Dr Victor Scerri
It is often said that history written by the victors is a highly subjective recording of events, as seen through the eyes of the writers. Being a Victor myself, I have taken it upon myself to record what I remember of the days when, as a 16-year-old student, political developments were unfolding which engaged my full attention and sucked me into the world of politics, convincing me of the adage that for evil to triumph, all that is needed is for good men to do nothing. Twenty-five years ago seems to be such a long time ago, yet the events of those days have had such a far reaching impact on the political, historical and economical development of our nation, that it would be at best unwise, if not outright foolish, if we were to let them fade away into the obscurity of time.
The issue then was one – democracy. By 1981, Malta had suffered Mintoff’s rule for 10 years, a rule that saw banks and private companies being stolen under the guise of nationalisation, a health system that effectively barred Maltese doctors from practising, a university that was more difficult to get into than Fort Knox, an infrastructure that made news when utilities were available, since cuts were the order of the day; and the list goes on. It was no great surprise then, that on the 12 December 1981, the Maltese people, in their absolute majority, voted out this regime. That should have been the end of the story, but no, it was only the beginning. Why was this, one might ask. Some creative scheming and redrawing of electoral boundaries resulted in a result that puts the recent Italian match fixing scandal to shame. While 51 per cent of the votes went to the Nationalist Party, 52.3 per cent of parliamentary seats went to Mintoff’s party. A perversion of all that the electoral process should stand for indeed. The Constitution was used by Mintoff to justify his claim to power, conveniently forgetting the cavalier attitude that he had always adopted vis-à-vis this most sacred of democratic instruments, even suspending the Constitutional Court when its verdicts did not agree with his “voice from the mountain”.
The election result of 1981 was the fruit of 10 years of rule that should have scraped bottom of the barrel, as far as democratic practices are concerned, but we were in for a nasty surprise. The five years and five months that followed were the worst that any despot could offer. This dark period of Maltese history, during which I progressed from the age of sixteen to 21, saw Maltese people arrested for broadcasting, protesting against water cuts and for owning a cordless phone that allowed one to have a conversation from the sitting room instead of the kitchen! This was then considered to be a subversive tool to bring down governments. The Curia was ransacked and independent education was outlawed. Imnarja 1982 will remain a black day for the rights of workers in Malta. We had beatings, torture and even murders at Police Headquarters, and certain parts of Malta were considered out of bounds for the expression of divergent political ideas. It was only after the tal-Barrani incidents, and the dastardly murder of Raymond Caruana, that the determination of the people not to be trod upon any further finally struck home and constitutional amendments were introduced to allow the party with the majority of popular following to govern.
Where was I during those long dark days? I was working actively within the youth movement of the Nationalist Party, striving for a change for the better, as I honestly felt that worse, it could not be! The change did come, when on 9 May 1987, the election swept the Labour Party out, and the forward looking Nationalist Party in. Twenty-five years later, we have an infrastructure to be proud of, a vibrant and growing economy and we are proud members of the European Union.
One final comment. One might ask, “what is the relevance today of those days?” The relevance lies in condemning those corrupt practices and the style, or lack of it, of government of the time. The leader of the Malta Labour Party today, has never condemned or apologised for his party’s actions of our own version of the Dark Ages in recent history. No surprise! He held the position of president of that same party in those days. Any recognition of the obscurity of that government would be an admission of guilt. We would do well to keep these facts well at the forefront of our memories, lest we ever forget who is still trying to sell himself as a candidate to take over the country again.