The ‘edification’ of history

Biographies of the great and the powerful will often provide unique insights into a country's history. But, by definition, they will also tend to look at history from a uniquely personal and ultimately questionable perspective.

So it was when former British Prime Minister Tony Blair wrote his memoirs, and was criticised for trying to whitewash his involvement in the 2004 invasion of Iraq. Bill Clinton's 'My Life' was similarly panned for its mulish self-defence over the Lewinski affair; and a recent biography on Lady Margaret Thatcher was seen as a posthumous attempt to gloss over the more divisive aspects of her leadership.

Eddie Fenech Adami's recent autobiography 'My Journey' is no different, except perhaps in the scale and character of the events described. And spanning 40 years of political activity, there is certainly no shortage of historical vicissitudes for the former prime minister to relive as he turned 80 last Friday.

That he does so from the same self-exonerating perspective common to all political biographies is perhaps unsurprising. And like all such memoirs, it was expected that its publication would bring dissenting voices out of the woodwork, forcing us to question various interpretations of an otherwise factual historical account.

'Eddie Fiducja'

At a cursory reading, the book itself - compiled from interviews with journalist and editor Steve Mallia - makes no secret of its inherent bias. Fenech Adami candidly admits that the Nationalist Party he steered for almost 30 years was not perfect and had 'made mistakes'. But underpinning all such admissions is an unswerving confidence in the moral and political direction of his own leadership... the same unshakable conviction that once inspired the electoral slogan, 'Eddie Fiducja'.

One of the mistakes he attributes to himself was his underestimation of Labour leader Alfred Sant in the run-up to the 1996 election, which Fenech Adami lost seemingly against the odds.

"We had our faults as a government, but at least we had a strategy and knew where we were going," he recalls.

Sant, on the other hand, failed to embrace Fenech Adami's own aspiration for a Malta anchored in the EU port - and refused to change his position despite repeated pleas by the Nationalist Party.

Fenech Adami's verdict? "Under Sant, Malta had no vision for the future."

Predictably, Alfred Sant himself disagrees... not only on his own lack of vision, but also on the direction taken by his former rival when in government. In a formal reaction to the book launch, the Labour MEP candidate reminded an interviewer that history is inevitably a "two-way affair".

"When you talk about someone of the political stature of Dr Fenech Adami, you must neither canonise nor demonise him. In his own perspective and that of his party, he obtained considerable success. He won various elections, and was a prime agent in the fact that Malta became a member of the European Union, as he himself wanted." 

But a more complete account of his career, Sant adds, would also have to include the inculcation of a "money no problem" attitude that, "in the longer term, led to the introduction of aspects which resulted in waste, in negligence on the administration of government assets, and also in a certain carelessness regarding the need for the country to modernise its administrative structures".

Sant also takes the former prime minister to task on promises of justice that were never fulfilled. "For years in opposition, Fenech Adami claimed to have information of the murder of an innocent child" - a reference to the death by letter-bomb of 13-year-old Karin Grech in 1977 - "but then, when in government, he never took action on what he said he knew".

Nor did he cleanse the police or other national security nexuses of corrupt or dangerous elements, as he had earlier promised.

"All this leads me to conclude that the two-way history of Dr Eddie Fenech Adami has yet to be written," Sant said.

'Prime liars'

An even earlier rival, former prime minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, was altogether more scathing in his reaction to the 'edification' of recent history.

"Politics brought out bad qualities in Eddie Fenech Adami that I never knew existed, when we were friends in the law course and the 'apostolat'," he recalls. "He was the most divisive Opposition leader this country has ever seen. Let us not forget the acts of terrorism, both psychological and material, that took place in those years..."

Naturally, it is debatable which of these two versions of the 'terrorism' of the 1970s and 1980s - which Fenech Adami ascribes to forces close to Mifsud Bonnici's government - is closer to the truth. The full history of those years has evidently not yet been written, either.

But Mifsud Bonnici's reaction alone is enough to recall an echo of the political tensions of the time, and which have never fully evaporated: "The fact that [Fenech Adami] describes me as the most corrupt politician ever, because I tolerated things that were being done by the party, is something I think he should attribute to himself, because he blessed and sponsored everything the Opposition did at the time... But the thing I resented the most, and that I objected to the most, was the way he completely  twisted facts... so much that I nicknamed him, not prime minister, but 'prime liar' ('prim giddieb')..."

The Dalli Code

But while all this may be expected from the recollections of rival political leaders, there are moments when Fenech Adami's memories seem to conflict with those of the protagonists from within his own party.

The ill-fated leadership bid by former finance minister John Dalli, and the subsequent clash with Eddie's successor Lawrence Gonzi, stands out as perhaps the most vivid example of a tale which alters with the telling.

Fenech Adami devotes a substantial part of two chapters to the controversial former European Commissioner who had engineered so much of Malta's financial metamorphosis under the PN. But John Dalli himself adds a somewhat different perspective to these memories.

In comments to MaltaToday, the only area where he agrees with Fenech Adami regards his own assessment as a vital component of the cabinet between 1987 and 2004.

"I appreciate the recognition of my contribution to the governments that Dr Fenech Adami ran," Dalli says. "I did contribute a lot and must say that I was instrumental in the modernisation of the Maltese economy, bringing it out of a centralised system into a functioning social market economy. I look back with satisfaction at the work done, and thank Dr Fenech Adami for his direction, advice and support..."

But the man who introduced VAT also feels the need to correct some details "for the sake of historical correctness".

Among the contested memories are Fenech Adami's 2004 choice of European Commissioner, which the former prime minister reveals had been first offered to Richard Cachia Caruana then to John Dalli, before eventually going to Joe Borg after both refused. In the book, Fenech Adami hints strongly that the reason for Dalli's refusal at the time concerned an ambition to succeed him as party leader.

