A research on political violence in Malta during 1970s and 1980s

Abstract

Through a cross-reference approach, this political study research attempts to acquire an understanding of the nature of political violence in a post-colonial independent, Republican State. Such a study faces the challenge of a recent, complex period for which time has not yet shown the political maturity needed to address and write about it objectively. The absence of historical research on the period between the 1970s and 1980s creates a vacuum and probable misinformation on the events occurring in Malta's recent history. Hence, this thesis attempts to bring forward aspects of social and political elements of occurrences in Maltese Society. Limitations of length made it impossible to mention each and every incident - for instance the gutting of the Times in 1979 would have required a chapter to itself. If history is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon, as Napoleon Bonaparte once put it, much more work is required for a broader consensus on the turbulent, sensitive years reviewed here.