Calls for resignations

I would like to express my gratitude to my dear friend Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando for his Vote Labour (February 15).

Dr Pullicino Orlando took a leaf out of the Nationalist Party's 1996 elections negative campaign that was aimed exclusively at demonising Alfred Sant. That campaign ignored completely the proposals that Labour was putting to the electorate and went on a character assassination rampage but Labour won in the end.

In his opinion piece Dr Pullicino Orlando wrongly and purposely accuses Dr Sant of personal attacks against Gordon Cordina. I challenge Dr Pullicino Orlando to quote when and how did Dr Sant level these attacks. In the NSO case Dr Sant did not even for once mention Dr Cordina's name or asked for his resignation. As a responsible Leader of the Opposition, and in the national interest, he simply exercised his rights and obligations to demand explanations on vital matters such as national statistics. When Dr Sant and the Labour Party felt that resignations were warranted we called for them - but the incumbents arrogantly stayed glued to their seats.

To refresh Dr Pullicino Orlando's memory here are some of these calls for resignations:

• The case concerning the mishandling of public funds at Voice of the Mediterranean when it was managed by Richard Muscat, now Malta's Ambassador in Dublin and former Nationalist Member of Parliament.

• The call for the resignation of the Parliamentary Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici following the award of the cleaning contracts at the Law Courts and his office to a firm with close family links to a convicted drug baron. Contrary to Dr Pullicino Orlando's opinion, this was a case where ignorance is just not bliss.

• Louis Galea's removal was asked for twice, once in connection with the AWTs contracts and more recently over the magisterial inquiry and the Auditor General's report on the operations of the Foundation for Tomorrow's Schools.

• Parliamentary Secretary Tony Abela's arrogant flaunting of the Code of Ethics for Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries and his past connection with a person accused of drug trafficking came under Labour's scrutiny and calls for Mr Abela's resignation.

Dr Pullicino Orlando took out his pocket calculator to analyse his idea of a split within the Labour Party and found that this works at 60-40. This is funny but true.

Dr Gonzi polled exactly 60 per cent in the first ballot of the Nationalist Party's leadership election of March 2004.

Any mention of the rift that followed with election rival and former minister John Dalli would be superfluous.

I would like to thank once again my dear friend Dr Pullicino Orlando for his opinion piece. Such writing only makes Labour stronger. Voters are not impressed anymore by arrogant and baseless harangues hurled against Dr Sant et al in the Labour Party. The Opposition is doing its duty and exercising its democratic right to keep a profligate, disconnected and worn-out Nationalist government in check.

Such arrogance did not work in 1996 and it is not going to work in the elections that await the Maltese electorate.

It's time for change, my dear friend Jeffrey.