Did Mintoff’s flirtation with the Great Libyan Arab Socialist Jamahiriya in the 1970s end up reinforcing popular prejudice against the Arab world, instead of eradicating it? JAMES DEBONO looks back on Malta’s millennial relations with its southerly neighbour.
“After 900 years of being linked to Europe, Malta began to look southward. Muslims, still remembered in folklore for savage pirate attacks, were redefined as blood brothers.”
So writes anthropologist Jeremy Boissevain about the cultural, economic and political rapprochement between Mintoff and Gaddafi in the early 1970s, and its impact on Malta’s views of Libya and the Libyans.
For although the Maltese speak a language derived form Arabic, and still hold on to the Arab names of many towns and villages – as well as to surnames like Abdilla and Muscat – the Arabs in general have come to be regarded as the ‘villains’ of Maltese history and folklore.
A thousand years ago it was a different story: in 1175 – a full 85 years after Count Roger subdued the Muslim inhabitants of the island – the Bishop of Strasbourg described the inhabitants of Malta as ‘Saracens’, and a 1241 census still reports a strong Muslim presence of 836 Muslim families on the island.
Yet memories of a Muslim past were all but totally eradicated during 900 years of European rule, during which Malta served as a Christian outpost in a war against the infidels, which culminated in the Ottoman siege of 1565.
As educationalists Carmel Borg and Peter Mayo observe, the depiction of Saracens as “the other” is nowhere more apparent than at St John’s co-Cathedral in Valletta, where Muslim slaves support the wooden pulpit shouldering the weight of the Cottoner monument.
This imagery persisted throughout eighteenth and nineteenth century literature, where Arabs and Muslims were depicted as rapists bent on destroying whatever they found in the villages. And it was only in the 1970s that Malta seemed to rediscover its kinship ties with its southern neighbours.
‘Blood brotherhood’
It was against such deeply ingrained attitudes that newly-elected Prime Minister Dom Mintoff embarked on the politically motivated task of convincing the Maltese that the North African Libyans – the descendents of the dreaded corsairs – were their blood brothers.
In Mintoff’s scheme of things, Libya was a useful trump card with which to possibly blackmail the West in his quest for financial aid for Malta, then still a fledgling state. Despite the pragmatic nature of this relationship, and perhaps aware of the strong prejudice against the Arab world, Mintoff also embarked on a cultural offensive to change this mentality.
But this shift in Malta’s historical allegiances was met with resistance, fed by a latent racism against Arabs in general, which was exploited to the full by Mintoff’s opponents in their failed attempt to stop his ascent to power in 1971.
“We Maltese are Westerners,” declared Mabel Strickland – then leader of the small but influential Progressive Constitutional Party – in a pre-election speech in which she referred to the “victory of the cross over the crescent in 1565” as the greatest event in Malta’s history. She recalled that for 400 years the Maltese had celebrated Te Deums and patriotic orations to recall this victory of Christendom over Islam
“What would a Socialist victory do to our historical past?” she rhetorically asked.
Addressing a meeting in Zabbar, young Nationalist stalwart Josie Muscat blasted Mintoff for promising to bring help from Libya. “The Libyans would want something in return. Libya is rich in oil and does not need money. Libya is only in need of soldiers to win the war against Israel. Is that Mintoff’s solution for the unemployment problem?” he asked.
Reacting to this hostile campaign, the Libyan embassy held a press conference on the eve of the 1971 election declaring that Libya was not under Russian influence, as alleged by the PN. The PN reacted by a statement ”regretting the interference.”
Libya became useful for Mintoff as soon as he was elected. When he issued an ultimatum to British troops, to either pay higher rents for military facilities or quit the island altogether, it was Gaddafi who bankrolled Malta to the tune of about $3,000,000, to replenish the government’s diminishing social security fund.
As the British made plans to evacuate Malta, a Libyan air force cargo plane discharged 44 men in civilian clothes at Luqa, lugging four-foot wooden crates. Government spokesmen insisted that the Libyans were “technicians” who had come to operate at Luqa when British air-traffic controllers leave; their crates merely contained technical gear.
But Mintoff’s stratagem worked and finally the UK accepted to out dish more money to Malta as the island’s naval base was extended to 1979. Libyan investment in Malta increased even as the British troops prepared to leave.
Several hundred Maltese workers found employment in the Libyan oil industry, which supplied Malta with all its petroleum needs. This was an opportunity not missed by many working class Maltese families, some of which made a fortune and joined the ranks of the middle class.
