Landmarks in Maltese Constitutional History 1849-1974

On 23 June 2011 the Central Bank of Malta hosted a high level symposium in Valletta on the occasion of the launch of the first in a series of five €2 coins commemorating landmarks in Maltese constitutional history. The speakers comprised Chief Justice Emeritus John J. Cremona, who had drafted the Malta Independence constitution of 1964, and President Emeritus Dr Ugo Mifsud Bonnici, who played a pivotal role in the negotiations to modify this constitution essentially by changing its model from that of a Constitutional Monarchy to one of a Republic in 1974. Both these distinguished panellists, therefore, spoke to a large extent from direct personal experience. The two other speakers were necessarily more academic in their presentations because they very validly discussed earlier constitutions, well beyond living memory. Dr Sergio Portelli, a university lecturer who holds a doctorate in Italian, spoke about the 1849 constitution, its Risorgimento associations and its aftermath, drawing to some extent on his doctoral thesis on a history of Italian language journalism in Malta. Dr Albert Ganado, a former president of the Malta Historical Society and very well versed in modern Maltese history, I asked to discuss the advent of representative government in 1887, through what some have called the 'Holland' constitution, a reference Sir Henry Holland (later Baron Knutsford) , who was the secretary of state for the colonies in London at the time that it was conceded, after a sustained and increasingly bitter nationalist struggle. This was a progressive development, allowing the Maltese a majority of elected members on the Council of Government - but, alas, not such a lasting one, as it would be withdrawn in 1903 when political viewpoints and attitudes came to a head and became irreconcilable.peer-reviewe

L-ispirtu tal-liberta’ : x’fissret il-waqa’ tal-hajt ta’ Berlin

Biex nifhmu x'fissret il-waqa' tal-hajt ta' Berlin f'Novembru tal-1989 irridu niftakru ftit x'kien wassal ghall-kostruzzjoni tal-hajt f' Awissu tal-1961.peer-reviewe

Language and nationality in an island colony : Malta

Under the influence of thinkers such as Vico, Herder, and Fichte, we have come to accept and assume that language and culture are what make a people a nation. In his critique of nationalism, however, Kedourie described it as "a doctrine invented in Europe at the beginning of the nineteenth century." Whereas in recent times nationalism has caused or served the perpetration of excesses, in the preceding century nationalist movements were in many ways inevitable, even heroic expressions of resistance to assimilation and foreign domination, attempts to reinforce cultural awareness and assert political rights. However, it is clear that no instant or static correlation exists between native languages and national cultures, or between ethnic groups and nation states. While it seems natural that a people sharing common experiences and using the same medium of communication should constitute a nation, the relationship of nationality to nationhood may be complicated by a multiplicity of factors - sectarian, social, ideological. More fundamentally, a sense of common nationality may be hindered by different religions or ethnic origins of the inhabitants of a defined .area, resulting for example in conflicting language loyalties, as in Canada. The situation appears even more perplexing when linguistic differences do not stem from perceptibly diverse racial origins, yet serve to polarize opinion in a society having common attributes. Nineteenth-century Maltese society is probably a unique example of the case in which bilingualism became a battleground in the successful quest for a national identity. Maltese nationalism rotated in time on this triple paradox: The championing; of Italian as a non-Maltese national language; the active promotion of the Maltese vernacular by the British Imperial power as a means of expunging Italian; and the gradual emergence of Maltese as a national tongue and as the prime expression of anti-British sentiments. Of Britain's Mediterranean colonies it is Malta that is socially and politically the most interesting. Neither too small, like Gibraltar, to aspire to nationhood, nor, like Cyprus, torn by ethnic-religious strife, the Island was just sufficiently sized, the native population adequately homogeneous, for an intricate language-nationality situation to develop during the period of British rule (1800-1964). “There is surely no other community in the British Commonwealth,” wrote an observer in 1937, “whose domestic disputes are entangled so inextricably with the shattering controversies which divide principalities and powers”. Unlike Tangier, Gibraltar, or the Cape, Malta was not part of a mainland, and her language-nationality conflicts must be seen in the light of her insularity and geographical location - an archipelago only 122 square miles in area, 60 miIes to the south of Sicily, and three times as distant from the North African coast.peer-reviewe

