Here’s my not so candid reply to John Schembri’s letter, Friends and enemies (TMID, 23 February).

I am a sport and call a “spade a spade and a shovel a shovel” and therefore very proudly declare that I support Labour (as if there was a doubt). If that makes me a political animal, so be it. At least, with a huge number of fellow countrymen in this political farm all devouring different philosophical alfalfa I feel comfortable not being a lone wolf. John Schembri is different (sic); his press contributions attest to that.

As to the metaphor used in my article, I do not only affirm it but also justify it briefly with historical events. The allies versus the axis powers – Britain and the USA felt no shame to ally themselves with Communist Russia to fight a common enemy.

You call that opportunism; politicians and strategists sanctify it by “the end justifies the means” and my justification is that if it’s good enough for the others, it’s surely good enough for me. Are John Schembri’s sentiments really different? I will allow him to answer.

And then my good friend, metaphorically speaking of course, masked me a pertinent albeit provocative question to stir up some penned up emotions. “Was Dom Mintoff my friend? Is he now my friend?” Dom Mintoff was my political role model and I still consider him as the greatest statesman we ever had. I had agreed with a lot of his views and disagreed on some others. His arguments and political behaviour during 1996-1998 do not carry my approbation but I am sure they carry Mr Schembri’s.

My answer is not an equivocal one; yes at his venerable age of 92 years, Dom Mintoff is at the top of the list of our former political leaders who, irrespective of their political alignments and in their own different ways, gave a meaningful contribution to this beautiful land of ours.

It will be nonsense to insist that it can ever happen by a one-man show.

Hence the stupidity of the notion for a Gonzipn plan.

Does Mr Schembri think that with his sententious remarks he can effectively give a different perception to our political past?

Mr Schembri will now take bites from this article, twist them, spin them and misquote me in a desperate attempt to rebuke my arguments.

But then he will need to wait for my response till after the election as I am too busy now preparing myself for “a new beginning”.

And how can I get there if I am focused on my rear-view mirror?

At this moment in time, the rest is superfluous.

Charles J. Buttigieg

Mellieha