Kindly allow me to reply to the article titled Exit while on top by Alfred Mifsud (TMID 14 July).

When passing a comment about Dom Mintoff, author Alfred Mifsud stated the following “Mintoff post-1979 is a typical example of someone who had achieved the very specific objective he set himself at the start of his 1971 tenure but he continued to lead in the old manner when, in fact, the country needed new skills to win its way through a competitive global economy. Post-1979 Mintoff became a rebel without a cause”. One wonders why it has become rather fashionable to rubbish Mintoff within socialist hypocritical cliques whereas these very same people were his yes-men when he was in office from 12 June 1971 till 22 December 1984.

Although these people have every right to criticise the past socialist regime, they should have spoken up when Mintoff was in power.

They did not stand up to be counted then, and, worse still, they developed a vile habit of excusing abuse of power. Maltese socialists then lacked courage.

Edward Torpiano

Floriana