Malta's quest for independence : reflections on the course of Maltese history

Includes author's preface.Independence is not made in one day; but there is a day when it is obtained. Like most ex-colonies, Malta since 1965 had celebrated 21 September as her National Day. A measure of consensus had been reached in Parliament at the time that Dr. Giorgio Borg Olivier headed Malta's (Nationalist) Government. A quarter of a century later, Malta's statehood is itself beginning to have a history. In this - especially after 1971 - the very acquisition of independence has been turned into an acrimonious partisan issue between the main contending political parties, although the argument that questions how far Malta became independent in 1964 remains fundamentally a political rather than a constitutional one. 'Independence', 'freedom' and indeed 'national' days have assumed an unenviable (and unique) history of their own. Independence Day was eliminated as a national day and even as a public holiday by the Mintoff - led Malta Labour Party (MLP) following its assumption of office in 1971. After using the pre-independence national day of 8 September (1565/1945) temporarily as a stop-gap, national day became 13 December (1974) when Malta was declared a republic - no longer a constitutional monarchy as it had been since independence. But this day was itself replaced by another, that of 31 March (1979) marking the expiry of a new military agreement with the former colonial power, Britain, concluded in 1972. When in May 1987 the Partit Nazzjonaiista (PN) were returned after sixteen years in opposition, the government would have wished to rehabilitate Independence Day; equally it sought "reconciliation' in an island that had become more internally polarized than ever. In view of the impossibility of reaching consensus about restoring Independence Day to its former status, in March 1989 it was agreed to do without a National Day as such and instead to have no less than five (5) days designated as "national" feasts, these to include 21 September 1964, 13 December 1974 and 31 March 1979. The first of these to be commemorated under this new agreement, 31 March, ended in a terrible fracas during which, inter alia, the Commander of the Maltese Armed Forces was assaulted on the dias by well-known MLP supporters as he was about to take the salute. Thus the meaning attributed to words - 'freedom' itself, for one - begs many a definition. Nationalistic rhetoric abounds in what appears to have become a machismo bout: 'whatever you can do I can do better'.peer-reviewe

Party politics in a fortress colony : the Maltese experience

Includes foreword by Prof. Dennis Austin.What makes a nation, says Renan, is not race, language, geography or religion, but 'the possession in common of a legacy of memories' and 'the desire to live together, the will to put to good use the heritage that has been received undivided'. Nationality, whether or not it coincides with state boundaries, is a spontaneous disposition, more emotional than rational but irresistable and unique: 'une nation est un ame, un principe spirituel'. I What people think about themselves is often more important than where their ancestors may have come from or even the language they happen to speak. In practice, community of sentiment may be strongly influenced by linguistic, religious and other agents of cultural transmission. 'La langue invite a se reunir; elle n'y force pas'. Was Malta in the nineteenth century a nation?peer-reviewe

Capitolo sesto - Vino vecchio nelle bottiglie nuove: partiti politici e la garanzia di un governo responsabile

Sommario: 1. Le elezioni del 1921: nascono i nuovi partiti. 2. Uno sguardo sui meccanismi elettorali. 3. L’Apogeo di Strickland. 4. Il culto della personalità

