Two bold decisions

Unless it wants to turn itself into a serial bungler, the Labour Party must be quick in taking two bold decisions: to rejoin the mainstream European Socialist fold as quickly as possible and to overcome the itch to vote against the accession treaty when it comes up for ratification in the House of Representatives.

Labour's drift from mainstream European socialism is most dangerous. It is also one of the main reasons for the clutch of electoral defeats which they have picked up.

Back in May 2001, the European Movement (Malta) had highlighted this drift in the hope (vain as it turned out) that Labour would change course.

One does not need a battery of complicated arguments to analyse this problem. I often ask myself one simple question: why is it that in the last couple of decades I have felt so comfortable with European socialism to the point of identifying with most of what it stands for but then I am completely out of rhyme and out of tune with the Maltese Labourites?

In the 1970s and 1980s I put it down to their brand of "Third World socialism" which was going out of fashion everywhere. In the 1990s I blamed their stand on Europe.

The latter is, I believe, the most important cause of the MLP's more recent drift away from European social democracy. In the 1990s, the MLP's position shifted from pragmatism to hostility towards Europe.

Initially, Alfred Sant's party argued that the process of European integration was good in itself but that "for the moment" it was not suitable for Malta to join it. Many disagreed with this stance but they could live with it. It did not involve the MLP in many contradictions. In practice, however, it prevented Labour from negotiating membership itself.

Post-1998, pragmatism made way to hard-line unpragmatic criticism of most that was connected, even remotely, with the EU. In short, Labour's position no longer had two sides to it - but just one.

Of course, one can speculate on what motivated this shift. However, the most visible outcome was that increasingly in its campaign against Malta's EU membership the MLP found itself targeting not only Malta's membership but above all the EU and its ideals. The line separating the two issues was there no more.

What is worse is that the arguments employed seemed to come straight out of the extreme right handbooks. It was, after all, with such right-wingers that the MLP representatives rubbed noses during the Convention on the Future of Europe.

The situation was best encapsulated by James Bartholomew in January 2001 after interviewing Dr Sant: "I was intrigued that I, as a right wing British journalist, should find myself agreeing with this left-wing Maltese politician." That was the most damning political statement I have ever come across of the MLP's stance.

So I was not really stunned by the slogan which dominated Labour's 2003 election campaign l-ewwel int or "Think of yourself first". But I was certainly surprised by Labour's return to the theme of "Solidarity" immediately after its election defeat - which is certainly more in tune with a left-wing party's beliefs.

Now, the main challenge for Labour, as I see it, is how to turn the party round to the social-democratic mainstream, having nourished it for so long on a diet of right-wing political arguments, stands and slogans.

To stop Labour's ideological rot, the task has to begin in earnest. The first step must surely be for Labour to make a complete and unequivocal peace with the European socialists. This means accepting the EU and accepting to become active participants in its institutions.

The second step ought to be that of voting in favour of the accession treaty when it is eventually tabled in the House of Representatives. Such a step would amount to honouring the sovereign will of the people.

It would mean renouncing a policy that not only cost Labour many electoral defeats but nearly also defaced it ideologically. By voting for the treaty, Labour can claim by right that, respectful of the will of the people, it too played its part in seeing that the people's will be done.

Above all these considerations, a favourable vote in the House gives Labour consistency in its actions in the new legislature particularly where EU matters are concerned. Its moral standing on these issues will certainly increase.