Rosanne Zammit
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."
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Monica Borg
Apr 27th 2008, 09:07
I`m also curious to know how george abela voted in 2003! this should not remain secret if he intends to lead our party. Hope that we`re all proven wrong but how? Taking pictures of ballot votes by mobile phones is not allowed and therefore it`s not an easy task for him to remove this doubt from our minds!
Alfred Grima
Apr 24th 2008, 16:52
If George abela wants ` Labour to again become an electable party` why did he choose PN in 2003? well, he never denied this fact when he was asked...and not just once!!!!
Gabriele Tonna
Apr 24th 2008, 07:25
oh dear oh dear....
So the aim is to beat the PN and not to create a 'new' MLP that would serve the country (people) at its best, no matter what colour.
That shows to me that even under a George Abela nothing within MLP will change. It's all about victory and power, nothing else.
a.dalli
Apr 23rd 2008, 19:20
Give the man a chance - we have had worst leaders
J. Abela
Apr 23rd 2008, 15:23
Mr. Saliba, let's make 1 thing very clear.
Every real MLP supporter, at any level, denounces those dark days and those who don't ought to be ashamed of themselves.
But - those days are now history. And as history goes it should serve as a lesson of a red line we should never, ever cross again. Should we who visit Germany, Japan and Italy taunt them about their past in WW2? I think not.
Should MLP supporters dig up the PNs past and its pre-war dilly-dallying with fascism, just to square things up?
We both know the answer, don't we. I would rather move on. How about you?
sarah vella
Apr 23rd 2008, 14:00
Dear John Saliba, Those were not the darkest days of Malta' recent history. The darkest are reserved for the period 1962-9, seven full years (x 365 days) of Catholic Church boycott against the Maltese blue-collar workers so that the PN can conveniently win elections. