In search of an identity

Now that the dust has settled on the internal issues that the Malta Labour Party had to resolve one way or the other, it is interesting to note that the sole important survivor of the MLP leadership team and administration set-up - Dr Alfred Sant himself - seems to be at sixes and sevens on what he and his party stands for.

In the space of six days, Dr Sant has regaled the public with as many different reasons for the party's existence - no mean feat, considering that there are those who still believe that the party never recovered the social conscience that it lost via its short-sighted, albeit pragmatic, policies adopted during its short stint in government in 1996-98.

And one must not forget, either, that up to a few weeks ago it was also being accused of having lost its bearings on the issue of Malta's and the MLP's relations with the EU.

Consider the following sequence of events:

¤ On Tuesday, November 19, the MLP General Conference decided to increase the representation of the party's youth wing in the conference to 35 seats. During an intervention on the motion discussing this move, Dr Sant unequivocally declared that "the MLP was, is and will remain the party of young people".

¤ During a press conference held on Wednesday, November 20, to 'introduce' to the public the MLP's four candidates for next June's European Parliament election, he said he was proud that the four candidates "had different competencies and were coming from different generations". Dr Sant added that the issues on which the MLP intends to fight these elections were unemployment and the environment.

¤ During a political activity held at the Fgura MLP club on Friday, November 22, Dr Sant stressed that the MLP had always believed that the working class has to be on the forefront to change and lead the country, and that, as a result, next year his party "would be a leading protagonist in protests that would be needed to defend the workers".

¤ Addressing yet another press conference on Saturday, November 23, this time to launch yet another MLP fundraising campaign, Dr Sant said that the MLP would be doing its utmost to work on a national basis with the aim of ensuring that its message would reflect the realities of the Maltese and Gozitans.

¤ The editorial of last Sunday's issue of the MLP weekly KullHadd pompously declared to all and sundry that the decisions taken by the MLP on its EU stance and on its choice of European Parliament candidates were "inspired" first and foremost by the interests of the majority of Maltese and Gozitan citizens.

¤ In his first reaction to the 2004 budget announced last Monday Dr Sant complained that working-class, middle-class and self-employed families would be carrying the burden of new taxes.

There you have it - six days in which we have had six different versions of what and who the MLP stands for and even six different rallying calls. No wonder the title of Dr Sant's article in The Times last Wednesday was 'Predilection for fudge!'

Having lost the general elections in April because Dr Sant short-sightedly portrayed the MLP as the anti-EU party, the MLP is now searching for a new identity.

As it explores every nook and corner in this search, it depicts itself as the party of young people and the party of all generations and the party of pensioners; as the party of the working class and the party of the middle class and the party of the employer class; as the party of the environment and the party of those who do not want to pay for the upkeep of the environment.

It is risking becoming the party of everybody and the party of nobody because it no longer knows what it stands for, having consistently elevated political stances adopted for convenience to the level of sacred principles venerated on the high altar of ideology... only to have to backtrack from the cul-de-sacs into which it had foolishly allowed itself to be led.

The only message that is coming across is that it is an anti-government party that intends to propagate grumbles and mumbles, and hence push for protests against government.

So for the next four and a half years expect more grumbles, moans, whinges, grouses and gripes - spiced up with wild allegations, outright lies, character assassination techniques and systematic scandal-mongering. All about what "the others" are doing, of course.

For these are the only things that Dr Sant's MLP can deliver while wandering in the political wilderness, searching futilely for an identity of its own.