Hijack

Before the election I was convinced that if the Labour Party lost the election, the leadership would resign the morning after. To my surprise, instead of resigning, the leadership took hold of the party media, and proceeded to brainwash their public that the current leadership should remain.

Manwel Cuschieri, fighting to keep his own position, is spewing out only messages approved by Alfred Sant. I know of people who tried to state that they want a change in leadership, whose message was censored.

I listen to the same programme, and hear people who are contesting the leadership being talked about negatively, referred to as trying to run before they can walk, as not having the interest of the party at heart. I hear callers who stated that they voted for John Attard Montaldo and will never vote for him again.

Mr Cuschieri only reads Orizzont articles that praise Dr Sant and completely ignores articles from other Labour Party candidates who believe in the need for a change. The same goes on during the news and discussion programmes on One TV. And to add insult to injury, those same candidates who are not being given the opportunity on the Labour media, are being called names for appearing on other media, and warned that the Bondi+ and Xarabank boycott is still on.

On the hijacked Labour media the message is simple: the MLP lost the election because of the EU. Therefore, it is the EU issue which is the problem, and not the leadership! What is not being said, is that the MLP lost the election because it has a serious problem of credibility.

Every survey confirms that trust in Eddie Fenech Adami beats that in Dr Sant by 10 to 15 per cent. If people believed in the MLP leadership, then they would have believed that Partnership was the ideal recipe to get all the good without the bad of EU membership. But the people did not believe this. They did not believe that there would be another referendum. They did not believe this because the Labour leadership lost credibility. And if the leadership now changes its position about the EU, the credibility will nosedive further.

It has become clear that today the Labour Party is nothing more than a media machine. And, therefore, those who have hijacked the Labour Party media, have hijacked the Labour Party. Mr Cuschieri, and the media clique, remain in control, leaving little possibility for any contestants for leadership to surface, to express themselves on the Labour media platforms. What a completely undemocratic way to run a party.

What I cannot understand is why many of the other Labour Party people have been quiet. How can they let the MLP sink to this undemocratic state? I can understand that before the election, the timing to speak up may have been wrong. But now is the time to act. And the place to act is in the media. Not backstage. Not silently. But out there where Manwel Cuschieri and his clan are waging war.