This is the first election of the new century and one of the most important ever. We have ducked the challenges that confront our country for too long. Now it is time to face them.
Years of Nationalist administration have left our society divided. For years they were obsessed by one solution. They spent their energies and millions of public money on an assumption that membership of the European Union will solve all our problems. Europe will turn Malta into an island utopia. They ridiculed and belittled those who did not agree with them. They accepted no criticism. However, they miscalculated the Maltese people's political maturity. The Nationalist secret weapon, consisting of rapid deployment of imported propaganda streamlined by their European guests, misfired.
The March 8 referendum result has hit the Nationalists badly. On the national TV channel, they conducted what they called "reliable national polls", indicating that only up to 29 per cent will vote no to membership.
After years of brainwashing, we are now left with an economy in shambles. Over these years, we have lost our inner sense of believing in ourselves. We stopped believing in our abilities.
We forgot how to promote employment opportunities, or to tackle economic inequality, or even how to protect the environment for our future generations. This government has lost its political will to govern. The Nationalists mishandled the situation and broke many of their promises. Their hollow slogans, poor manifesto, in this election campaign are the writing on the wall.
The Labour Party believes that Malta can perform better; we can make it better. We believe that this small but great nation can have better schools, better hospitals, a better police force to tackle crimes and a better welfare state to take care of our pensioners, the sick, people with special needs and their families and care for the neglected. We want to renew the peoples' faith in our ability to govern our own affairs.
We will not make the same mistakes made by consecutive Nationalist governments. We will not change anything that they did right; it is what they have done wrong that we need to replace.
We want to eradicate a political system that safeguards the elite at the top and showers special privileges to friends of friends.
We want to live in a country where whatever our political or religious beliefs are, we have a government that governs in the interest of the honest citizen, the broad majority who work hard and pay their taxes.
It is hardly surprising that I still meet a good number of honest families who are cynical and distrustful of politicians. Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami promised heaven on earth in a vote-catching spree before the last election. You may have relatives and friends who have been unemployed for months. You may have members of your family who are on a long waiting list for medical care. You may know a student who was misguided by our present education system and lost all hope of further education. You may be one of the many who is not satisfied at the way this government spends our money.
You may have voted Nationalist in the last election because you believed that the Nationalists had the will to lower rates, not to raise taxes, and to control the cost of living. Today you know how wrong you were.
The vision of a new Labour government is to start a national revival. We need our economy to start kicking again. We believe in the rebuilding and renewing of Malta and Gozo. We do not promise any miracles. That is why we do not promise what we cannot deliver and to deliver what we promise.
The election gives us an opportunity to move on in the right direction. We are proud of our country, proud of our heritage and of our history. Proud of what the people have achieved since independence. We are a national party, supported by people from all walks of life, the businessman, the pensioner, the housewife, the professional and the farmer and the fisherman. Over the last weeks, we welcomed thousands of young people who flooded in to join us.
The Labour Party is presenting a different political choice to the people. An honest choice between the MLP and a failed Nationalist administration, which is tired and exhausted, fighting this election with only one desire, just to cling on to power.