Labour's sorrows

I was disappointed with the election result, not because the Nationalists won again but because Labour lost again. Sunday April 13 was another day of national humiliation for the Labour Party. Logically, there was nothing unexpected about the outcome of the electoral result. The writing was on the wall, clearly legible for everyone to read and take cognisance of.

Today we know precisely the exact gap in terms of votes cast that currently holds between the reinstalled Nationalist Party and the opposition-bound Labour Party. It is the awesome figure of 12,080. Astonishingly it is practically the same figure that separated Labour from PN both in 1992 and 1998. The only different element in the scenario was that 11 years ago the Labour leader was Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici and now it is Alfred Sant. Otherwise, the stark reality is that everything has remained unchanged, since incompetence in the inner party circles prevailed as the enduring common thread between one leadership and its successor.

In the span of 11 years, Labour has failed consistently to attain any significant political progress whatsoever. It has managed what no one could ever have dreamt to be attainable in local political standards: an electoral victory in 1996 followed by an almost immediate electoral backlash relegating once again the MLP to the opposition benches. What went wrong in 1992, what had misfired in 1998 and what was consistently evolving into an irreversible fiasco in 2003 are clear states of fact. There is no contention over them. No argument... no debate. It is sheer evidence, undeniable proof of a wider catastrophic political track that Labour has been blindly following since 1981.

Incidentally, 1981 also happens to be my birth year, so that in 1992 I was still a boy, barely 11 years old. In the meantime, Labour had lost not twice but thrice successively. In the early months of 1992 there was hope that Labour might do it just as there was some dim hope in the last weeks. As an even younger boy, I remember the closing stages of an epoch: the apparent political retirement of Dom Mintoff. I used to watch this man with awe, as the greatest Maltese statesman ever, the architect of Labour, the saviour of Malta, the man revered for his endurance and political vision. But above everything else, as the leader, the fighter of endless struggles, the leader that had made Labour great. So preponderant was his imprint, that his retirement sent Labour down the drain.

Indeed, the election result must be construed as the culmination of a long-term deficiency plaguing Labour since that fateful 1984. Labour has failed miserably to overcome the post-Mintoff trauma of filling the political void left by his absence. Labour failed on all counts. It lost electoral appeal with successive ever-larger defeats between 1981 and 1992. Labour consistently hatched one unsuccessful policy after an other. Retention of a quasi-command economy as the flagship policy between 1987-92 was followed by rejection of VAT in favour of an outmoded CET tax collection regime, in its turn eclipsed by the last half-baked idiocy of a phantom partnership realisable only at best with deceased voters. Also, Labour changed leaders twice. The Maltese electorate rejected them twice each.

Since Mr Mintoff left, Labour never recovered. Policy failures were coupled with leadership failures. The interaction of these failures is heralding the tragic reality that Labour is progressively descending into political irrelevance as the party of opposition. No one younger than 30 remembers a democratically elected MLP honouring a full five-year term in government. The reality is that Labour lost five out of six elections, plus a referendum and all rounds of local council elections except last year's.

Consequently, Labour is consistently representing the minority in this country. This minority might fluctuate between one term and another but it nevertheless remains a firmly entrenched minority. Labour has effectively lost the credibility of being the alternative party of government. People vote Labour not because they genuinely believe it can deliver but simply because they cannot stand the PN. This is the worst sign of impotence, the clear signal that Labour lacks creative output in terms of new ideas, policies and all that a leftist party supposedly stands for: innovation, progress and pragmatic results.

This is the truth, the reality that in the last decade or so has been tentatively screened or sidelined by the party leadership. The election result is slowly but decidedly uncovering this reality. The decision taken by Dr Sant not to stand again for the leadership is just the first step in a serious of radical moves that are earnestly expected by all genuine Labourites in order to do away once and for all with this post-Mintoff ideological haemorrhage.

On the other hand, change in the human component of the leadership is just a partial cure. The core policy of opposing Malta's EU membership must be discarded immediately otherwise the future electoral toll of such shortsightedness might cost the very future existence of the party. The "partnership" proposal has estranged hordes of young and first-time voters from Labour's folds.

Empty rhetoric on this proposal has also obfuscated the writing on the wall: Malta's political future has been sealed with membership in the EU. This is irreversible. Any vain attempts at countering or even obstructing such a destiny will be mere foolery. It will just backfire destructively for Labour. We survived the overwhelming successive waves of a referendum and a general election but there would not be survival from a third tsunami.

Whereas the question of our national future has been settled, there is sheer uncertainty over the needs of our society. The "new" Nationalist government will be busy occupied with its own internal strife in the post-Fenech Adami succession struggle. Therefore, it will not cater for the Maltese society's needs. Much less will it be able to co-opt the disadvantaged in our society. The coming internal upheaval for the Nationalists unveils the only ray of hope. Indirectly it spells the only feasible way forward for Labour. It is the golden opportunity.

Labour has to reclaim the land it has lost: Labour must make a comeback as the social trendsetter in this country with the full support of all constituted bodies and civil society at large. New strategies must be pursued, new issues exploited so that a long-term political vision can be traced and actively adhered to without compromises. It must take up the new social agenda that has been left dormant, address the urgent social deficiencies of our society and uphold the real leftist issues that matter in our times. Labour must tackle the reality of relative poverty, the full inclusion of women in the labour market, the position of single mothers, one-parent families, the structural problem of unemployment especially for graduates by creating quality employment, careers and not just any job. The party must fully endorse an environmental agenda, promote the integration of the marginalised minorities in our country, issues ranging from gay rights to pending matters like divorce and, last but not least, regain the solid confidence among our working class that Labour is the only party of the common man in the street.

Labour must win a real tangible populist appeal without prejudicing the minor inroads made within the middle class sectors of our society.

But first it must do away with everything that smacks of "old", starting from Dr Sant and his immediate entourage (Joe Brincat, Manuel Cuschieri and Jimmy Magro in particular) and, last but not least, the long obsolete politics of neutrality. Failing this historical test for Labour in the coming months is strictly prohibited... anathema for which there is no pardon.