dear dahpne i can’t understand your thinking when you say that we were better under GBO era?!! how we where better with the kaxxa ta malta vojta when there was nothing even to pay the gov employee..the wage was just as 2 pounds and mintof til 1976 bringed it to 20 pounds plus the children s allow,bonuses,pension,free health for all and created enemalta ,telemalta ,seamalta,mid med,BOV and the list go on………are you demented? or what?
[Daphne – Wait for Mintoff: The Facts. And read them. You don’t improve the lot of the working-class through hand-outs. You do what the Nationalist Party did: education, raised aspirations, and plenty of work and self-development opportunities. Hand-outs keep people poor. Mintoff did not invent free health care. St Luke’s Hospital was there before he came on the scene. He did not create any of the organisations you mentioned: he nationalised or stole outright privately-owned organisations and service-suppliers. Anyone can do that, but they have to be immoral. Bank of Valletta was the National Bank of Malta, which had existed under one name or another since the 19th century. And Mid Med Bank was Barclays Bank. Mintoff was not a good leader. He was a successful bandit.]
sry daphne…. but you did not respond to my questions….in maltese we say”dort mal lewza biex tahrab milli twiegeb” these two banks that you mentioned where bankrupt!! mintoff hasn’t stolen anything from nobody…st luke s was not free for all if you remember! sometimes i really think that you suffer from sometime or another with dementia
[Daphne – ‘those two banks you mentioned where bankrupt!!’. Do you know what Barclays Bank is? Do you even know that it still exists? A bank can’t go bankrupt in one country only. HSBC Malta can’t go bankrupt while HSBC carries on. The National Bank of Malta was most certainly not bankrupt. I am in a far better position to know its financial situation, or the circumstances of its enforced nationalisation with no compensation, than you are. My grandfather was chairman of the board of directors and had to lead the ‘negotiations’ with Mintoff, and his family were among the shareholders.]
@joseph
Mintoff turned Malta into a welfare state. And unfortunately this mentality has remained embedded in many a Maltese mind. All thanks to Dom ‘is salvatur’. Idiots!
Sea Malta was Pace’s Maltese National Lines,
Joseph,do you know one of the main reasons why the” kaxxa ta’ Malta” came to be empty when Mintoff was elected in power in 1971?
The GWU ordered a total strike at the then dockyards, which strike lasted for a whole seven months up to the day it became official that Mintoff had won the general election of ’71 thanks to the (in)famous “sitt voti”.
The day after, the GWU called off the strike and that was how Gaddafi became the joint Alla ta’ Malta with Mintoff, and blood brother extraordinaire.
It was not only the economy that was affected. Society as a whole lost its respectability due to the introduction of class hatred. We will forever feel its consequences. You may undo or reverse economic policy but attitudes and social habits are harder to eradicate.
Unfortunately: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150120432305017&set=a.10150117970215017.279216.649595016&type=1&theater
A friend of mine liked it, and I couldn’t and can’t believe the comments and the picture itself…
Let’s hope the commentators to that pic illuminate their mind somehow… cannot understand how the younger generation regards Mintoff in that perspective, new PL my ass!
[Daphne – One of the people commenting there is actually sec-gen of Forum Zghazagh Laburisti. Here he is, speaking at Labour’s annual general conference last weekend
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfxowCEKtoo ]
It would be interesting to know what those badges the women are wearing were.
And for all the faqar that they were meant to be living in, their arms would most certainly knock me down.
How frightful seeing that most people do not really know what happened when Mintoff came to power in 1971 and during those golden years.
So according to Joseph:
Malta had no electricity prior to Mintoff’s ascent, because you see he created Enemalta.
Mintoff created TeleMalta, which must mean that Malta had no telephony or cable system before 1971. We did. It was part of the Post Office department. What Mintoff did was ruin it putting in place a French system turned down by Kuwait and which he got for free. Crossed lines all the way. We had telephone conferences with people we didn’t even know.
