Europe is still the PN's powerful weapon

Up to a few months ago several Labour writers and sympathisers penned articles as if the Malta Labour Party had the next election victory in the bag. Many of them have been highly influenced by the euphoria that followed the local elections' results which have favoured the MLP in recent years and, of course, Labour's triumph in the European Parliament's election back in 2004. Lately, there has been a pronounced change. A realisation that the Nationalist Party is in with a chance of pulling yet another electoral victory has set in. The worry that every opinion poll has shown that Lawrence Gonzi remains more trustworthy than Alfred Sant has had its toll on Labour's strategists.

A concerted effort to boost Dr Sant's profile has been made and is still being made. There is no other explanation to the article by Joe A. Vella in The Times (February 14) entitled Feed Him To The Wolves...

Mr Vella argued that Dr Sant could be trusted because he honoured his two major promises pre-1996, that is, the replacement of VAT and the freezing of Malta's application to join the European Union.

In his regular column Wideangle on The Sunday Times (February 19), Lino Spiteri dealt superbly with the first promise honoured by Dr Sant. Mr Vella must have hit a raw nerve with Mr Spiteri as he really let rip. By honouring his promise to remove VAT, Dr Sant put his party's interests before that of the economy and the nation. I sensed that Mr Spiteri could have said much more; perhaps he may have decided to reserve the rest for a later date and another occasion.

As to the freezing of Malta's application to join the EU, the facts speak for themselves. Can Labour, in all honesty, say that Malta would be where it is today, politically, economically, environmentally and in many other areas, had the people accepted Labour's advice and voted against membership? We must not forget also that Labour's freezing of our application cost the country thousands of euros in pre-accession funds, not to mention the extra work and expense that the incoming Nationalist administration in 1998 had to put in to prove to our European partners that Malta was serious in following up, yet again, our application for membership. The fact that we succeeded in doing so only showed how futile was Dr Sant's honouring of his promise.

But Labour has learnt nothing from its mistakes. We are seeing dodgy promises being made today to show that Labour in government will deliver and that delivery will be prompt and efficient. Here are a few simple and mundane examples.

Dr Sant promised that within six months of gaining power Labour will replace the incinerator at St Luke's Hospital. Now everyone knows how this problem has been exacerbated and prolonged by legal actions. Are we being told that Labour will ignore any legal challenges that are made in order to deliver? If that is so, Dr Sant needs to spell it out. Many electors still remember the way in which previous Labour governments dealt with the Constitutional Court and how they played musical chairs with the judges. Promises made by political parties must be subject to the rules of democracy and to what would be in the national interest at some future date.

Much has been made also by Labour spokesmen of the delays in finishing the paving at Mdina. The government explained that several consignments of paving stones had to be sent back to Italy as they were substandard. But Labour still insists that the timeframes should have been kept. Would Labour be prepared to accept mediocrity in order to keep timeframes?

Labour's opposition seems to be in total disarray. The debate about invalidity pensions in Parliament has been a case in point. The expression of running with the hares and hunting with the hounds easily comes to mind.

And Leo Brincat, who seems to have become Labour's spokesman on everything and nothing, put his foot in it in response to the policy document issued by our Foreign Office: Strategic Objectives Of Malta's Foreign Policy. He moaned that neutrality was not mentioned in the document - neutrality is a given, it doesn't need to be stated. It is neither a strategy nor an objective. To top it all, the fear that a future Labour government will emulate policies pursued by the Mintoff/Mifsud Bonnici administrations is becoming real among a section of the electorate. Some glowing references made to those dark days by Labour speakers recently to address their traditional supporters and lure them to the ballot box should carry a health warning.

The fear of another Labour defeat at the polls has surfaced also in the article by Desmond Zammit Marmarà in his article Machiavellian Technocrats (The Times, February 23). You can almost feel the writer already cooking up an excuse for a Labour defeat - not because of the unpopularity of Dr Sant as leader, not because of Labour's policies - no, but because people "are bound to be highly influenced by the public pronouncements of technocrats highly qualified in these areas of competence" such as infrastructure, health services etc. We do live in a democracy and governments in a democracy have every right to project their policies and their successes in whatever way they deem appropriate. The opposition has to be well equipped to counter such tactics and not just bemoan them.

Labour is still suffering from its sterile vision on so many issues. Every time Dr Sant goes to a locality where an election is due and allocates high marks to a Labour-led council, he is at the same time admitting how foolish Labour was when it opposed the legislation setting up local councils. But Labour's Achilles heel is still Europe and Malta's relationship with the EU.

The next election will see once more Labour at its weakest on Europe. The public dialogue the Prime Minister is conducting with the public has sent shivers down Labour's spine. These meetings are highlighting how EU membership has been and will be the motor to our economy for many years to come. The investment flows that are reaching us because of our membership of the EU and other investments that Malta would never have attracted had it opted for Labour's Partnership policy are living proof of the wise vision the PN had for Malta and its people.

It was the MLP and Dr Sant in particular who turned Malta's membership of the EU into a matter of principle. Labour has done nothing so far to redeem itself for taking such a gamble with Malta's future by opposing membership of the EU. Dr Gonzi will have plenty to boast about come 2008. There will be no need of any Machiavellian technocrat to do the job for him. The facts will speak for themselves.

Europe still is and will remain a powerful weapon in the PN's armour.