I`m glad the priests got Mintoff finally.

It is being rumoured that Mintoff died a `good death `.

[Daphne – Oh come on. The man was suffering from total dementia and was barely conscious. To die a ‘good death’ he would have to be conscious and coherent enough to repent and even to communicate an apology to his victims.]

In Catholic terms: he was given the grace of final conversion. In my opinion, much like the Good Thief who, after having lived a turbulent and violent life and having caused untold harm to others, died a `good death`.

Which is not to say that the harm he did should be glossed over and forgotten. On the contrary, this blog and articles like the one written by Fr. Lucie-Smith are doing a great service of telling the truth about the sixteen terrible years when the Socialists were in government.

The more so because people like Joe Grima don`t seem to have changed much ; gross, repressive and intolerant they were and gross, repressive and intolerant they will remain.

Especially now that they are scenting a return to power.

Prosit! Condone the verbal harassment of a priest.

The fact that you cannot see anything wrong with it is shocking and worrying.

vere … niltaqghu il-villa tl-wardija ghall-orgja bhas-soltu

[Daphne – Get it right. BIDNIJA.]

it’s bad to be violent and vulgar but it’s not any worse just because you say it to a priest.

[Daphne – Of course it’s worse. Just as it’s worse to swear at your grandmother than it is to swear at a man you work with. And if you’re a man, swearing at a woman is a complete no-no. I wonder how I end up explaining these basic things.]

Lorna Mifsud

I must say you have really hit the nail on the head here. I was born in 1977. My childhood has been ruined by Mintoff and, even though I was very young, I remember the fear and, on occasion, terror, which blighted my childhood and which left me scarred till this very day.

My father lost his job during Mintoff’s regime only because he was a passive Nationalist party supporter. During the dispute with the Church Schools, our mother used to be armed with a screw-driver to take us to school because she used to receive anonymous letters threatening her with our lives should she take my sister (then 4 years old) and me (then 7) to school. One day, a woman knocked at our door imploring my mother to be careful and to change her route (school was within walking distance) since there were people along the way ready to physically attack parents taking their children to school.

As a young child, I remember very vividly praying to God that my parents return safe and sound from mass meetings because Mintoff – in pure dictatorial style – used to send in his thugs (police force included) to open fire on the masses gathered peacefully to disperse the peaceful crowd. And shots were fired against Nationalist supporters (the party in opposition) on many occasions and many – including relatives of mine – were injured seriously. Tear gas used to be used against the crowds which would be gathered peacefully.

Mintoff’s henchmen were corrupt and ruthless. Nationalist families would have their land and immovable property expropriated from them just because they were nationalists and roads were built with hundreds of twists and turns in order for the road to pass through the properties of nationalist families rather than labour families.

I know it is hard to believe but there was not one foreign product on sale here. No. There was a total embargo even on simple things such as Mars (the chocolate bar) or foreign footwear. I remember very clearly empty shops and sheer scarcity of even the most basic needs.

A television set would cost roundabout 1000 sterling back in 1982, some 400 for the set and some 600 to oil the wheels – and believe me, the 600 went to Mintoff’s henchmen and privileged few. If you were not a Labour supporter, you would not even be eligibe to have a telephone set. I remember years without a telephone set at home just because we were not Laborites.

The economy was in shambles. The highest unemployment figures to date were recorded at that time when Mintoff was ruling.

But the worst things of all was the continuous, lingering fear. I lived with it. People were being arrested for no reason whatsoever and their fundamental human rights, so beautifully written in our constitution, were being trampled as though it was nothing. After all, Mintoff himself declared that the constitution was nothing but some scrap paper which had as its natural destination the waste paper basket.

Mintoff disliked the worker. His admirers say he introduced social welfare. Yes, instead of teaching his people to fish he gave them just one fish in order to exercise control over them. Mintoff, the ever-coward, rather than resign from office when the situation ran out of hand, he put a puppet in his stead, a certain Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici,but he continued to direct the show from behind the scenes.

People died in the hands of the people. A financial controller who seems to have found out dirty secrets about one of Mintoff’s henchmen, was found chopped up in a well in a rural area and another, a certain Raymond Caruana, was killed under a volley of fire from an automatic weapon whilst having a drink at a nationalist party club a few days before Christmas 1986. Yes, and let us talk about Christmas, shall we? Mintoff used to hate christmas and hence, he used to render our lives hell. He would, for starters, ensure that most households had no electricity and he would always wait for those days to make our life even more hellish.

Oh, the list goes on and on. I am upset these days because it feels like we’re living in a sort of altered reality. People cry in the street because Mintoff gave them their fish. We, however, the people who suffered, the people who cried for nights on end because their loved ones failed to turn up after being arrested just because they were Mintoff’s opponents, we stay silent. Now, the situation is different. Now we’re a free people. But some of Mintoff’s henchmen are still alive and kicking and are the government-in-waiting. And just as we have suffered retribution in those not-so-distant years, we’re afraid to speak out now, to tell the truth as it is, to say Mintoff was a tyrant, lest we be punished should the Labour Party be re-elected to power in the coming elections.

Hence, we soldier on, unwilling to forgive or forget. Not to wreak havoc, not to exact revenge but because we know very well that if we forget our past we will be condemned to repeat it.

Make no mistake. Life under Mintoff was hell.
Thank you very much for this article. It is the only breath of reality I have read in a long, long time.

I found the comments you received under your first post after Mintoff’s death shocking. I don’t have, and never had friends who spoke like that about people and I’m not exposed to how vulgar these people can be.

And the irony… Most are on about you not respecting the dead, from my point of view, how they disrespected the living is far more atrocious. Whether they agree with your point of view or not, those comments are unjustified.

In the next electoral campaign you probably should put that post on your top headline again as you did these couple of days, just to remind people how vulgar and obscene these people can get.

I must say, thanks for publishing them. Because really, I had no idea that these people could stoop so low.