Mintoff SeaMalta. Now that’s a good one. Sea Malta was set up with ships sequestered from Cecil and Henry Pace, after the problems with their Bical Bank. Again, he got the stuff for free, by taking it from others.
Mid Med Bank and Bank of Valletta were invented by Mintoff. As you say, Daphne, these were already there as Barclays Bank International and the National Bank of Malta. In the case of the latter the shareholders were robbed of their holdings with the shares being sold for peanuts to Labour Party clubs and the GWU. They recouped their investment through a record dividend paid out in the first year of operation of a ‘bankrupt’ bank. Most of the original shareholders were reduced to poverty; others could not take the stress and died of heart attacks seeing all their savings being taken away.
Prior to the 1971 elections, Malta was already steadily on the path of computerisation. One amongst the first in Europe. Barclays Bank had introduced it to Malta second only to its UK branches. The Borg Olivier administration had sent young civil servants to the UK for training in order to introduce the system in government departments and corporations.
On coming to power, Mintoff stopped it all and threw it all to the wind and we lost 16 years and had to start afresh in 1987.
Not only, he also did away with machinisation and Water&Electricty and telephone bills had to be hand written. I know, unbeleivable but oh so very true.
Mintoff copied Mabel’s retracted plan of Integration with the United Kingdom back in the 50s. The British Government welcomed this move (If I am correct).
Was Mintoff Pro-British at that time or was it the fact that, Malta could not stand on its own legs at that time. Was he Pro British then? Can anyone help me here?
Meanwhile Dr. George Borg Olivier knew (in my opinion) that this was self defeating as the Maltese population would never have been on par with their British counterparts…thus he opted for the Independence of Malta.
[Daphne – Watch this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnbNgiLaWR4 His plan was rejected, and there began his Great War on Britain.]
Mintoff copied Mabel’s retracted plan of Integration with the “United Kingdom back in the 50s. The British Government welcomed this move (If I am correct).”
No it didn’t. Integration would have meant creating this country called The United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Malta. Patently absurd.
“Was Mintoff Pro-British at that time or was it the fact that, Malta could not stand on its own legs at that time. Was he Pro British then?”
Mintoff knew the plan would be rejected. It would then give him a casus belli (“Jew daqshom jew xejn!”)
“Meanwhile Dr. George Borg Olivier knew (in my opinion) that this was self defeating as the Maltese population would never have been on par with their British counterparts…thus he opted for the Independence of Malta.”
Not exactly. Let’s just say that on a 120-year scale of history, independence is the Nationalists’ Plan B. Plan A was integration with Italy. Which is why it is absurd and ridiculous for them to claim that they have never altered their principles. They did and thank god for that.
The Nationalists never altered their principles, they simply chose not to force a natural process.
@ H.P. Baxxter
I just came across this: http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/search/malta%20integration
Should make an interesting read
Now that I do not remember. However, this I remember as I was there with my parents in Floriana.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT2zWN0qT4E&feature=related
I remember it, and how. I remember to the last detail the bag of goodies all schoolchildren attending the chidren’s rally received. It had a badge of the old dolphin emblem of Malta, a Maltese flag and a big assortment of Elia Bonaci sweets and a piece of cake.
I remember this day with pride as I was there with my friends at midnight.
I still remember the Mintoffian hordes shouting and making themselves obnoxious. They were positioned at the Phoenicia Hotel side with Jean Agius at the front shouting obscenities and leading the horde. Agius was at The Lyceum at the same time as I was.
Don’t be stupid…. if it wasn’t for mintoff, you wouldn’t have the right to vote in the election, at least not at that age… get your facts right..
