Zejtun, today a beautiful and tranquil village, was a difficult place to live in if your family were not Mintoffjani.

I remember how there was a period when someone’s front door was attacked every second day, so we all lived in fear who next.

I remember waiting up every night praying that my dad would come home safe and sound.

I remember the day when a group of thugs stormed into the Beland band club in broad daylight, stole their musical instruments and did a march of terror around the village banging away at the instruments as they went around.

I remember how they stopped outside our front door, smashing our gate, to the sound of the drums and trumpets blaring. We were alone at home with only my mother to protect us as my father was working. I was 10 and had to hold my younger sister back from throwing stones at them, praying they would move on to their next stop. I knew already then that calling the police was pointless.

Or the time when my father’s workplace was smashed. Amongst the debris, I clearly remember photos of our family torn to shreds.

Our Sunday treat of buying Roger’s pastizzi from near the church became a thing of the past as it was too dangerous to walk in the street alone. Riding my bike too.

Dead rabbits strung on our front door was a common occurrence as was paint or oil on our door.

No child should have to live with any of that. Our parents tried to shield us from it as much as they could, trying to make our childhood and teenage years as ‘normal’ as possible. But there is only so much they could do. Friends would deride me for living in Zejtun – the RITZ they would call it.

I remember Tal-Barrani only too well. I was 17 then. The night before my parents could not come to pick me up as Zejtun was barricaded so I had to find a place to sleep. The next day I caught a bus to Marsaxlokk (there were none going to Zejtun). I couldn’t bear being safe in Sliema and not with them.

I walked through a throng of people blocking the road to Zejtun, who let me through though not without the occasional jeer. I walked as fast as I could and climbed over the rubble wall blocking the drive into our home just to be there. That day I held an air-gun in my hand in case there were any intruders – not that it could have hurt anyone but to me it gave me some small comfort as we held the fort whilst my parents (in spite of the odds of getting out of Zejtun) still went to the meeting.

O zmien helu…….my foot.

For all his wisdom, Eddie Fenech Adami was in too much in a rush to build a country. Where was the “gustizzja” that we all craved? Sweeping it under a carpet was a mistake. It remains there, unresolved.

There could be no reconciliation without acknowledgement of what we went through, without some form of redress.

There still isn’t. Otherwise why would Joseph Muscat think it a good move to raise the Mintoffjan spirit again or to keep in the fold the same misfits who were part of the ugly ’80s when Labour made a mockery of our democracy.

Not until they get rid of every single one of them can they be even considered as fit to run this country again.

@Antoine
This is not a question of deluding oneself or not. It is just that there are always two sides to a coin and you might be looking as just one of the sides. Try for a change looking at the other side as well, because you might be in for a surprise.

[Daphne – You’re talking about opinions here, Silvio. But facts are absolute, and that’s different. If something is green, it’s absolutely irrelevant whether you have an opinion that tells you it’s red. It’s green, full stop. Camping is fun/camping is horrible and boring. Now that’s an example of an opinion open to discussion.]

Now let’s take as an example: the Zejtun incidents. Labour supporters say that it was the PN demonstrators who went with the intention of attacking their homes and families. If not, why was it that most of them were armed?

[Daphne – Silvio, you are JUST UNBELIEVABLE. They were armed because they wanted to attack, that’s all. When they drove about shooting at PN clubs, was it because they thought the PN clubs were armed and about to attack them as they drove by? When they ransacked the Fenech Adami home and assaulted Mrs Fenech Adami, was it because they were afraid that Mrs Fenech Adami was armed and about to assault them first? When they set fire to The Times building with members of staff still trapped inside, was it because they thought Charles Grech Orr and Anthony Montanaro and Wilfred Asciak were going to let rip with submachine guns? For God’s sake, Silvio. Honestly.]

On the other hand the P.N. wanted to affirm their right to hold meetings anywhere n Malta.

Those days where nothing but tests that our small nation had to pass through to confirm that we are worthy of being called a nation. We are somewhat lucky that we passed the tests and we are now proud to have even some mini martyrs to boast about.

Up to the Seventies we were just lackeys to foreign countries. Now thanks to the little blood we shed and to the sacrfices we made, we are now a nation.

So you see, there are always two sides to a coin.

A ‘free nation’, where the word ‘nazzjon’ (nation) is banned. Yeah, right.

It’s incredible to what lengths some people will go to delude themselves. Silvio, even with truth staring you in the face you stubbornly refuse to acknowledge what was happening around you.

I think a few photos of all your tortured body,like for example,pulled out nails,broken limbs, a few broken teeth and so on , would have given your write up more punch.
I must admit that they were not very nice times,but only for trouble makers. No persons living their normal lives and not causing any trouble were badly treated,I can vouch for that,and I came from a fervent Nationalist family.
All my three boys attended St.Edwards College,they were never beaten up,and me and their mother were always in front when we were protesting against the, as you call it,the war against Church schools,when they wanted Church schools to be free, which ironically was implemented by a P.N.Govt.
I’m afraid your write up shows that you should keep away from writers, such as Kundera,as perhaps you are a person who is too easily influenced.

[Daphne – ‘I must admit they were not very nice times, but only for trouble-makers’. Like the staff trapped inside the burning Progress Press building, for instance, or Mrs Fenech Adami and her children, perhaps. You also miss the point, Silvio, that oppression and suppression are in themselves great evils, and it is not simply a matter of keeping your head beneath the parapet.]

The film does not eulogise Dom Mintoff. Hence Yana Mintoff’s tantrums and bluster.

Zejtunija, you have reopened a slowly healing scar as I have lived in that beautiful town of Zejtun.

We in Zejtun who do not vote Labour are waiting with trepidation for the next election. I, for one, have been told by one of the Mintoffian gangsters that when Labour is in power, our day of reckoning will arrive immediately.

To think that even today, Labour’s still scared of considering the real motives and methods of Dom Mintoff.

Indeed, who would do a thing like that if not someone who was endowed with malice? This is what Labour should be asking, and then, maybe, things will fall into place.

One only has to see his erratic foreign policy, resting on convenience alone, a direct result of an utter lack of faith in this country.

Whenever a Chris Fearne comes along, declaring the collective to be mediocre, all he’s doing is being the quintessential ‘Mintoffjan’. Constructive opposition my foot, especially when they’ve outsourced that role as well.

Then there’s the gibberish about the twenty five year reign, when they had better remember that Sant’s government came down when all stakeholders started piling up the pressure on his energy bills and taxation system. It was chaos in 1997, financial figures were taking a life of their own.

Is it just me, or are we to seriously start worrying how Joseph, if possible, will do to make political ends meet? What happened to the programme by the way?

When I watched parts of Ghanja ta’ Poplu I was taken aback about how much I’d forgotten – and I lived through it.

Today’s youth look askance when certain episodes are mentioned.and the PL is trying to rewrite its ugly past. So this film can help to redress this lacuna.

Thank you, Mr. Ellul.