My aim is for Labour to beat the PN, George Abela says

George Abela celebrated his 60th birthday yesterday by launching his manifesto for the Labour Party leadership contest.

If elected, Dr Abela may become the first leader of a party in Parliament who is not an MP. He said he would wish to spend some time as a party leader before becoming an MP in order to get the party's house in order.

"My primary wish at this point is to focus on the party's needs," he said, adding that being a leader but not an MP was permitted both by the party's statute and the Constitution. However, he said, there was also the possibility that he would be co-opted to Parliament.

Introduced to the media by Myriam Spiteri Debono, who had served as Speaker of the House of Representatives during the 1996-1998 Labour government, Dr Abela said one of his main pledges was to turn the party into "a government in waiting".

"I do not want the Labour Party to continue feeling besieged. The fortress has to open its doors and windows for fresh people with new ideas to join the party..."

Labour had to be an open party that appealed to all ages. It had to listen and communicate even with those of a different opinion. It wanted to become the people's natural choice. It was not an inferior party and it could again become the people's natural government.

He said everyone had to find space within the party. It had to be inclusive and no one should be put aside or marginalised. The time had come to allow more people to vote for the choice of leader.

A petition about this has been raised and will be presented to the party's president this week. Since it is signed by more than 90 delegates, a motion for widening the voter base has to be discussed and voted upon in a general conference.

Whether or not the motion was approved, Dr Abela said he had full confidence in the party's delegates and, although he wished to widen the voter base, what counted was what the delegates wanted and he respected their decision.

He pointed out that the electoral process had started on the wrong foot because of what a party official had said when Dr Abela had proposed widening the voter base. Party general secretary Jason Micallef had come out against the proposal made on TVM's programme Xarabank.

"It was not just I who disapproved but all those who saw and listened. Our Labour Party is not like that."

Dr Abela said he believed in politics of consensus: "Where we agree, we say we agree... This is what the electorate demands. The politics of continuous confrontation are not beneficial to the people".

The MLP had to be reorganised, its finances had to be placed on solid ground, there had to be accountability, budgeting and satisfaction had to be given to members. So if chosen as leader he would hold an independent audit to learn what the party's real and actual situation was, Dr Abela pledged.

If he was not elected he would continue serving the party and working within it wherever the new leader would ask him to. However, he was not interested in contesting the deputy leadership post.

His programme, he said, was a collective effort bringing together the work of his helpers and his experience within the party, as a lawyer and in life. "This is not just a vision but a programme built on what I stand for... " Its basics were that the party should be a modern democratic social party, that people had to continuously be the focus of the party and that Labour was committed to the European Union.

"I want to give a clear signal that the MLP is convincingly committed (to the EU) because we believed, and we worked - at least I did - for Malta to become a member of the EU obtaining the best package possible in the circumstances." Labour now wanted to continue evolving Malta's EU experience to continuously get the best for the country.

Dr Abela stressed the importance of the family and civil society, including the voluntary sector.

The priorities on his political agenda are education, IT, health, the environment, sustainable economic growth and good public administration.

Dr Abela was asked why he was now saying that he had always been against the party going for an early election in 1998 when there were others within the party who insisted that minutes of internal meetings showed that everyone, including Dr Abela, had voted in favour of the election decision.

Dr Abela explained that what he had agreed to was for a motion, asking whether or not the party should go for an early election, to be moved at the party's general conference. This, he said, did not mean he agreed with the contents of the motion.

"I want to look ahead. I want Labour to again become an electable party... I am sorry that the advice I gave the party in the past not to face the storm was not taken. Let's now look ahead at the next election which the Labour Party cannot afford to lose... My ultimate aim is not to become Prime Minister but that the MLP beats the PN."