Yet despite the arrival by boat of hundreds of Libyans to celebrate the departure of the last British troops, the relationship between Malta and Libya proved more fragile than it appeared.
A major incident occurred in 1980, when Libyan gunboats and a submarine used force to stop Maltese naval vessels in a dispute over oil exploration. Malta had to back down as it continued to buy oil from Libya at a preferential rate. Although the incident created a climate of outrage among the populace, political relations with Libya survived the incident.
Relations under Mintoff’s successor Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici were so strong that the former Maltese Prime Minister reputed to have saved Gaddafi’s life when Libya was hit by a US airstrike in April 1986.
“An hour before the bombing, we had informed Libyan air traffic controllers that unidentified, unauthorised planes were approaching their region,” Mifsud Bonnici recalled about the fateful attack on the night of 15 April, 1986.
Former US President Ronald Reagan who called Gaddafi “this mad dog of the Middle East” ordered the air strikes on Tripoli and Benghazi after the disco attacks that killed three, including two U.S. servicemen, in Berlin.
The cultural legacy
Culturally the friendship between Malta and Libya was reflected in the Labour government’s decision to make Arabic a compulsory requirement for students wishing to enter university.
This resulted in the arrival of hundreds of teachers from Libya who swelled the ranks of the local Muslim community.
Very few of those who studied Arabic in the 1980s developed a command of the language and it remains doubtful whether its imposition as a compulsory subject helped in fostering an appreciation for Arabic language. Probably the association of Arabic in schools with the political climate of the 1980s did not bode well for the future development of the language.
What is certain is that following its removal from the list of compulsory subjects by the newly elected Nationalist government, interest in the subject ebbed.
By 2006 only 12 students chose Arabic as their language option after being promoted from Form 2 to Form 3, suggesting that past attempts to instil a love for our “mother language” were counter-productive in the long term.
The total number of students taking Arabic in secondary school currently amounts to only four: a mere 0.23 per cent of the total number of students in government’s secondary schools. A further 38 adults are also taking lessons in Arabic in evening classes. Of those sitting for the exam in 2006, only seven got a grade between 1 and 5. Another two got a pass.
Another legacy of Malta’s ties with Libya was the building of a mosque in Corradino in 1973. The mosque is run by the World Islamic Call Society, a Libyan governmental association known for its commitment to promoting dialogue between different religions.
Malta owes the presence of a moderate and peaceful brand of Islam to its relationship with Libya.
In the 1970s and 1980s Libya also administered two cultural centres: one in Villa Drago in Sliema, and the other in the Main Guard opposite parliament in Valletta.
Gaddafi’s Green Book even found itself in many Maltese homes as a standard freebie for those visiting the Libyan stand at the annual trade-fair in Naxxar.
Libya also donated Lm 115,000, for the construction of the Ta’ Qali stadium, which replaced the one in Mile End.
Back to Europe
Relations cooled after 1987, as the newly elected Nationalist government once again shifted its foreign policy focus away from pariah Libya to Europe.
In 1992 the United Nations imposed sanctions on Libya after it refused to hand over the two Libyan suspects accused of masterminding and carrying out the bombing of the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie.
Malta, an active member of the UN, fell in-line with the resolution and imposed sanctions on Libya. Maltese and Libyan investment in both countries suffered.
The air link between the two countries was suspended and for a long time the only outside link for Libya was by sea.
Sociological research conducted by Anthony Abela shows that the Maltese became more intolerant towards Muslims in the 1990s with the number of those not wanting a Muslim neighbour rising from 15% in 1991 to 28% in 1999.
The media was also rife with reports of Arabs, particularly Libyans, who were not allowed to enter Maltese nightclubs. In many ways, racism against Libyans predated that against illegal immigrants from sub Saharan countries.
Due to its proximity to Libya and the lack of Visa requirements, Malta also attracted a fair share of young Libyans attracted by the availability of alcohol and prostitutes in places like Marsa and Gzira.
Despite its past friendship with Gaddafi’s Libya, Malta played little role in Libya’s rehabilitation in the international community, following Libya’s unilateral abandonment of a nuclear and chemical weapons’ programme in 2004, following the US invasion of Iraq.
Ironically relations with Libya took a downturn with the introduction of Visa requirements for Libyans visiting Malta following EU membership.
Finally the arrival of thousands of immigrants from Libyan shores has created more resentment against the southern neighbour.
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