Labour's choice, people's verdict

As long as people like Albert Spiteri (April 5) present themselves to the electorate as typical samples of the thinking of the Malta Labour Party, there is little hope that the party will regain the confidence of the electorate to enable it to govern the islands. His letter presents a perversity of thinking, and a state of denial, that militate against a genuine effort to attract increased support. Calling the young "ignorant" reflects more on Mr Spiteri's intelligence than that of the youth. Criticising the alleged selective memory of others, when he is a classic exponent of this characteristic, does not enhance his feeble arguments.

By the time of the next general election, hopefully in 2013, the Malta Labour Party would have not enjoyed the support of the Maltese electorate for 31 years, less 22 months. This is a fact; not a perverse one because it was the PN, and not the MLP, which won the support of the absolute majority of the electorate in December 1981. Nor is this based on selective memory. The new leader of the MLP had better keep this fact in mind when drafting his policies rather than the fatuous exhortations of Mr Spiteri.

May I remind Mr Spiteri that it was the leader of the MLP, Dom Mintoff, who was the first to describe the electoral result of December 1981 as perverse. So much for selective memory!

Moreover, there is no comparision, at all, between a party asking for recounts and accepting the verdict, and ruling a country for five years and five months when the absolute majority of the electorate had clearly told it, without the need of any recounts of votes, that it did not support it. Claiming legality and validity to justify the consequences of blatant jerrymandering is indeed a perversity. Is this what Mr Spiteri would like the future leader of the MLP to promote?

I leave it for the MLP to choose its own leader, but the day will come when all the people of Malta entitled to vote will also have their say on whether they support this choice. MLP electors had better keep in mind the fortunes of Mintoff (after 1981), Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici and Alfred Sant (except for 22 months) rather than the ramblings of party members like Albert Spiteri.