Sunday, 24th January 2010 - 10:25CET
Front Maltin Inqumu becomes Front Favur Dom Mintoff
Dom Mintoff
Front Maltin Inqumu, the lobby group formed to object to the way government was conducting negotiations with the EU before membership, has become the Front Favur Dom Mintoff.
The decision to rename the group to honour the former prime minister was taken by the committee that is still running the lobby group more than five years after EU membership.
Among them is Alleanza Liberali head John Zammit, who said Mr Mintoff was being given very little recognition for what he had done for the country and the group was going to ensure he got the credit he deserved.
“I am an atheist. Dom Mintoff is my god and I will do anything for him,” Dr Zammit said when contacted. He pointed out he had stood by the man’s side since 1965, taking over from where his father left off.
Front Maltin Inqumu was originally set up in 2002 by Mr Mintoff – and later joined by former Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici – to encourage society to oppose the manner of the membership negotiations.
The lobby group disbanded when Dr Mifsud Bonnici left to continue his work within the Campaign for National Independence (CNi) that was, and still is, opposing EU membership. However, the committee continued to meet.
Dr Zammit feels Mr Mintoff has been sidelined and forgotten. Even the Labour Party ignored its former leader whom its supporters had once revered, he said.
Animosity between the party and its former leader developed in 1998, when Mr Mintoff voted against the Labour government led by Alfred Sant over plans to develop the Cottonera yacht marina. This led to a snap election just 22 months after a landslide victory in 1996.
The rift escalated into the well-documented 1998 political crisis, and consequently Dr Sant said Mr Mintoff had betrayed the party.
“Labour completely ignored Mr Mintoff. We wanted Dr Sant to apologise for calling him a traitor. Whatever Mr Mintoff did was in Malta’s best interest. Had he not done it, Malta would not be an EU member nor have the euro. I left Labour and will never go back. I set up Allenza Liberali to divert people from the Labour Party. Dom Mintoff is my god and Malta’s saviour,” he said.
Last December, Mr Mintoff made a surprise visit to the Labour Headquarters in Ħamrun – the first time he’s ever been there. Since Joseph Muscat took over the Labour leadership in June 2008, he has made it a point to build bridges with the old guard and especially Mr Mintoff. He had repeatedly asked the 93-year-old to visit. Dr Zammit said he was pleased the party had welcomed Mr Mintoff at the headquarters.
The Dom Mintoff lobby group is composed of Dr Zammit, Charles Aquilina and six other committee members “who do not wish to be mentioned or seen to be supporting Mr Mintoff”.
Earlier this week, Labour MP Chris Agius called on the authorities to protect the house where Mr Mintoff was born in Cospicua. Residents want authorities to place a plaque on its facade.
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Comments
To be fair, kindly also consider the thousand of people who on the other hand think that your words quoted in this same article are a bit how shall I put it, well, "bizarre"
a) Mr. Mintoff never wanted to lower anybody's standards. He just wanted to give those less fortunate in life through no fault of their own, a chance of a better life.
b) Spending has to do with everything. You can't spend what you don't have, and Malta didn't have anything then, hence the imposition on certain imports and not to deprive those who could afford them from buying them.
c) Mr. Mintoff's social conscience dictated that those who had it all will in some way those who had nowt. The richer, read private and church schools didn't give a damn about those less fortunate, whereas Mr. Mintoff did.
d) Neither Mr. MIntofff nor I ever wanted or want to punish those who succeed, but I'm all in favour that those who can will and should help those less privileged.
D) Finally, I challenge you or anyone else for that matter, to mention just one single instance when Mr. Mintoff advocated or condoned violence. In fact he himself was many a time a victim of both moral and physical violence. The same moral violence you yourself are committing with your writings!
Just to name a few (Carrington, Heath, Gromyko, Moro, Colombo, Mitterrand and many others) all happened to know of Mr. Mintoff. One of those called Mintoff that extraordinary man in his memoirs and last but not least Carrington praised Mintoff all over the UK on a TV program.
The below is a link in which features Carrington mentioning the Great Man.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJJyxWLC-hw
You either are pretending that you don't know history or that you want to thwart the facts for your own ends.
Mr. Mintoff's policy was to better the life of those who were at the lowest rang of the population ladder with the help of those who God graced with and more of what they needed. The closure of schools was simply because those who had more than they needed didn't want to help those who couldn't afford private tuition, and that included also the church schools!
Spending has to do with everything 'cause no sensible person will spend what one hasn't got or can ill afford. The restrictions on certain imports was not intended to restrict those who could afford and wanted to buy what they wanted but to stem the deluge of local monetary resources that would otherwise have left our shores. If you can't see the reasoning with that, in a country whose finances were zilch then I feel sorry for you.
