I watched One News for a long period of time in the week that led to former Labour Prime Minister Dom Mintoff’s state funeral.

I think that the Labour Party media house gave a very good account of Mintoff’s deeds during his half a century on the Maltese political scene.

There was, however, one big omission – unless I missed it when I was not in front of the TV. And this was Mintoff’s role in the downfall of Alfred Sant’s government in 1998. I did not hear any single commentator mention this fact during the time I was watching. I felt as if the Labour Party wanted to forget that Mintoff’s behaviour brought the last Labour government down, and that the Labour Party has not held power since.

I understand that, following his death, the Labour Party wanted to glorify Mintoff the man and Mintoff the politician, but I found it rather strange that no reference was made to his parting shot from political life. After all, it forms part of history.

Perhaps it was time for Labour to find some form of closure with what happened in 1998, but I think they missed the chance of doing that.

■ Paul Camilleri

Sliema