The Tao of Dom
Dom Mintoff with Muammar Gaddafi in the 1970s
“Had it not been for the steadfast support of President (Muammar) Gaddafi, his Revolutionary Command Council and the people of Libya, we would have literally starved into surrender.”
– Dom Mintoff, addressing the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, September 28, 1978.
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“French and German workers don’t have more than two balls each.”
– Dom Mintoff, addressing drydocks workers in Cospicua, March 15, 1973.
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“Children should be trained at an early age in the merits of socialism.”
– Dom Mintoff, addressing the annual conference of Young Socialists as the church schools dispute hotted up, March 16, 1984.
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“Constitution? I don’t give a fuck about the Constitution!”
– Dom Mintoff, speaking to the directors of the National Bank of Malta at his office, December 1973
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“It is not my style to crush opposition. All my life I have striven to convince. This country is too small to remain divided for long. I hope you believe me.”
– Dom Mintoff, writing to Mabel Strickland after The Times building was set on fire and ransacked by a mob of his supporters, October 18, 1979.
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“Shut up, Luns! Who the hell do you think you are? Are you God? I am not going to be treated like some Indonesian nigger.”
– Dom Mintoff, shouting at Nato secretary general Joseph Luns during negotiations in Rome, December 1971.
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“How could Malta remain neutral if it joined the European Union?”
– Dom Mintoff, speaking to university students during the EU referendum campaign, February 18, 2003.
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“What happened was the result of spontaneous actions after provocations and systematic incitement by the Leader of the Opposition in his newspapers and the incitement of Nationalist MPs in the Council of Europe.”
– Dom Mintoff, speaking after Opposition leader Eddie Fenech Adami’s house was ransacked by a mob of Mintoff’s supporters on October 15, 1979.
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“When we took office, we had an English Governor-General, an English Queen, English currency, a Bank of England man as the head of our central bank … We had a police force run by a commissioner who stated openly that his loyalty was to the British crown and nobody else. This was only eight years ago. Now Malta is a republic. Everything has changed. Nothing is British anymore.”
– Dom Mintoff, interviewed by The New York Times, 1979.
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“If only this dream were to come true! It would make all members of the Labour Party dance with joy, unfold the Union Jack and embrace every Briton armed or unarmed.”
– Dom Mintoff, writing in The Knight about his dream of Malta’s integration with Britain, February 1954.
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“If Britain continues to play games like these, we will remove the George Cross from the Maltese flag.”
– Dom Mintoff, speaking in Parliament, March 4, 1980.
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“I wish to tell the opposition that if I had at any time hurt them, I did so in the heat of the moment, and not out of hatred.”
– Dom Mintoff, making his resignation speech as prime minister, in parliament, December 22, 1984.
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“Today there are two Europes, the Europe of Cain and the Europe of Abel. The Europe of Cain is oppressive, the Europe of Abel, progressive. We can come to an arrangement with the latter.”
– Dom Mintoff, speaking in Parliament, November 7, 1978, during the Cold War. The Europe of Cain was the democratic west, and the Europe of Abel was the Soviet bloc, behind the Iron Curtain.
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“I will not govern unless I have the majority behind me.”
– Dom Mintoff, speaking before the 1981 election. His party went on to govern all the same for five-and-a-half years after that election despite obtaining fewer votes than the Nationalist Party.
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“I can guarantee that when the Labour Party is in office there will be jobs for everyone.”
– Dom Mintoff, addressing a Labour Party meeting in Birkirkara, February 24, 1964.
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“I do not agree with the Budget measures and I cannot vote in favour of them unless I am taken seriously and my proposals seriously considered.”
– Dom Mintoff, criticising Labour Prime Minister Alfred Sant’s Budget in Parliament, November 13, 1997. Franco Debono echoes him today.
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“This is the beginning of a Socialist generation.”
– Dom Mintoff, addressing a Labour meeting in Mosta, February 28, 1976.
