Dom Mintoff's TV 'lectures'

I did not have the opportunity of watching Dom Mintoff's "live" interview with Joe Grima last month. For my sins, I was the guest on Super One's programme Obelix, which was being shown at the same time. However, I saw the repeat of the interview and have also seen Mr Mintoff on Smash TV. Those television "lectures" of his brought back many memories to me. The majority were pleasant. A few were not.

During my medical student days, I was a somewhat fanatical supporter of Mr Mintoff and his party. He mesmerised me, and so many other thousands, by his oratory at those massive Labour Party mass meetings in the late 1960s and early 1970s. His rhetoric was hypnotic.

I even had the courage to stand up and speak at a debate held at the Royal University of Malta, as it was then known. My aim was to try and explain that there was nothing wrong for the MLP to join the Socialist International. Constant heckling by government Nationalist supporters made it difficult for me to deliver my speech as well as I would have liked to. Verbal threats followed after I finished my speech. There would be problems with my qualifying as a doctor, if I continued supporting the opposition's Socialist Party, I was told. The result was that I prudently decided to keep a "lower profile". I qualified as a medical doctor in 1967.

Much water has passed under the bridge since then. To start with, I joined the British Royal Army Medical Corps in 1971 in the rank of captain.

One of the first heads of a department to resign during Mr Mintoff's 1971 government was my late father, then a close friend of Mr Mintoff, Police Commissioner Commendatore Alfred J. Bencini. This was in 1973, after two years of exceptional police reorganisation and efficiency.

The enormous reduction in contraband, drug smuggling, prostitution and the breaking up of numerous criminal gangs, were some of the results. The other main one was that the force regained its pride. Each and every police officer was terribly proud to be a member of the Malta Police Force. This was clearly described by Joe Micallef Stafrace, a former minister of Mr Mintoff's government, in his article "Kap rispettat" (A respected leader) in the newspaper It-Torca of Sunday, February 11, 1973.

The reason why my father resigned was that he had decided to post an officer from police headquarters to another location. His order was given and was common knowledge in the hierarchy of the Malta Police Force.

Mr Mintoff decided to countermand his order. Such a counter-order, had it been implemented, would have put my father in an impossible position. All his officers and the other ranks would have instantly lost all respect for him. It would have opened up the floodgates of anarchy and chaos in the force. He would have been Mr Mintoff's stooge.

When Mr Mintoff stood by his counter-order, my father was left with no choice but to resign. It was a Hobson's choice. Like Mr Mintoff, he was a dynamic and charismatic leader. Of course, he had his minor faults, who doesn't?

The inevitable heart attack and stroke soon followed. As a doctor, that was no surprise to me. The Malta Police Force was one of his main reasons for living. He absolutely adored police investigative work and organisation.

I returned to my birthplace in 1998, after retiring from the British Army in the rank of full colonel, having completed 27 years of service. This was a calculated risk on my part. My views on the EU were diametrically opposite to Mr Mintoff's leader Alred Sant, the then Labour prime minister. After all, I had prospered and enjoyed a very high standard of living while serving in the Armed Forces of an EU country.

I naïvely hoped that, possibly, I could, with my pen, gradually influence the party to change their stance. I was not even given a chance! As a member of parliament, Mr Mintoff represented Labour's interests. Only four months after my return, Mr Mintoff voted against his own party. The rest is history.

The Nationalists obviously wish Dr Sant to remain leader of the opposition till eternity, if possible. This is a man who has already lost two successive elections within five years. In other countries any such leader would have resigned ages ago. Here in Malta, with a few notable exceptions, politicians hang on to power for as long as they can.

With all due respect, Mr Mintoff's present stance gives Dr Sant some renewed credibility. The winners in this comical saga are bound to be the "somewhat sleepy" Nationalist Party. Their spin doctors used the EU "carrot" to maximum effect during the recent election. Pity it is also proving to be a party which appears to have forgotten that the environment and our heritage have got to be looked after too.

Finally, Mr Mintoff, I forgive you for forcing my late father to resign. However, rest assured that my family and I will never forget. Your "lectures" on television are certainly seeing to that.