I have no problem with people who succeed in life, in fact, thanks to Mr. Mintoff I happen to be one of them but, on the other hand I never even dream of denying those who life has not been as sweet to them the privilege of betterment.
As for violence, which I wholeheartedly condemn coming from wherever and whoever, and Mr. Mintofff was himself a victim of both moral and physical violence, I challenge you to mention one, just one, instance where Mr. Mintoff instigated violence or ordered or suggested to anyone to be violent.
The reason I think that the next party in government would certainly br the PL is turning towards the centre.....So I cannot understand why the PN people first accuse Mintoff of being totally leftist,and now are also accusing JM that he is shifting from that position by a few degrees...
I have no problem with raising anybody's standards, the problem with people like you and Mintoff is that you expect everybody to be brought DOWN to the same standards.
What has spending got to do with anything? Why did Mintoff prevent decent quality goods to be imported for those who were willing to pay for them? It's not like he paid for them out of the "kaxxa" did he? Remember desserta anyone? Uuuugh!!!
Why did he close down my school (private not even church) so I had to study in hiding? He didn't contribute a cent out of state coffers to it anyway! My parents were workers too who sacrificed everything to send me there!
Mintoff and people like you, Mr Delia, believe in punishing people who succeed to reward those who don't!
And as to the violence .....
Mintoff known wordlwide?? GET A LIFE!!
Not even in his heyday, let alone now as a sad has-been from the political scrapheap!!
Had Mr. Mintoff not started to raise standards from the level of poverty, lack of free education for everybody and a hundred-and-one other things then, most of the Maltese population would still be living today in that brown smelly stuff.
What would YOU have done had it been you governing with no (financial) resources to do so?
I hope you don't manage your private life with "Spend what you don't have and then we'll see" attitude!
And so Mintoff, instead of raising everybody's standards, made sure he BROUGHT DOWN everybody's standards.
And what has no pasta, toothpaste, chocolate got to do with anything other then Mintoff made sure that the only way we could have anything like that was to smuggle them in!
Il-fatt li qed issemmi dan kollu minghajr ma' tigi mhedded diga' hi xi haga li fi zmien l-idolu tieghek ma kienitx possibbli. Nazzjonalist jitkellem bhalek fi zmien Mintoff kien idabbar daqqtejn. Dan hu dritt li tawhulek Gvernijiet Nazzjonalisti u se jibqghu mharsa bis-shubija fl-UE. Hafna nies tal-eta' tieghi u ikbar ghalhekk ivvutaw iva. Iktar milli ghall-flus, ghas-serhan il-mohh li l-hnizrijiet u l-kwazi dittatura tal-era Mintoff u KMB ma jergghux jirrepetu ruhhom.
Tafu x'qamel kien hawn Malta, xi stat kienet fih il-kaxxa ta' Malta u r-ricessjoni li kien hawn fl-Ewropa meta Mintoff ha l-Gvern?
Nittama li ma' kontux tistennew il-manna taqa mis-sema jekk kontu tafu dan kollu , jekk tridu tkunu onesti maghkhom infuskom u ma' min qed jaqra dawn il-kummenti !!!
Tajjeb inkunu nafu x'kontu tghamlu li kieku kontu intkom fil-Gvern.....
But at least, seeing all these MLP supporters writing here comments remembering that Mintoff was a good leader (after that his OWN party called him Traitor back in 1997/98), that means that some people still know what graditude is !!!
There is a difference between being famous and being notorious.
Is ther another 'Front Kontra Mintoff?'
Or was that Wenzu Mintoff?????
@ L Fenech - Mintoff may be known for all the wrong reasons. In the times when Malta should have been progressing and perhaps could have become a Switzerland in the Mediterranean (electronics, financial services...), Mintoff instead got us tangled up with North Korea, Romania Regime and Col Gheddafi.
children allowance, paga minima ghall kullhadd, 2 terzi pensjoni, leave ghat tqala,
vot tat 18, vot lin nisa, helsien min bazi bla glied, djar ghal maltin, flats, nehha lfaqar u sfortunatament rega gej, president malti, u hafna affarijiet li ma tieqaf qatt issemijhom.
DOM MINTOFF GHANDNA ghalxiex nirringrazzjawh. kull min jghlli jdejh ghandu xi xjomm
So were Churchill and Hitler, Mandela and Mugabe, the Dalai Lama and Kim Il Sung, Walesa and Ceausescu.
Any achievements that Mintoff made were cancelled out by his despotic style - He undermined his predecessor and successor at the helm of the MLP (as in Sant since KMB was his choice).
His supporters completely miss the irony when they sing his praises on this medium. In his time, free speech was not encouraged - and that's putting it ever so mildly - and this very same newspaper was torched.
"Mintoff is known worldwide !"
For all the wrong reasons!