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“I warn the black right wing forces that at the slightest sign that they are helping the Nationalist opposition in Malta to break laws, the workers’ movement will even ask the devil’s help to smash them.”
– Dom Mintoff speaking at a Labour Party meeting in Valletta, January 30, 1982.
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“The Labour Party chose to follow the constitution and democracy.”
– Dom Mintoff, addressing General Workers’ Union delegates on January 27, 1982, a few weeks after Labour remained in office despite the Nationalist Party receiving an absolute majority of votes.
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“We have a right, if we want it, to membership of the Arab League.”
– Dom Mintoff, interviewed by MEED (Middle East news, data and analysis), May 23, 1980.
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Some of these comments were originally sourced by The Sunday Times and published in that newspaper.
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Each quotation speaks volumes about Mintoff’s mentality and the turmoil that was in Malta.
The best (worst) surely is “Constitution? I don’t give a fuck about the Constitution.” It sums up everything nicely.
Besides, I think you forgot a bit at the end of the quotation about French and German workers having the same number of balls as Maltese ones. He went on to say: “But they do have an extra lobe in their brain.”
Daphne,
It was suggested that I share this post of mine if you like it..
http://lupideloop.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/a-lot-of-hullabaloo-about-mintoff/
Excellent piece, your question at the end is worth a whole electoral campaign.
I’d go even further however, and ask whether the country is willing to undergo the next step in its political, social and material evolution; Subscribe to the economy of space we face in all three.
Joseph Muscat was supposed to be an answer to the political aspect initially. At one point his message was that of being actively involved in the construction of this place.
After a few months he had to give in to the usual suspects, those who will propose the anti-state as a form of emancipation. What we see today is Joseph having been completely overrun by these to the extent that his party is providing the self-evident illustration of where not to go.
Labour is still stuck in the material quantitative as answer, quality and , if I may, style (essential in ideas) a major unknown. In a country which has finally started to recognise efficiency as key to underscore size, this Labour cannot be a serious porposition.
It’s the mental space which is lacking in their case, causing their policy making to become a slipshod affair, compromises and fuedal pacts between his strongmen presented as future. One should ask at what expense, what footprint, both mental and physical will these carry? What effect will their nostalgia for land use subjected to individualistic taste, carry?
What they had to do was the exact opposite, remove those who insist on being the boss and move towards the centre, moderating discourse.
What we have instead is Labour arguing itself in a vacuum, keeping away from any live one to one discussion, sticking to generic statements, the obvious repeated ad nauseum.
Fascinating really, considering whether they repeat this to themselves that it may sink in, or to us. It’s as if they’re stuck in rehearsal, hidden behind the curtain, unwilling to face an audience they’ve lost track of.
After four years, I suppose we can wait another couple of weeks to see what their ‘congress’ (en plein air) will materialise.
Joseph Muscat invited the usual suspects back in. It’s almost like he was the mastermind of his own downfall.
Think of it in terms of a horror film where ghouls are seeking to possess normal people and turn them into some kind of slave to evil. However these ghouls cannot invade unless they are actually invited in.
Muscat must have thought he saw a possibility of regaining some disgruntled Mintoffians by embracing the policies and memory of the late Dom but to make it stick his sacrifice was to invite the past back.
Excellenet – thank you!
fantastic piece
Every one has forgotten this Mintoffian motto;
”MHUX FL’INTERESS TAL- POPLU”.
Hi Daphne,
Not to be a pain but Black Monday was Oct 15th 1979 not the 18th.
Regards
[Daphne – Odd, I’m quoting The Sunday Times. You’d think they’d know when their building was burned down.]
18 October 1979 is when Mintoff wrote to Miss Strickland.
Took him some time to write. If Black Monday was the 15th you would imagine the letter should have been written on the 16th not the 18th.
I have just realised that the date refers to Mintoff’s letter to Mabel Strickland, so you can ignore my comment.
