Rebus

This is perhaps the word that fits best Labour's package of election proposals for Gozo.

Standing mid-way through this electoral drive, the dodgy way the Labour Party is handling its campaign is becoming evident to all. In spite of months on end fervently calling on Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi to blow the whistle for this election, when this finally occurred, Labour has shown that it was unprepared for it. This lack of preparation seeps through the whole of Labour's structure but is probably most glaringly obvious in that most basic and essential tool of electioneering, namely, the party's electoral programme.

The whole document suffers from poor presentation qualities, characterized by the inconsistent use of Maltese font types between adjoining paragraphs and peppered throughout with spelling mistakes. When it comes to substance, no relief is in sight. Labour's electoral manifesto exposes the lack of competence, creativity and vision which the so-called team for change inherently suffers from.

Take, for example, the set of proposals Labour is putting forward for Gozo. The electoral programme the MLP is presenting to the Gozitan electorate, that is, the proposed work plan for a prospective Labour government in Gozo, is a document replete with proposals which have already been implemented by the present government, are in progress or have already been proposed by the Nationalist Party.

Perhaps the quintessential proposal to epitomise this all has been Labour's proposal to decommission the Gozo General Hospital's incinerator. One felt somewhat compassionate seeing the obliviously-faced Charles Mangion and Michael Falzon facing the reporter's question as to whether they were aware that the Gozo incinerator had been closed down months earlier. Of course, they did not. The rest of that illustrious interview is, by now, history.

But the Gozo incinerator is not the only Labour proposal for Gozo which has already been or is in the process of being implemented. The list carries on: the creation of new dive sites and the implementation of the Gozo diving master plan, restoration and improvements at Gġantija, the restoration of coastal towers, the provision of social housing, the allocation of a specific site for small industry, special subsidies to Gozitan students studying in Malta, beach extensions, improvements to specific arterial roads, the re-organisation and refurbishment of the Gozo General Hospital wards, an increase in the sustenance to cultural activities, fairs and festivals in Gozo, the introduction of entrepreneurship/business study modules at the School for Arts and Crafts, the setting up of a crafts development centre within this same school, the promotion of sport through government initiatives and, to top it all, the assurance that Gozo will be allocated a fair and adequate portion of EU funding from the national allocation.

It is interesting to note, however, that in this last proposal, the MLP does not guarantee a clear percentage of these funds for Gozo. A Nationalist government has clearly committed 10 per cent of these funds for the island.

If we are to list also those proposals which have been pinched from past PN electoral programmes or other policy documents, there is more to add to the list. Positive discrimination aimed to balance the difficulties that businesses in Gozo face, the setting up of a tourism organisation specific for the promotion of Gozo, the relocation of the Gozo Courts of Justice, the construction of an alternative road for Mġarr Harbour together with the extension of the harbour itself, the development of a sport facilities hub at the Ta' Xħajma racecourse. The list goes on and on.

Not to mention the aspects which constitute very serious omissions from Labour's electoral programme for Gozo, among which unemployment, the environment, social policy, investment in educational infrastructure, EU-funded projects and waste management.

A simple question invariably springs up. Where has the opposition been during all this time? In the clouds, perhaps? What is certain is that the MLP has no clue of what has been happening in Gozo in the recent past. It is becoming glaringly obvious Labour is expecting that, since it's been aeons in opposition, the people will now have to choose it by default to enter into government. It seems to believe that the result of this game can only go one way; "the only way" according to the MLP. But our people's future is no game.

The sad reality is one: Labour cannot be taken seriously.