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Agatha Barbara

Appreciation by Sandro Schembri Adami

The passing away of Agatha Barbara came at a time when I was writing her biography. I was recently spending evenings at her house, where she used to recount her vast experiences as former president, minister and teacher.

She had a particular way of saying things. Naturally, her lifelong experiences had taught her a lot, and as she spoke, I could admire her eventful lifetime. She would talk at length; she would sometimes go off at a tangent, speaking of a subject which I would think was not worth mentioning, only to realise later that she would link it to the initial subject.

During the last three or four weeks, we refrained from meeting. We had developed a stable friendship and she even became a friend to my mother, occasionally exchanging nostalgic experiences from teaching times. In these last few weeks, mounting pressures from clients and constituents made me rethink whether I should still go on with the biography. Only time will tell whether these episodes will ever see the light of day...

Agatha was at the heart of politics from the very start. She was elected in the first Labour government. Malta was just stepping into self-government and Agatha, still young, was helping to shape this political age. She never looked back. She soon became a pioneer in political matters: she was the first female minister and later the first female President. Her political career was long and unbroken, since she was elected in all general elections between 1947 and 1981. She succeeded in rising from a constituency level to a national level, serving as minister of education and minister for social services and labour.

Her role as President was instrumental in reconciling the political parties in the post-1981 election period, when politics was in danger of turning into a ruthless tug-of-war. Throughout her Presidency, she kept this spirit alive. "Alliances in politics change," she once told me. ‘And we often commit the mistake of fighting our own friends in the party."

She would go mad when narrating her 1958 imprisonment after taking part in Labour's national strike against British government's policies in Malta.

Dreadful was the situation: she, a woman, being jailed for opposing British rule. Yet, she still believed in what she had done. And time gave her the upper hand.

People who knew her immediately recall her benevolent character. Despite her rash appearance, she had developed a sense of nobility and finesse. I still remember her efforts to help a handicapped person from Gudja whom I had told her about. She heard his story, verified the facts and then asked me to write to the ‘Sammaritani’ to help him finance his medical and hospitalisation expenses.

Her altruism was perhaps seeded in her education career. From her humble beginnings as a teacher at Flores College, she could understand the student's life. Later, as minister of education, she strove to make this life better.

Incidentally, one of her students was Guido de Marco, who, like herself, has become a distinguished person to the nation.

She worked hard to provide proper schooling in state schools and improve the education prospects for the working class. Her role was, however, not without difficulties. She was criticised for removing exams from the system in trying to replace the learn-by-heart education system by a character-based one. She was, at times, even insulted and described as being low-class due to her humble social background.

Now, Agatha passed away. And for everything that she gave to the nation, she was given a state funeral. Her well-attended funeral is a testimony to her contribution to the nation. Yet we can mourn our lack of respect for her life. She was the only President not to be given the title of Ph.D. Honoris Causa. True, she was not a know-it-all, but her commitment to Malta's political, social and educational development were remarkable achievements in the university of life.

In her passing away, I have lost a great friend. Despite the age gap between us, we had similar backgrounds. We both were involved in politics and social welfare. Our first official encounter was in 1992 in the ‘Sammaritani’, a charitable organisation. She knew my father’s uncle, Tonio Schembri Adami, who, like her, was a minister in the first Labour government. After visits to Ta' Pinu, I would, at times, visit her villa in Gozo. And recently, I was proud to have started writing her biography.

Agatha Barbara will remain famous for her involvement in politics and social welfare. Yet her service to the nation and not fame, will remain in our memories. For fame is a food that dead men eat, but the person's services to the nation will help make Malta better.

• Sandro Schembri Adami was a Labour deputy 1992-1998