History repeating itself

Joe Camilleri, president of the Nationalist Party's Nadur sectional committee, was one of the speakers to address the Nationalist Party's general council held in Gozo the other weekend. Soon after his address, Mr Camilleri, a former Labour activist, received a phone call from a Gozitan Labour member of Parliament, Anton Refalo, who admitted he had asked Mr Camilleri whether he would like a Labour government to take revenge.

Mr Camilleri was so distraught by this insinuation that he asked to speak again during the Sunday session of the general council to share his distressing experience with the assembly. All those present were shocked to hear that, in today's scenario, malicious tactics were still being resorted to by Labour. This unbecoming behaviour is not worthy of any member of Parliament whose aspirations are clearly to be promoted to minister if ever Labour is returned to power!

Alfred Sant, the leader of the Malta Labour Party, also resorts to threatening and name calling all those whose opinions differs from his.

In any democratic country, every individual has the right to express his political opinions freely without prejudice to his well-being. No "alleged" provocation or excuse under the sun can justify Dr Refalo's reaction and an apology from him should be published forthwith. That infamous telephone call should, under no circumstances, ever have been considered, let alone actually made.

A radical change in the Labour way of thinking is badly needed and this should start from the top, from the higher echelons of the Malta Labour Party. It is an undisputed fact that Maltese citizens are all equal and that there should not be any special place reserved by Dr Sant for "privileged" unions or "privileged" citizens.

Jason Micallef, general secretary of the Malta Labour Party, went on record commenting that "Labourites will be running the show at the civil service and public entities if Labour is back in government" (MaltaToday, January 22).

These dangerous remarks leave no room for interpretation. A future Labour government will not treat all citizens equally. Its raison d'etre is to protect its hard core, focusing solely on the interests of its faithful while its policies swing accordingly.

In his weekly column on The Times (January 18), Dr Sant argued that leaving all public service employees and officials appointed by the Nationalist government in their place "will be unfair to those who were bypassed because of their political sympathies, supposed or real". This is Dr Sant's poor excuse to make heads roll. In fact, in February 1997, under his Premiership, in the space of 24 hours, his Labour government issued 120 transfers! Transfers in the following months continued.

This revengeful modus operandi is as unacceptable as is Dr Refalo's vindictive conduct and the Leader of the Opposition, on behalf of the Malta Labour Party, while immediately denouncing Dr Refalo's action, should express to Mr Camilleri his sincere regrets.

Should Dr Sant fail to do so, on his party's behalf, I cannot help conclude that "New Labour" is not so new after all and that it is simply resorting to the same political tactics Old Labour adopted in the 1970s and 1980s. It is common belief that verbal violence is as condemnable as physical violence.

These hostile approaches clearly show that the Malta Labour Party has a lot to answer for. It may condone the violent events or it may choose to condemn them. The choice lies solely with its leader, Dr Sant. Accountability takes on various guises and every democratic politician worth his salt must have the courage to shoulder his responsibilities no matter how heavy the burden might be. Dr Sant cannot go on burying his head in the sand. He too must stand up and be counted.

Mr Saliba is general secretary of the Nationalist Party.