Regarding your post the other day, about Mintoff borrowing from Hitler, did you know the “Malta first and foremost” was the slogan of Capt. Samut’s Malta Union of Fascists which was modelled on Oswald Mosley’s BUF.
Their paper, Marching On which started in November 1936 carried the slogan in its masthead.
“This is the beginning of a Socialist generation” – 1976.
He meant the beginning of the end.
Imbecile.
Do the Chamber of Advocates and Commission for the Administration of Justice permit this sort of thing by somebody who, as a criminal lawyer, is an official of the courts?
http://www.francodebono.com/2012/09/16/since-the-blogger-is-obsessed-with-psychiatrists-heres-some-material/#comment-6705
I see no problem with people requiring psychiatric help, seeking it and getting it.
All they require, usually, is a couple of weeks off work some medication and they are as good a new.
Serious problems arise when those who are in urgent need of help refuse to seek it through lack of insight.
The matter becomes more complicated because it is generally this latter category that is more seriously ill being afflicted by a psychosis
They are the ones who are more likely to be of danger to themselves and to others.
ARAB LEAGUE?
Yep, he also wanted us members of the AAPSO
http://www.osaarchivum.org/files/holdings/300/8/3/text/99-4-182.shtml
The PN licked this despicable man’s ass for political gain. We now have Muscat, who is much worse than Dr Sant.
In this picture we see Mintoff licking Gaddafi’s ass. What a sycophant, and Gaddafi kicked his poor ass.
The quotes show Mintoff as an opportunist, without principles.
The picture shows him as a tramp, begging Gaddafi for money while pretending to wear jacket and tie, but with a short-sleeved shirt underneath. Ridiculous dress sense.
“Venditore di tappeti” according to Andreotti.
Those of you who are familiar with Italian idiom know exactly what this means.
Most of you cannot understand a thing.
This is what the top Italian politician of that era thought about “is-salvatur ta’ Malta”.
X’misthija.
No wonder Mintoff only had the backing of the Maltese electorate for 14 years out of the 35 he was leader! Eddie did not have the backing of the Maltese people for 22 months out of 27 years as leader. What a difference!
What about 1977 – 1981?
It is fair to say that he only failed an electoral test once (winning 5 on 6, plus Malta’s most major referendum ever) however, which is pretty impressive and unlikely to be repeated.
Like many others, Dom channeled the suppressed energy of his audience (those seeking independence, the Maltese proletariat and those seeking secularity) into himself and then outward again.
The outward language in his quotes is fascinating, but to be expected, because these were struggling situations. That is what justifies the brazen nature of his language especially that which relates to independence and sovereignty of the islands.
And let’s face it, the quote regarding the French and Germans workers is hilariously funny and relevant today.
When we analyse everyone who’s famous or infamous alike, from Lady GaGa to David Bowie, the connection between Dom and the above mentioned (and there really is one) is that he was just like his audience, that he could feel their pain, and that, above all, he knew how to get rid of that pain -the class divides in Malta, colonialism, the Church influence over state these needed to tackled.
Strickland, God bless him, would not have achieved this. The downside is that his above rhetoric inspired others to acts of violence and class war.
The point is a dose of Dom together with the achievements of his successors has made Malta the relatively good place it is today.
Let’s not over-analise it, Zanzi: Mintoff was simply a cheap thug, who surrounded himself with more of his ilk (but without the grey matter) and, essentially, broke this country’s back, physically, morally, judicially, infrastructurally . . .
In your opinion maybe. All Zanzi is doing is applying ‘Post-structuralism’ to Mintoff’s legacy. Perhaps Mintoff was the Lady Ga Ga of his time, effectively challenging the established order of things.
@ Paul Bonnici
“In this picture we see Mintoff licking Gaddafi’s ass. What a sycophant, and Gaddafi kicked his poor ass.”
http://ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/cronaca/2012/09/18/libro-svela-segreti-sessuali-Gheddafi-_7493200.html