Dom Mintoff needs longer crayons

In his twilight years as in his prime, Dom Mintoff can still not find crayons long enough to paint a full picture. It has always been a problem with him.

Today he is waging a strenuous campaign against membership of the European Union, calling on electors to vote for the Labour Party.

It is admirable, he is 86. Long live the agitator, of feelings and passion, love and hate.

I went to hear him at Guardamangia on Thursday, to see the picture he paints. He left his listeners with one huge corner missing, and big blobs of white here and there.

He is rabidly against EU membership. Membership would be a misfortune, he says. Somehow, the Maltese dizgrazzja, as he put it, conveys so much more meaning.

What he does not tell anyone, for it does not suit him, is that while Eddie Fenech Adami is the architect of accession, and Guido de Marco and today Joe Borg were the spadeworkers, Dom Mintoff was the instrument.

For make no mistake about it, Malta would not have been able to achieve EU membership in 2004 (let us hope it does) had Mr Mintoff not voted against his own one-seat majority government in 1998. There would not have been time, assuming the Nationalist Party would have been returned to power had an election been held in 2001, to reactivate the membership application and negotiate the terms.

Mr Mintoff does not tell his listeners that. So I am doing it for him - maybe it will help him observe the law to end public meetings at sundown, not, as he did on Thursday, long after the sun had set. Why do the police not do something about that?

Pie, not love, was in the air on Thursday evening at Guardamangia. I had an eerie feeling that Mr Mintoff was eating humble pie when he referred to Michael Frendo's "Pie in the sky politics" article in The Times that day.

For Mr Mintoff defended Dr Sant against Dr Frendo's writing. Imagine that - Mr Mintoff defending Dr Sant, after bringing down Dr Sant's government, and saying so many harsh things about him since. The change given by Dr Sant has, of course, been liberal.

There must be a tacit understanding in the Labour Party about some entente between the two. Who knows, maybe we will hear something about it on Monday, Freedom Day, Mr Mintoff's achievement - a major do for him, but made possible only by the independence he derides, achieved by someone else, not by him.

Mr Mintoff dwells caressingly on neutrality, his other oeuvre. Through it, he tells his unquestioning listeners, his government had agreed with everyone to do each other favours.

That was even before neutrality was forced into the Constitution, at a critical juncture when civil war threatened in Malta, and the democratic Mr Mintoff traded majority rule for neutrality.

Mr Mintoff has a warped sense of justice, and gave us a gem of an example of it. Dr Fenech Adami, he said, would let Maltese soldiers fight abroad if they volunteered. And if a soldier died, Mr Mintoff asked, who would look after his family? Would we? Or would it be the United States, if the soldier fought for the US? And if he fought for the US, why should he not fight for Saddam Hussein? he asked. Should we, Mr Mintoff added, tell our soldiers to die for the US, but not for Saddam Hussein?

But the highlight of the Thursday meeting was the ominous threat made in the dark.

Mr Mintoff said: "Had the mistake not been made of our having allowed the referendum to be held, the referendum would not have been held in Malta. The referendum was unconstitutional. Had our people been awake, not asleep - even those Labour MPs...

"We are today telling people to vote Labour because taghna (our people, MPs?) have remembered at least that there is freedom and we are hearing something about freedom. We have confidence that the same will not happen."

Was it up to Labour to allow the referendum to be held, I ask. How could Labour have prevented it being held?

Dr Sant, aspiring to lead the country, seems to be coming to an understanding with this man. What will Dr Sant promise for Mr Mintoff's support?

Let there be no doubt, with Mr Mintoff back with the party, Labour will not accept an "unconstitutional" EU membership. That is the argument they will make. And Labour with Mr Mintoff will not fight that in court. We know that for Mr Mintoff, the end justifies the means.

Dom Mintoff has warned us.