Attard : the life of a Maltese casale

Three main reasons convinced me of the need to write this book, and I am glad that my colleagues on the Attard Local Council were of the same mind and entrusted me with the task. My first immersion into Attard's history was provoked by the mistaken exclusion ofSant'Anton, the palace and gardens, from its historic confines, when local council boundaries were first drawn out by the central government authorities. That offended every acclimatised resident of Attard, as well as my own childhood memories, when going to Attard from Floriana meant a frolic and a picnic, feeding the swans and watching monkey acrobatics. Another hiccup had been the exclusion of a red quadrant from Attard's traditional coat-of-arms by a heraldic expert not conversant with the simmering strengths of local history. Both these inadvertant errors were later rectified, but not before or without a sustained engagement in battle, armed by the pen of course, not the sword. Another instigation to get started on at least a modest pioneering work of this kind came from the constant quizzing I was having to put up with about Attard from several new colleagues and friends at the Council of Europe as well as professional contacts I was beginning to make in other countries when on mission. Having headed Malta's Delegation to the Strasbourg-based Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe since its inception in 1994, I became much involved in this sphere of activity nationally and internationally. But what the Council of Europe always recognises and emphasises above all is the local provenance and the electoral base of members of the European Congress. In participation lists, speeches and reports I therefore invariably carried behind me, like a tail, the tag: "Mayor of Attard". Those who hardly knew where Malta was knew still less about Attard, but even among those who had come to Malta they would mostly remember the seaside tourist resorts or the casino, Valletta or perhaps Mdina, rather than a place like Attard, unless they happened to have stayed at the Corinthia Palace Hotel or been stopped by their tour coach at Sant'Anton for a walk-about in the gardens. Almost without exception, there was never a profile of the place or its inhabitants in their memories of Malta. While I was often presented with books or booklets by other Mayors or Councillors about their respective municipalities, I was never in a position to reciprocate such a gesture, nor of course could any of my Council colleagues if faced by a similar situation. The third and perhaps gravest reason for this little book however was the difficulty which many residents have had to identify the areas which made up Attard or to know where many of the streets themselves were located or what they were called. Often enough, for example, they would be unaware of the different areas that made up the place, and altogether unfamiliar with the names of the streets. Naturally my own work commitment in the context of the Local Council was itself an enriching experience on a human, operational and indeed an historical level. I too was on a learning curve, so I felt increasingly obliged and propelled to share that growth with fellow residents and citizens, but also to help Attard get out of its shell and be better known and appreciated, as it well deserved to be. In compiling data for this book I have relied on the generous assistance of so many people, mostly Attard residents. Too many to mention here, but I must at least list alphabetically all those who have kindly agreed to submit written notes, articles or pamphlets, or respond to queries of one kind or another. These have included, among others, Ms Joyce Abela, Mr. Edward Agius, Mr. Franco Azzopardi, Mr. Nicholas Azzopardi, Fra Andrew Bertie, Mr. Roger Vella Bonavita, Or. Giovanni Bonello, Mr. Lino Bonnici, Mr. Joe Borg, Ms Mary Ooris Borg, Mr. Norman Borg, Or. Mario Buhagiar, Ms. Maria Carmela Camilleri, Mr. Charlie Camilleri, Or. Paul Cassar, Prof. J. Cremona, Mr. Maurice Oegiorgio, Sour Anna M. Oemanuele, Mr. Justice Franco Oepasquale, Mr. Arthur Oimech, Mr. Carmelo Oingli, Mr. Mario Ellul, Mr. Michael Ellul, Rev. Carmelo Farrugia, Mr. Paul Fenech, Mr. Patrick Galea, Ms Maureen German, Mr. Herman Grech, Mr. Reuben Grima, His Eminence the Apostolic Nuncio Mgr. Jose' Sebastian Laboa, Mr. Carmel Mallia, Mr. John Manduca, His Excellency President Ugo Mifsud Bonnici, Mr. Joseph Muscat, Ms Evelyn Pullicino, Mr. Anton Quintano, Or. Joseph R. Saliba, Mr. Tony Sammur, Mr. Keith Sciberras, Mr. Michael C Spiteri, Dr. Oonald Sultana, Mr. TonyTerribile, Mr. Gerald de Trafford, Or. Horatio CR. Vella, Ms Josianne Vella Bardon, Mr. Abel Zammit, Mr. Frankie Zammit and Mr. Winston Zammit. I am most grateful to all the elected members of the Attard Local Council for their support, and for agreeing that the Council pay the printing costs. I am specifically grateful, for their local knowledge and contacts, to the Deputy Mayor, Mr. Gerald Borg, and to Councillor Joseph Mifsud, both of whom were born and raised in Attard. In thanking all the Council's members of staff I must reserve a special thank you for another 'native child of the village', our clerk Ms Marica Mifsud, who also typed in many additions and corrections to my draft texts. I am much indebted to the members of the Editorial Board for their technical advice and constant encouragement, especially Mr. Lionel Cassola, Ms Tanya Muscat and Ms Christine Vella Borda who also did the setting, while the first of these also took most of the photographs appearing here. Others were taken by the photographers Mr.Tony Mangion and Mr. Gino Galea as well as by Mr. Joseph Stellini from the office, and myself. Finally I wish heartily to thank all those officials of Artard's constituted bodies and their assistants who responded to the call for lists of their respective club presidents so that these could be included as appendices in a comprehensive manner between two covers for the first time. Naturally, I assume full responsibility for any oversights or errors in the text.peer-reviewe