 "John decided to stand for the leadership after declining my offer to nominate him as European Commissioner... [he] was not keen at all but said he would do it if I insisted. Had he said yes, I was obviously aware he would not have been able to stand in the leadership contest. But I had no intention of pushing him."

Dalli himself however remembers the incident differently. "I had a meeting with Dr Fenech Adami at his house where I went to inform him of my intention to contest the leadership of the party. In our discussion he mentioned to me that he had asked Dr Joe Borg to take the post of EU Commissioner and that he was waiting for a reply from him. At the same time he asked me 'You would not have been interested in the post would you?'  Knowing that Dr Joe Borg would accept this post and not wanting to create any conflicts, I told him that I was not interested."

Conflicts were however created, especially between Dalli and Lawrence Gonzi. As Fenech Adami recalls: "John became foreign minister but within a matter of months he was forced to resign from government in acrimonious circumstances after he instructed other ministries to buy air tickets from an agency in which his daughter had an interest. This was clearly a mistake, though John claimed that the real reason behind his departure was a false report by a private investigator, Joe Zahra..."

John Dalli himself describes the same incident as "the 2004 attempt to imprison me", and admonishes the former prime minister for "reproducing the points made by the Gonzi camp on this issue".

"I regret that Dr Fenech Adami makes some defamatory remarks in this context. He states that I instructed other ministries to buy air tickets from an agency in which my daughter had an interest. I did not instruct any other ministry to do any such thing, and my daughter had no interest in the agency in question. A correction would be appropriate..."

As for the Joe Zahra report, Dalli hints that the decade-old controversy may not be over yet.

"[Fenech Adami] states that the issue was about airline tickets - which facts have shown was only a smokescreen as the thrust against me was the fraudulent Zahra report which was then sent to the police in an attempt to arraign me and throw me in jail," he told MaltaToday. "It is still a mystery why Commissioner John Rizzo did not investigate the people who were behind Zahra in this character assassination. Some new information has come my way on this case, and I am seeking legal advice to see whether it is possible to ask for a reopening of the investigation."

He also hints at a conspiracy to prevent him from contesting the 2008 elections. "It must be said that even on the air ticket case, the auditor general declared that I did not act wrongly in any way. It is also a mystery why Mr Joe Galea, the auditor general at the time, did not publish his report for more than three years. If I had not pushed for it would have probably been left until after the elections of 2008. Was the plan to strike me off the candidate list for the 2008 elections?"

Even on the subject of his eventual reconciliation, Dalli accuses Fenech Adami of pushing the Gonzi line.

Fenech Adami writes that "John's departure caused a rift between him and Lawrence that has never healed despite Lawrence's attempts to rehabilitate him." Dalli retorts that his 'rehabilitation' was due to political necessity, and came about on his own insistence.

"The rift between me and Gonzi was caused because of the attempt to destroy me and my family. Gonzi never apologised for his actions even when he was proved wrong both by the courts, and by the belated report of the auditor general. Gonzi had proof that the Zahra report was fabricated only a few weeks after my resignation in July 2004. He continued to hide behind the air ticket excuse to keep me out of Cabinet. Several times I made contact with Gonzi to try and get him to make a statement to clear my name. He procrastinated and evaded any solution..."

Gonzi's hand, Dalli claims, was eventually forced.

"It was after the lapsus made by Joe Saliba on a 'Reporter' programme in which he stated that I resigned so that the police can investigate reports that were made - obviously referring to the Zahra report - that I put my foot down demanding that Gonzi stops making excuses. With an election looming, Gonzi agreed to hold the joint press conference that we gave in November 2007. After the election of 2008, the "rehabilitation" planned by Gonzi was an offer of "a position in tourism" - which I refused. Then came the mega ministry of social policy.

VAT is the question

Outside politics there are areas - admittedly far fewer - where Eddie Fenech Adami's recollections have also been contested. The former prime minister reveals in his memoirs how hurt and irritated he had been when the Small Businesses Chamber (GRTU) opposed the introduction of VAT in 1994. In so doing, he singles out GRTU director Vince Farrugia for criticism.

"He [Vince Farrugia] objected to the timing of introducing VAT, when, for financial reasons and credibility's sake, we had no choice; and he said it would have negative implications for retailers, in particular the requirement to install cash registers. I always gave Farrugia the benefit of the doubt whenever people accused him of being in cahoots with Sant, because he is very much his own man, but there is no doubt he did a lot of harm to us at the time. He was actively encouraging retailers to find ways around paying VAT."

Contacted this week, Vince Farrugia denies that his motivation was to assist in tax avoidance, and reminds the former prime minister that the GRTU was instrumental in assisting with the VAT introduction in other ways which are not described in Fenech Adami's memoirs.

"John Dalli as minister of finance and the tax authorities knew that my target was to have the maximum of traders come in on the VAT ticket and eventually on honest income tax returns. But there was a lot of bridges that needed to be built before this could be achieved."

His main aim, Farrugia adds, was to defend traders' interests so that they would eventually come on board with VAT without facing unjust penalties.

"For this reason, I worked with the tax authorities on a spontaneous declaration that needed to be presented by refund applicants that would, as indeed it did, put traders and retailers and participating service providers squarely in the tax-abiding regime. With John Dalli I also worked on other schemes that later made it easy for various groups of self-employed to come on board. Dr Fenech Adami forgot or did not have the space to detail this."

He does however concede that Fenech Adami was not alone in his perception of an undeclared agenda.

"There were of course those who backed us, believing it was some tax avoidance campaign and there are those who still believe that that is what it was all about. The truth is that those