Joe Grima's abusive rant over Mintoff obituary

Former Labour minister Joe Grima's expletive-laden tirade against the author of an obituary on former Prime Minister has raised a few eyebrows.

Joe Grima's online rant came in reaction to an obituary published by the Catholic Herald, penned by Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith.

Grima - a former Labour minister and Mintoff acolyte - wrote on Facebook: "I read your article Fr Lucie-Smith and your comments about Dom Mintoff. Do you want to have mine? Certainly. Fuck you Father. If you're not already used to it there are enough pedophiles (sic) in your clan to show you the ropes."

In his obituary, Lucie-Smith said Mintoff caused great harm to Malta and added "a friend to Mao, Gaddafi and the Khmer Rouge, he was no harmless eccentric, and knew when to send in his thugs.

Joe Grima was Mintoff's special envoy for Europe, North Africa nd the Middle East.  Following the 1981 perverted electoral result, in which Labour remained in power despite winning less votes than the PN, he vehemently defended Labour's right to hang on to power. Grima was appointed industry and commerce ministry in 1981. He then became tourism minister in 1983.

Grima will be remembered for his militant views and controversial stands in the 1970s and 1980s: including calling Fenech Adami a "Buda" and a "pouf" in public meetings... only to later make a public apology.

In the years following Alfred Sant's election as Labour leader in 1992, Grima re-emerged from political wilderness and anchored a discussion programme on the Nationalist Party's television station for seven years, openly supporting his former nemesis Eddied Fenech Adami.

This defection was borne out of Grima's sour relationship with Sant. However, following Sant's resignation and Joseph Muscat's election in 2008, Grima was once again welcomed back to the Labour Party, hosting a television show on Labour's One Television and being a vociferous critic of the Nationalist Party. Grima returned to the fold on the invitation of Labour leader Joseph Muscat.

Grima was not the only one to find Lucie-Smith's obituary objectionable. Hundreds of messages, some littered with abusive languange, have been posted on the Catholic Herald's webpage with people debating Lucie-Smith's sharp-worded and at times puerile obituary.

A Catholic priest and a doctor of moral theology Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith was not so forthcoming with nice words to say about Malta's former Prime Minister.

"The Telegraph has an obituary, as has the Guardian, neither of which are as interesting as they might have been. [...] As for Dom Mintoff, his private life was kept private too, though there was lots of gossip, much of it well founded," Lucie-Smith wrote in the Catholic Herald.

The article carries the headline, "Dom Mintoff, a dominant figure in Malta for 30 years, did great harm to his country" already indicating what is to follow.

Openly expressing his dislike for Mintoff, Fr Lucie-Smith pinpoints Mintoff's destruction of the Maltese environment as the main reason while criticising his contradictory arguments regarding integration before later campaigning against Malta's accession into the EU.

"But he never really had any principles. [...] If he hated Britain, there were other countries and leaders he loved. He fawned over Mao Tse-tung and Colonel Gaddafi; he sent the Khmer Rouge a telegram of congratulations on the "liberation" of Phnom Penh. The former were generous with their aid," Fr Lucie-Smith says.

A friend to Mao, Gaddafi and the Khmer Rouge, Fr Lucie-Smith says Mintoff was no harmless eccentric, and knew when to send in his thugs, and was political posturing.

"He would send his thugs into action when a little muscle could yield results. His thugs burned down the Times of Malta building, a newspaper that not even the Luftwaffe was able to put out of business. His thugs beat up striking students at the university.

"His thugs attacked the Archbishop's Curia, and his thugs attacked the house of the Leader of the Opposition, Dr Eddie Fenech Adami, and assaulted his wife," Fr Lucie-Smith says.

The priest admitted that these events were of the past and most people wanted to "forgive and forget", he himself stating that he will pray for his soul, with even "former enemies" forgiving Mintoff.

"In many ways Dom Mintoff represents a typical post-colonial leader - of that type now only Comrade Robert Mugabe is left. Dom came from a devout family, his brother was a priest, and I shall pray for his soul. I note that the Archbishop of Malta is conducting his funeral in the co-Cathedral (one of the most lovely churches on earth). His former enemies have spoken kindly about him, including Dr Fenech Adami. May he rest in peace," he concludes.