[Daphne – Seamus, listen carefully. IT WAS NOT DOM MINTOFF WHO PUSHED FORWARD LEGISLATION TO GIVE WOMEN THE VOTE. IT WAS PAUL BOFFA. PAUL BOFFA WAS PARTY LEADER AT THE TIME. HE WAS PARTY LEADER UNTIL MINTOFF SHAFTED HIM AND THEN PROCEEDED TO INSTIGATE A VICIOUS CAMPAIGN OF SLANDER, INCLUDING THE SUGGESTION THAT HE HAD AN INCESTUOUS RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS DAUGHTER. BUT COMING FROM A MAN WHO MADE HIS BROTHER’S WIFE HIS MISTRESS, EXPECT NO BETTER. I trust the facts are now clear, and that you will henceforth get them right.]
Did you by a chance forget that the british had places in malta like places in marsa were maltese couldn’t put a fut in there ground because it was owned by the british? you wanted this to stay like that? It was mintoff who completly throwed them out, From our country! :)
[Daphne – You still couldn’t ‘put a fut in there’ after the British left, Seamus. Those places remained clubs, with membership, and at that time somebody like you would have been blackballed. The only exception is Ghajn Tuffieha beach, what some people call ‘Riviera’, because that was using as a training area for the military. Apart from that, if you think you could just ‘put a fut’ into the Union Club or San Gorg Lido (formerly Rob’s Lido), take it from me that you would have been so busted.]
If someone would do like mr Gonzi when there was mintoff, A.K.A deffy democracy by not having at least 1 seat more then the other side (im not talking about the Maltese laws here, but democracy in general) or win a vote by the speaker vote and keep the country unstable like it is I am sure there would be a general strike at least.
[Daphne – I suggest you read up on recent history, Seamus, because you are in grave danger of sounding like a complete idiot. At your age, you should be looking for the facts and not going on what your father told you, or what you heard at FZL or the kazin. This sentence of yours shows that you do not understand how parliamentary democracy works. Secondly, it shows that you remain completely unaware that Mintoff did ‘deffy democracy’ and in no small measure, too. He was elected in 1981 with the majority of seats but the minority of votes, and defied democracy and the will of the people by staying in power, with his puppet Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici and ministers who are pontificating about democracy today, like Lino Spiteri, Joe Grima, Karmenu Vella and Alex Sceberras Trigona, for FIVE AND A HALF YEARS. While Mintoff defied democracy during that time, I went through my last year of sixth form, took my A-levels, worked for four years, married, had a baby and had another baby on the way. That’s how long it was.]
But you close minded fuck (if you wish to edit out the Fuck be my guest) want to live in a government were hes attached to power because statistics show (and even his strategists said so) that if an election is held now the PN has completely no chance of wining.
[Daphne – No, I do not wish to be your guest and edit out the fact that you have called me a ‘close minded fuck’. It is an important piece of information which my readers will need to know. The reason an election has not been called is because an election is not due until next year. A year might seem a hell of a long time when you’ve been in Opposition for 13 already, but believe me, it flies. Also, for every bit of unseemly haste you put on show, you put people off, like ambulance-chasers.]
First of… I want to make this clear although you are rushing to conclusion, I am not a labor and I support Alternativa, although if an election would happen now i would give my vote to labor to see gonzi wiped out from government :) So let’s make that clear… I am a Floater and I support who i see fit, And if i see someone as corrupted as Gonzi, i would use my vote to see him get down from government, and yes give a chance to labor..
Second… It was a typing mistake, I meant foot :) (which you seem to do alot of them.)
and Finally,
You told me to read up on history and get my facts right.. So let me tell you, if you have your facts so much right, Point me to the correct information:
1)Point me to the information with facts about that it wasn’t mintoff who gave the vote to women (and i mean the vote as is today ) and made women more equal.
[Daphne – You could have done so yourself through the very simple expedient of using the internet to find out who was prime minister in 1947, when women got the vote: http://www.doi.gov.mt/en/islands/prime_ministers/boffa_paul.asp . Mintoff became leader of the Malta Labour Party in 1949. When women got the vote, Mintoff was just a random MP, making pots of money by working as an architect for the War Damage Commission, rebuilding areas damaged through bombing. Now instead of getting angry with me, if I were you I would seize this opportunity to impress your friends with your superior knowledge. It will make you stand out from the crowd.]
