What happens to history when people pass away

Agatha Barbara’s strengths and weaknesses shouldn’t change in light of her death, says SAVIOUR BALZAN

When I finally read through Daphne’s brief contribution on Agatha Barbara I could only smile.

Naturally for the female contributor all the fuss over Agatha Barbara was misplaced and out of line.

I can only agree that funerals serve to idolise people. It is part of our Latin culture.

It could be that history was rewritten when the ex-President died, but then it happens all the time.

Agatha Barbara was not the greatest politician Malta has had. She was a militant and unlike Daphne, I think that her imprisonment in 1958 was unjust.

Anything that kicked ass with the British colonial powers must have been a noble cause.

Had I been around, I would have loved to have been on Agatha’s side, and against colonialism and the last thing I would have considered was militating in the fold of other parties.

Agatha Barbara and Albert Hyzler went to prison for 32 days for the alleged intimidation of workers. This was a difficult era, with the governor of the time, Sir Laycock, in direct conflict with Mintoff and in cahoots with Archbishop Gonzi. He disliked Mintoff and his Labour party.

Daphne obviously does not read the same history books and someone must have forgotten to tell her that Laycock was the person who wanted Barbara imprisoned. He could have had Mintoff behind bars but he made his calculations and left it to the two ministers. They were imprisoned in dirty cells and treated like criminals - the courts made it known that they should not be given preferential treatment.

The same colonial crony had Joe Micallef Stafrace, then editor of Is-Sebh, imprisoned and had Labour party’s newspaper closed down for two months.

Agatha Barbara cannot be derided for her 1950’s political career.

If anything, in 1958 the Labour party was a far better choice to the arch-conservative political parties comprising a mix of neo-fascists, anglophiles, italophiles and bland politicians.

With Agatha, the real problems started in the seventies. She began well with equal opportunities for all in education but then things turned sour. Labour politicians in the seventies had far too many hang ups and chips on their shoulder.

Let us not forget that entry into University in 1971 was only for the privileged. It would cost Lm35, equivalent to the average monthly income.

The majority of graduates were from well-to-do families all with a visceral hatred for the Labour party.

She helped in a small way to change that. She also saw to an increase in the number of schools.

But she will be best remembered for captaining the destruction of the government liceo, a secondary school that churned out the very best students.

Better still, she confronted the teachers, calling them names and shouting them down in full view of their students. "Bzieq", she once called teachers.

She was a nightmare with her screaming and habitual use of expletives in public. More so when she sealed the end of exams which led to the ruin of our already flimsy education system at primary and secondary level.

She was later appointed President, but no one really noticed.

The only people who did were the environmentalists who were shocked to realise that she had decided to build a villa at the foot of Ta’ Pinu hill in Gozo. Bang in the centre of pristine terraced meadows.

Probably she had tried to replicate Mintoff’s habit of building a home on a perch for all to see.

In truth, Agatha mirrored everything Mintoffian in politics; militant, assertive, arrogant, social-orientated and very Maltese.

Listening to the political stations has become pathetic. They reveal deficiencies of respective councils depending on whether they are run by Labourite or Nationalist councillors.

It is tit for tat at its best. The Nationalists continue to believe that the councils run by Labourites are chaotic and without salvation. The Labourites obviously think the same about the Nationalist-run councils.

What is worse is that both parties are understating their expected performance, in an effort to pre-empt any bad result.

The PN is saying that the councils this time round are Labour dominated and the MLP is stating that the electorate still doe not believe in local councils.

Come election day, the results will be interpreted and translated according to the whims of the party.

The fun is just beginning.