The next challenge

The complete list of candidates standing for election to the European Parliament is out and voting documents are being distributed. On Saturday June 12, the people of Malta and Gozo will for the first time be voting for five Members to represent our country in this institution.

It is another right that we are enjoying through membership of the European Union. If just over a year ago, the people of Malta had not voted for a Nationalist Government, thereby confirming the result of the referendum held a month earlier, then we would not be participating in this process and Malta would not have been part of the enlargement.

Make no mistake about it. The choice of the Labour Party was for Malta to be completely out of this process. The position of the Labour Party remains up to this very day that on March 8, 2003, the people voted for the so-called 'partnership' option. How the people, according to this 'logic' changed their mind completely a month later has of course never been explained.

What is abundantly clear is that Malta's membership of the EU is at best only being tolerated by the Labour Party. Just have a look at the way that the pro-Labour daily l-orizzont reported on May 1, this year, Malta's entry into the EU.

Apart from a reference that did not go beyond one centimetre of print, that paper ignored the historic event completely in its front page, and carried a rather dry and brief report on part of page three, without the decency to carry at least one photograph of the spectacular events that have not only caught the imagination of the people of Malta, but also of millions of others in Europe and beyond that followed the salient moments of our celebrations through the live link-up that had been organised with the European Broadcasting Union.

Incidentally, it is not as though the same paper has not bothered to carry misleading reports about the same celebrations whenever they hoped that they could portray any kind of negative image! Whenever they thought or imagined that they had any bad "news" to convey, then their generosity with the size of the headings and the use of the front page or of their editorial space has known no bounds!

I must admit that even if I am not exactly unaware of the paper's heavy bias and obvious political slant, I was still surprised that they allowed their credibility to sink to below ground zero on this occasion. I expected much better but it was not to be!

Forty years ago, the Union Press papers were supportive of the stand that the Labour Party had taken against voting for Independence. Nonetheless once the historic date arrived, the same papers gave the occasion its due prominence and even printed a special edition to commemorate the event.

Forty years later, the papers issued by the same press failed miserably to display the same (let alone higher) level of maturity.

For my own part, I can only conclude that the real blame lies with the Labour Party. That party still thinks that EU membership is not right for our country, that we should have remained outside and has conditioned the papers that support it to think and behave in the same manner.

It is within this context that the people of Malta face the next challenge: our vote on Saturday June 12.

The Nationalist Party candidates have not been meandering in their position. A year ago, they were actively campaigning for Malta to become a member of the EU. They were not telling people to vote 'No'. They were countering rumours and false allegations that were being spread in an attempt to frighten the people away from the EU.

Those allegations included comments about workers not having any right to do overtime, about our sons and daughters being enlisted to go to war in Iraq, about Maltese losing its significance since there was no way that it would be accepted as an official language of the EU and that membership was a form of offering open access to the Mafia!

Once the Labour Party made such statements just over a year ago, I cannot accept that since then there has been any genuine conversion or change of heart. If there were, the media that are associated with that Party would have at least had the decency to commemorate Malta's entry into the EU in an appropriate manner.

All persons are best judged by their deeds rather than by their words, and the manner in which the Labour Party and its apologists have been behaving speaks volumes.

On June 12, the people of Malta deserve again to vote in their majority for the candidates who worked within the Party that has secured our place within the EU.

The Nationalist Party is presenting a formidable team of eight candidates, including two women and a candidate who hails from Gozo. I make that point since when the Labour Party conducted an internal petition to increase the number of its candidates from four to eight, it was being argued that in that way they would have at least one female candidate and one from Gozo. Again it was not to be! The number of Labour Party candidates doubled but there was no woman or Gozitan in sight.

As is typical of the Nationalist Party, an excellent choice is being presented to the electorate. What is crucial is that irrespective of the person for whom a voter decides to give his or her first preference, the same voter gives a preference - in whichever numerical sequence one would like - to all the candidates on the Nationalist list.

There are no automatic safeguards that are linked to the percentages obtained by the different parties or independent candidates on the first count. All of Malta and Gozo is one district and the list of candidates is identical everywhere. It will all depend not only on first preferences but also on the way votes are inherited from one count to the next and at the end of the day the candidates who secure enough votes to be declared elected will make it to the European Parliament, irrespective of possible variations of percentage of votes between the first and final counts.

For any candidate to be elected, he or she will probably need around 45,000 votes on the relevant count. Exact quotas will be determined once the exact number of persons who make it to the polls to exercise their right, and the number of valid votes becomes known.

In Malta we have a tendency to look on electoral processes seriously and we may well have a higher than average European percentage turnout. That is positive in itself since it means that we understand that the most fundamental ingredient in a democratic process is our own active participation.

Consistency and credibility are the more important benchmarks by which to consider all candidates.

The Labour Party tends to adopt a strategy of convenience. It is not only with regard to the EU that the party officially claims to have in some way changed its position although it still behaves differently. What about the introduction of local councils, the opening up of the University, pluralism in broadcasting, the right of Church and private schools to operate freely, privatisation, restructuring at the shipyards, liberalisation of commerce, reforming the telecommunications sector, and the fiscal sector?

The Nationalist Party has on all these issues led the way, stood up for its beliefs even when others sought to ridicule and undermine it. The Nationalist Party goes about politics by establishing a clear vision and following the principles that it cherishes.

It does not opt for convenience, for trying to gauge what the national mood may be from time to time to tune in accordingly. It does not try to engage in opportunism and has occasionally even had to pay a political price for speaking out loudly and clearly on what the country requires.

Yet, the party has had its ideals and vision vindicated.

On June 12, the people of Malta need to give another signal of where we stand. This is no time to experiment, or to confuse issues. It is a time when Malta sends its first representatives to the European Parliament.

We owe it to ourselves to elect those who can represent us best, who know their task, and who are dedicated to be of service to the country. We owe it to ourselves to do our country proud once again. We owe it to ourselves to prove ourselves capable of facing the next challenge. We shall do it by voting for the Nationalist team.

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