Praise befitting a great man - My latest letter published

[Ederico]

The Times & The Sunday Times, Malta

Praise befitting a great man

Edric Micallef Figallo, Nadur.

I commend Tonio Borg for his determined stand in respect of those Maltese who suffered grave injustice at the hands of the British authorities. In fact, it was mostly local British subjects that pushed for such injustice with the then highest British official in Malta, assuring the then Archbishop that no Maltese were to be deported. In total gallantry, a turnabout decision was made in order to please the local faction of British subjects who had even proposed the death sentence.

On the deportation itself I would only like to state that, after the war, the people were quite clear, although perhaps indirectly. The Imperialist Stricklandians, supposedly ardently loyal to the Maltese and protectors of their freedom, got their deserved popular judgement. They ended up politically dead for all practical purposes while the Partito Nazionalista ended up as the major and governing party in Malta by as early as 1950, DAP schism notwithstanding.

The relative government featured the young Giorgio Borg Olivier. On September 21, 1964 he unveiled the Enrico Mizzi bust in front of St John's Co-Cathedral, in Valletta, to commemorate a missed leader who had pleaded for Malta's autonomy and native Italian culture relentlessly and no matter what throughout his life.

Enrico Mizzi's integrity was eloquently attested by socialist adversary Dom Mintoff upon the former's death. Mr Mintoff said that "Nerik Mizzi miet Malti, l-aqwa fost il-Maltin" (Enrico Mizzi died a Maltese, the best among the Maltese). That was among the praise befitting the gentleman that was Enrico Mizzi, praise conferred to him by friend and adversary alike upon his death.

Concluding, albeit a worthty endeavour to be supported, a monument is a static remembrance that would probably end up neglected like much of the monuments in Malta.

Those upon whom honour should rightfully be bestowed through the proposed monument would probably much prefer an introspective and honest re-examination of our traditional cultural heritage and British Imperialist policies seeking to eradicate our intrinsic and rich Latin heritage of an intrinsincally Siculo-Italian nature. Politically incorrect? Truth and the courage to assert it rarely aren't.

[Ederico]

Just to qualify some terms:

"local British subjects" - Anglophile "Maltese" (also referred to as Stricklandian Imperialists)

"DAP" - Democratic Action Party, a group of ex-nationalists, or rather capitalistic opportunists who showed disloyalty to Enrico Mizzi. They remind me of the currently governing clique in the "Christian Democratic" not-so-nationalist Partit Nazzjonalista, what a misnomer!

21st. September 1964 is not simply day in which to unveil a monument, it was Malta's Independence Day, the actual one and not a commemoration.