ThePolitican who planned ourEconomy were still non-existant and sofar away in their mentality. When theBritish started moving, the politicians built factories but had noMarkets to sell to. Slowly,very very slowly, the Bully politicians starting giving way to more intellligent ones, who planned our economies and found foreign contacts and competed for commissioner's jobs with international brains! That is a new breed of politicians!
Which part? I lived through everything Aidan Zammit Lupi said!
Mintoff (along with KMB) Closed my school (private, not even a church school) so I had to study in hiding! Do you remember ANY half way decent quality products during the 80's? Pasta? Chocolate (remember desserta???) toothpaste? I bet you smuggled them in along with the rest of us!
But I do admit that I will be eternally grateful to him for 1998! The only thing in his life I will be grateful for, even though it still does not make up for the horrors of the seventies and eighties!
Thank you Dom - NOT!!!!!!
We are not acquainted, so please have the courtesy to not call me by my first name. You know very well that I am refering to the Mintoff regime. I lived through those times so please do not assume you know anything about the hardships my family and friends had to go through. I will not presume to know anything about your own experience, though I have no doubt that is different from my own.
You must be referring to the pn regime Aidan.
My own experience tells me that Mintoff deserves some credit for tyranny, hatred, brutality, suppression of education, bad manners, corruption, gerrymandering, ration books, bad chocolate, pasta with added protein (bugs), broadcasting monopoly and bad news around Christmas time.
He involuntarily put Malta back on the road to the EU in 1998 - for that I am grateful.
He did during his time but the pn as usual destroyed everything because they hate the workers and the working class and we are now back to poverty under the pn and the eu regimes.
GiovDeMartino Il-fatt li ngabru dawk il-flus ifisser li l-faqar hawn min japprezzah ghax qieghed fih u mill-ftit li ghandu ghamel karita' ma min huw ainqas ixxurtjat mieghu. Kif qal Kristu, il-habba ta' l-armla tiswa hafna aktar minn dak li li beda jiftahar kemm jaghmel karita'.
J Martinelli Concern yourself with Canada Martinelli.
amifsud Sugar rations? Aren't you talking about WWII mifsud?
F Rizzo Isthu jekk tafu tisthu. Tkomplux tinsulentaw lil dawk l-eluf ta' fqar li hawn Malta. Anki l-istess ue qed tghid li fl-ue hawn 17% li jghixu taht il-livell ta' faqar. F'din il-kwalita' ta' ue dahhaltuna sakemm nergghu nohorgu kif ghandna kull dritt u setgha li naghmlu u kif se naghmlu. Ahna l-laburisti ta' veru la qatt accettajna u lanqas qatt naccettaw id-dittatorjat kolonjali tal-ue.
La hawn dan il-gid kollu u l-pajjiz sejjer daqshekk tajjeb ghalfejn il-kontijiet tad-dawl u l-ilma gholew? Nahseb la hawn daqshekk gid stajna zammejnihom fejn kienu, mhux hekk? U la hawn daqshekk gid ghalfejn il-hwienet lanqas biss stennew l-ewwel tas-sena biex jibdew bis-sales u anke wara li ghadda xahar ghadhom mimlijin bl-affarijiet? Ma nafx jien imma nahseb il-pajjiz li qed tghix fih int mhux l-istess pajjiz li qed nghixu fih ahna Sorry...imma izzomm kemm izzomm ma partit ma nahsibx li tibqa titwemmen meta tpingi genna fl-art u bl-argumenti tieghek stess twaqqa l-argumenti tieghek.
Issa int hrigt biex iddahhaq?
thanks tal kumenti tieghek fuq dom mintoff .
ftakar habib li joe muscat qed jiprova min kollox biex jerga jikonvinci lilna il mintufjani biex forsi nerghaw nivotaw labour,ghax matul is snin ghandek tkun taf li kien hemm hafna mintufjani li ivottaw lin nazzionalisti inkluz jien.alfred sant ghaliena noboduh daqs kemm int tobod li mintoff. jekk joe muscat ma jikoregiex nies phallek ghalura gonzi ghaliena ma jdejaqniex unerghaw nivotawlu .ahna il mintuffjani kolha demm wiehed jekk ma nilghabux inhasru habbib.
The man who couldn't stand it that some people were more successful then others and so instead of raising everybody's standards sought to BRING DOWN everybody to the same level, except for a few like "il-fusellu"
Remember when (real) chocolate, toothpaste, tea and pasta amongst others had to be smuggled in? Remember when he closed down all church and PRIVATE schools? Remember how there were no private hospitals?
And I am not even going to start on the violence by the "aristocracy of the workers"
The only thing I will ever be grateful to him for is his 1998 service to the country and future generations!
Kieku int veru Laburist jien minn issa nsir Nazzjonalist. B'min tahseb li trid titmellah?
Jekk int daqstant altruwist esponi l-identita tieghek. Jien mill Mellieha ID 619042 M. iNT MINN FEJN INT? X-inu l-ID Card number tieghek? Jekk trid irrispondini fuq cjbutti@maltanet.net.