The British colonial experience 1800-1964 : the impact on Maltese society

Influenced by history as much as by geography, identity changes, or develops, both as a cultural phenomenon and in relation to economic factors. Behaviouristic traits, of which one may not be conscious, assume a different reality in cross-cultural interaction and with the passing of time. The Maltese identity became, and is, more pronounced than that of other Mediterranean islanders from the Balearic to the Aegean.peer-reviewe

Capitolo terzo - La politica dei partiti sotto il governo rappresentativo 1888-1898

Sommario: 1. L’ascesa del Conte Strickland. 2. Strickland l’autocrate. 3. “Morte a Strickland”. 4. Nasce il Partito Unionista. 5. L’Unionismo e la questione dei matrimoni. 6. Lo scontro religioso: le motivazioni. 7. La campagna politica pro-cattolica. 8. Nasce il partito popolare. 9. L’ascesa di un demagogo. 10. P.N. e P.P. a confronto. 11. Il ritiro di Savona

The origins of Maltese statehood : a case study of decolonization in the Mediterranean

CO 926, the main series of volumes containing the Colonial and Commonwealth Relations Offices’ original correspondence and papers, including Maltese affairs, between 1961 and 1964, were recently released in London. Professor Frendo is the first to see and to study these for a book from original sources (including the British intelligence reports) about how Malta really became independent. This has, as a backdrop, decolonization in the British Empire, Europe and the Mediterranean. Professor Frendo’s findings and analysis bring into the o[pen many so fat unknown facts, throwing new light on how and why the onetime fortress colony of Malta became independent from the British in 1964, who and what made it happen when it did. The Origins of Maltese Statehood thus offers new, engaging facts and insights on what for Malta and her people was, in the author’s words, “a parting of the way, a stepping out in to the world”. Henry Frendo shows how Malta’s emergence to statehood in the early 1960s was all the more remarkable given the growing unrest in Cyprus, Libya and Aden, as well as the strained relations between East and West in the wake of the Cuba missile crisis, President Kennedy’s assassination, Soviet influence in Southern Europe including a naval presence in the Mediterranean, and the spreading of the nuclear weapons. Malta’s role in NATO (the Mediterranean forces of which she then headquartered), the possibility of her membership of the organization, and her part in evolving British and American strategy in the Mediterranean, are considered. So is a secret plan in 1963 for Malta’s integration with Italy after Independence. The book contains substantial biographical information, some of it novel and startling, on leading personalities including Dr Borg Olivier, MR Mintoff, Archbishop Gonzi and Police Commisioner De Gray (all of whom the author had also interviewed in the past) leading to the transfer of power in September 1964 – when, the book shows, there could have been a bloodbath. As much a history of Malta as of Sir Alec Douglas-Home’s Britain in some respect, this story has the colonial and defence secretaries Duncan Sandys and Peter Thorneycroft as well as the Defence Chief, Earl Mountbatten of Burma, in pivotal roles. Here is a case study of the path to statehood of a former outpost of Empire, a key operational station at least until the 1956 Suez crisis, as well as a long-standing bastion of Christendom straddling in the North-South divide. Malta’s independence story unfolds in the related contexts of an unfolding Commonwealth, with its attendant challenges and perils; an increasingly exposed Southern flank; and the movement towards European integration.peer-reviewe