Time-warped

"What we call our future is the shadow which our past throws in front of us" - Marcel Proust

I could not help recalling this quotation while listening to the reply of the leader of the opposition to the address which Pat Cox, speaker of the European Parliament, had just delivered to the House of Representatives.

Pat Cox was smooth, lucid, logical and sincere. He made an address straight from the heart, replete with honest reflection in a most assertive yet diplomatic tone. Without doubt, he was by far the best EU-related foreign speaker in the recent past. In an unequivocal yet tactful manner he dispelled all the arguments raised by all the local Eurosceptics. We witnessed finesse in both sustance and delivery.

A truly national occasion was marred by the partisan speech the leader of the opposition thought fit to make. A golden opportunity to elucidate on New Labour's much-vaunted vision for modern Malta was kicked away in a matter of a few minutes and the sheep's clothing removed yet again.

New Labour is still so bitter about the outcome of the last general election that Alfred Sant brought out that old skeleton from the cupboard yet again: he said that the 1998 election was won by the PN due to gerrymandering.

With all due respect, who called the election in 1998? If the electoral boundaries were really gerrymandered, as new Labour claims in a most quixotic of ways, what did new Labour do in 22 months in office to rectify that situation? What sense does it make to call a snap election if you truly believed that the boundaries were not as they ought to have been?

New Labour ought to be about freshness and vision. Not the local breed, however. Pat Cox was branded a 'propagandist' in the hands of the government. Even more than that, Cox was accused of being in collusion with the Maltese government and engaged in a quid pro quo. According to New Labour's leader, since Cox did not toe the opposition's line, Dr Sant was thus justified in exercising his licence to kill. Thus, Cox was vilified and attacked in the basest of fashions. Cox had to remind Dr Sant that he was not dressed as a Taliban!

Truly, conduct unbecoming of New Labour.

True to his assertive yet diplomatic approach, Cox both denied this and asked New Labour what they had to say about the Switzerland in the Mediterranean option. He could not fathom how one can profess to be a locally-bred 'Swiss' politician and yet feel free to ignore the people's sovereign expression in a referendum. How could it be that the will of the majority, expressed in the most specific way, will not be respected and be simply ignored?

More was to come. New Labour's leader locked horns with Cox about the neutrality issue. Cox dutifully and tactfully told-off Labour's argument. New Labour is so fresh that it has not realised that Russia has become an ally of Nato in an unprecedented development!

What was considered unthinkable up till a few months ago, today is reality. Realpolitik! What is considered as a historic step towards a new world order where traditional enemies are today pooling their resources to fight terrorism is of no consequence to the leader of the opposition.

Cox felt he had to comment on New Labour's stagnated approach towards international politics. In his opinion, New Labour is entrenched in a mind-set prevalent 40 or 50 years ago, when the Cold War was at its worst. It was as if New Labour has not yet realised that the world has changed. New Labour is detached from reality. New Labour is not so new, after all!

True to form, Dr Sant prided himself by recalling that it was during his tenure as prime minister that Malta opted out of the Partnership for Peace. Cox's retort was that, apart from Malta, only Liechtenstein, the Vatican and Tajikistan, opted out of the Partnership for Peace. This should have put the Eurosceptics' minds at rest - we are in the good company of Tajikistan, since the other two states do not have an army and so are precluded from joining the PfP.

Evidently, New Labour has gone beyond its expiry date. It has become an anachronistic party, shunning growth and eschewing change due to its lack of faith in the Maltese nation. It is an outdated party haunted by an ever-present persecution-mania that makes it take up its cudgels against innocent windmills, mistaking them for threats and aggressions.

New Labour has been rendered obsolete and irrelevant, thanks to its own pronouncements. It is conjuring up images of a future Malta which is nothing more and nothing less than shadows of its own past thrust in front. New Labour is time-warped!

Plus ca change.