Int qed tghid li Mintoff traditur ta' Dr Sant u ta Joe Muscat. Nahseb li Joe Muscat ma jarax l-affarijiet bl-istess lenti li qed tarhom int ghax qatt ma naf li qal xi haga hazina dwar Mintoff - kien ilu jistiednu fil kwartieri tal partit laburista u laqghu bil ferh mata accetta l-istedina. Mintoff hu dak li hu, bit-tajjeb u l-hazin tieghu, izda kien bniedem ta zminijiet ohra u dak li ghamel, hazin jew tajjeb irid jigi kkunsidrat fic-cirkustanzi ta dawk iz-zminijiet.
Like him or hate him, Mintoff did a whole lot of good to the working class people, giving them dignity, education, health care, a minimum wage that allowed a decent standard of living and social services such as old age pensions that eventually led to the creation of a growing middle class. So much so that none of these reforms introduced by Mintoff have been removed by subsequent PN governments. No wonder that many working class people considered him is-salvatur.
Of course, the better off who least needed his reforms are far more inclined to emphasise the less admirable features of his era, and there many of these too - the use of violence as an instrument of political repression, the real fears for democracy, his pragmatic flirting with left wing dictators, his clinging on to power through gerrymandered election boundaries etc.
Mintoff remains a contradiction to this date. Like him or hate him he will remain an icon of our recent political history.
@Karl Borg: Kemm Alfred Sant, Joe Muscat, u Mintoff kollha kienu kontra li Malta nidhlu fl-Ewropa u ahna il-laburisti vera ghadna bl-istess hsieb.
Laburist ta' veru.
The Dom Mintoff lobby group is composed of Dr Zammit, Charles Aquilina and six other committee members “who do not wish to be mentioned or seen to be supporting Mr Mintoff”
Its either that i'm a really retarded person who can't realise the scope of such a group or else this lobby group really lacks the support of even its own executives. I ask what sort of lobby group is set to make an impact if even those who run it do not want to be seen as believing in it?
I'm sorry to say this, but i strongly believe that the mintoff era is now over and those who idolized mintoff have to move on because this is 2010 and not the 1980's.
My memory of Mr Mintoff?....sugar rations, plus a feeling we lived in a third world country when I look back at how far behind we were the rest of Europe at the time.....and I'm not that old. That;s how far this country has come since Mintoff's days.
Like Mahatma Gandi’s,Pandit Nehru’s, Martin Luther King’s, Samira Bandaranayke’s, Nelson Mandela’s,Archbisop Makarios’s, Lincoln’s, Fidel Castro’s and other historical Giant’s, Mintoff ‘s legacy will live forever.
l- leburiist said that thousands of Maltese were on the poverty line!
I would not preoccupy myself with a group of supporters of which 75% “ ... do not wish to be mentioned or seen to be supporting Mr Mintoff” for fear of being labelled and branded, as is the custom on this little spit of land, and i certainly would not dedicate the time to get embroiled in the age-old argument of what Mintoff has or has not accomplished. Now it's a Sunday, go watch telly, all of you. We've seen it fourscore times before.
VIVA DOM MINTOFF
Minn ittradixxa lill minn ????????????????
One of Mintoff's critisims was that he considered himself to be the party rather than being part of it - and this is very apparent in this statement. This is not the way politics works, and thus such disillusions still remain. Thus I think it would be very sad if the PL re-start using Mintoff or quoting him for this fundamental reason.
You forgot something very important! Mintoff gave dignity to the lower class, and brought to an end poverty in Malta.
Thank you Mintoff for the National Bank of Malta scandal; you are a true hero.
With regards to Dr John Zammit's words, "I am an atheist. Dom Mintoff is my god and I will do anything for him", just one question... would you divert planes into tall prominent buildings? Because that is what your words remind me of...
Let's also not forget what this guy did for Malta; to mention a few:-
1. Welfare system incuding free education and health care, children allowance, minimum wage etc.
2. Vote for women;
3. Govermental enterprises such as enemalta, telemalta, mid med, BOV, Airmalta, freeport, to mention a few;
4. Private enterprises - SGS, Playmobile, Baxter, to mention a few
5. Tourism - Hotels like Corinthia...
6. A true freedom from colonial powers;
These to mention just a few. True the later period of his career was tarnished by violence...which was NOT one-sided. But at that time, we needed a strong character to set us up, and that is what we got.
San Duminku Itlob ghalina !
Probably the renaming of the Front, comes at a time when its members have finally conceded to the will of the majority of the Maltese in 2004.
Better late than never !
Laburisti ta' veru.
1. He managed to make Malta a secular country and
2. He managed to bring down Sant's govt in 98 ensuring us entry into the EU.