In the aftermath of the election, business outlook and the commercial situation are snapping back to normal. Two main sources of uncertainty evaporated right after the election.

The first was whether Malta would do the unthinkable and make another U-turn on the EU. The second was whether the government would stay in office.

The return to normality places the country on a better political and economic footing, strengthening it for the continuing threat posed by the weak international economy.

It is a different story within the Labour Party, where internal strife has just started. Many Labour voices soon came to terms with the reality of European Union membership, accepting the electorate's verdict of the.

There is the other element that still sees nothing wrong with what Labour offered in the referendum and the election. These persons are often the ones who shift the blame for the defeat onto certain media, even though their party owns one radio and one television outlet, plus two newspapers - one electronic, the other in print - while the General Workers Union's two papers unfailingly dance to the party's tunes.

The more moderate element in the Party wants to participate in Malta's crossing into the EU. This side of the MLP can make it so much easier for Malta to take advantage of the opportunities that membership offers.

Yet there is also the threat that tired old Labour bounces back. One hopes for a radical shift at the top of the party at this time.

Now, the party has commissioned a formal analysis of its poor electoral performance, with a report to boot. This is the party of endless reports - on most topics under heaven. This report is supposed to be written by outsiders. We'll see.

Resignation

There is the air of resignation around the post-election Alfred Sant, at two levels. First there is the matter of whether he will stay as party leader. There are signs of an about-turn on his resignation from the top post.

One of the last things we heard was that in an address at a joint meeting of Labour's national executive and its parliamentary group, he said that he was considering the various appeals for him to reverse himself on the leadership issue. Next, we heard that he offered to remain leader.

Still, there is an air of resignation also in Dr Sant's acquiescence to the fait accompli of the election defeat and the signing of the EU treaty. His most recent Wednesday column started off well:

"The accession treaty for Malta to join the EU has been signed. Soon, it will come before parliament for ratification. The ruling government majority will ensure that under existing constitutional rules, that ratification will be carried out. Business accomplished. Fair enough."

That Alfred Sant wants to move on is refreshingly reasonable. But what came after was the same hard-nosed nonsense that we are so used to.

"But... the focus will be shifting... towards directions that can hardly be fudged for much longer... This time around, the 'new' Fenech Adami administration surely must proceed with the country's business."

According to Dr Sant's way of thinking, EU membership is not the country's business. The EU issue was just a subterfuge, a diversion fabricated and used by the Nationalists to hide political and economic failures and to escape the consequences.

According to Dr Sant, the PN promised "full" membership in the European Union "and practically nothing else".

This is outrageous. Even if all that the PN did was to get the country ready for membership, building the necessary administrative capacity, introducing needed reform, weaning protected industry off the decades of protection that choked initiative and growth and hurt all consumers - that alone was an enormous achievement.

Liberalising the economy, rationalising industry and agriculture, were not light tasks. Yet, the government did far more. Good and predictable policy measures enabled the economy to sail with minimum damage through international economic turbulence that imperils the health of two pillars of the economy and the livelihood of thousands.

For Dr Sant, EU membership was seemingly not a big issue, not the real issue. Labour tried to play down on the importance of the issue that defeated it.

At the same time, there is the suggestion from Labour that in the election Malta's voters were intoxicated by the prospect of EU membership, which served to cover up for the shortcomings of the party in office.

Before the election, Sant tried to reduce the EU issue into an irrelevancy. After the election, the defeat is written off as being due "only" to the EU issue.

Sadly for Labour, their opposition to EU membership came to represent Labour's maverick and contrarian character at its worst. The majority never saw the EU matter as a side issue, but rather as the overriding subject with massive consequences far into the future.

This was true even of a significant part of Labour's supporters. When Dr Sant gave his supporters the option of abstaining in the referendum, few took up the offer. Dr Sant still does not get it.

The EU issue was not something that the Nationalists cooked up in the run-up to this election or the preceding referendum. It was a project spanning decades. The changes it brought in its wake invigorated the economy and reformed its structure into something worthy of the 21st century.

Skin deep

At the same time, the facility - almost flippancy - with which Dr Sant wants to breeze along suggests something else. What if Labour's opposition to membership was not rooted in deep conviction, but rather in political convenience and expediency?

What if the anti-membership campaign, as visceral as it sounded, was merely a ploy to extract maximum political advantage by encouraging resistance to needed changes and by feeding the fear prompted by such changes?

Objections to EU membership, just like earlier objections to VAT, may have been the tools of the moment, nothing deeply held.

Not so for the pro-EU majority across the country. The intention of a good part of the pro-EU electorate was to have Malta root itself in EU institutions, assuring rational rules and regulations, assuring that Malta is wedded to the rule of law and to democracy.

EU roots to our laws and institutions will cut the risk of this sovereign nation going back to the disturbing events of an earlier decade when Labour in government lost all sense of proportion and reasonableness, pushing our country to a banana republic status.

If Labour will ever once again become a problem, it will be a matter for all of Europe and not just for the Maltese.

Just how immoderate and petty Labour can be was demonstrated by a seemingly minor comment made by the Leader of the Opposition in his Wednesday contribution. He offered to co-operate with the government in the breach of EU rules.

His offer: "For the future, Labour will take care to ensure that all positive proposals made by the government in the economic and social spheres work well. It will do so even when they might breach EU rules."

He must be thinking like a schoolboy helping his pal disobey the teacher! What a way to start out as a new EU member! What a way to reinforce the image of a party led by a small-minded mentality!

Good news

As things revert to their normal state, expect a return of Labour's doom and gloom message at full steam. Real GDP in 2002 was up one per cent in the face of the continuing slowdown in our export markets. The number of persons on the part-one unemployment register was down again in March from the year-ago level.

But good news never discouraged Labour's propaganda machine from trying to criticise indiscriminately in their quest for an end-of-the-world scenario under a PN government.

Yet, with liberalisation of commerce and the EU membership agenda, the economy keeps prospering, creating thousands of new productive jobs. Now the country is about to enter one of its most exciting phases since independence, while the Labour Party keeps dragging its feet, even on its own internal reform!

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