'Friends of friends' within Labour

You must have heard the buzzword "friends of friends" from Labour leader Alfred Sant 1,000 times before the last general election, together with "big bosses" and others that he tried to drum into people's minds. But after the third big defeat for Labour in less than five years, it is now obvious that the buzzwords are only an over-compensation for what actually happened within the Labour Party itself under Dr Sant's leadership. A sort of continuous Freudian slip.

People who, like me, have Labour roots in their families, and who would like to see a credible, modern and European Labour party, just cannot understand how Dr Sant is contesting for the Labour leadership again.

With Dr Sant contesting and winning the leadership (can you imagine a sitting leader losing this contest?), Labour is doomed again.

Consider these facts. In 2008, the Nationalists would have governed Malta for 19 out of 21 years. Since 1962, the Nationalists would have won seven clear electoral majorities to Labour's three, and two national referenda. Nine to three in all. Since the Second World War, the Nationalists will have had six full terms in government to Labour's two (barring the 1981 perverse result).

That is the state Labour is in.

Labour needs to turn a fresh page to become electable again and then to sustain power for a full term. It needs to have another Paul Boffa at its helm. It needs to be a truly modern and European party appealing to the middle class rather than a dwindling lower class.

The problem is that Labour is now run by a bunch of politikanti rather than politici. Labour has a party machine and a party media organisation that are fully controlled by Dr Sant's cronies. Labour is organised to stifle any internal dissent and divergent opinion. Dissent is seen by Dr Sant's machine not as the strength it truly is, but as a weakness.

Nobody knows how much money certain party-employed people are making in the party machine. The loyal Labour supporters who contributed so generously for the headquarters, Super 1, Maltastar and the electoral campaign thought they were the many giving a little for a good cause. Do they know exactly where the money is going?

Whenever dissent was shown, especially during the referendum and general election campaigns, the genuine Labourites (well-respected and honest gentlemen like Michael Seychell, Frank Cassar etc.) who so wisely wanted Labour to accept the referendum result, were dubbed mixtrija.

But who are the real mixtrija? I wonder, especially when I begin evaluating the performance and competence of certain individuals within the party machine (can you see any competence in the Labour referendum and election campaigns?).

Labour needs to change. Fundamentally. Dr Sant does not mean change. He just means a continuation of the dismal state Labour has been in since the late 1970s. Surely the genuine Labourites deserve a better Labour party.