2) Point me to the information about whatever you said that he had and incestuous relationship..
[Daphne – I did not say that Mintoff had an incestuous relationship. I explained to you that part of Mintoff’s efforts at removing Paul Boffa as Labour leader, so that he could replace him, involved a campaign of slander. Boffa had travelled abroad with his daughter and Mintoff’s supporters spread the rumour that he had shared a bedroom with her meaning, hint hint, that there was something amiss. In 1940s Malta, you can imagine what that meant.]
3) Point me to the information… Oh wait! i meant don’t point me to the information on how you got your A-Levels, Kids, Marriage and the other staff.
On the british thing, sorry but i don’t accept someone to have a training area for foreign military in my country… and as much as i heard there was another military training camp in Marsa, which i hear alot about from the Qormi people which is very close to Marsa..
[Daphne – Malta was a British military base, Seamus. Military bases have training areas. They do not take these training areas ‘from the people’. They pay rent for them. If you have a flat and let it out to somebody who is paying rent, you do not have the right to barge in and out of the flat and even less right to accuse the person, who is paying you rent, of taking the flat from you. The same principle applies here. After Malta ceased to be a British colony in 1964, the British stayed on with the equivalent of a rental contract and not by right. The contract ran from 1 April to 31 March every year. In 1979, Mintoff decided he would try to get them to pay more money when the contract was renewed. They said they didn’t want to pay more money, and they didn’t renew the contract. That’s why they left on 31 March 1979: because the contract was up and they didn’t want to renew it. Mintoff had lost face, but because he didn’t want to lose face in front of his supporters, he pretended he had ‘kicked out the British’. They believed him because they didn’t know the facts.]
I don’t get the information from my father, But from multiple people and some of them were nationalists..
[Daphne – It is a bad idea to get information from other people. Look it up for yourself. You can get leads from other people, but it’s always best to do your own reading and research. You are clearly curious about these things. You should turn this curiosity to your advantage and take a serious and proper interest in the subject. It might lead to something. If nothing else, it will make you a more interesting and well-rounded person.]
And last thing about your readers should know and shouldn’t know, i hope you tell your readers about how many times i commented here and you didn’t post them (no vulgarity or suck shit) for some odd reason and your readers didn’t come to see my comments and i hope this one doesn’t end like that ;) and an election is not when it due to, its when it should happen, so if a government makes a massacre, he should still govern till when the elections is due? Sorry i don’t want my country to be ran by a government where his own people are opposing him, gets caught in frauds and corruption time after time, and still says he’s so important for the country :)
[Daphne – I have posted all your comments. If I delete a comment, it’s usually because a third party has been dragged into the mix unnecessarily. ‘Makes a massacre’: this is not the correct translation of ‘aghmel massakru’. In any case, there is no ‘massakru’. Things are pretty good, but you will need to take an interest in foreign affairs to understand that. The prime minister is not being opposed by his own people. He – and the rest of the country – has a problem with two MPs who have psychological difficulties and who will not resign to make way for somebody who doesn’t. The government has not been engaged in fraud or corruption, still less ‘time after time’. Please begin reading newspapers properly and analysing information correctly.]
Poor Seamus, he sure managed to put his fut in his mouth.
In my opinion, the only (grave) mistake the P.N. did was the policy of national reconciliation after re-gaining power in 1987.
We have a situation where, even in our schools, the truth about the horrendous way Labour, headed by Mintoff, ruined a blossoming economy, has been blotted out due to political correctness.
This post of yours Daphne, came just a couple of days after I had a conversation with my son about exactly the same subject.
My son knows all about what we endured in the 70s and 80s but, from two of the best private schools Malta has to offer, that is the way it was explained to him in economics class at 6th form level – that it was inevitable and essential for an economy to pass through those times.
I consider this a grave injustice, those youngsters who have nobody to explain what really happened will make the mistake of trusting Labour to their own detriment and everybody else’s.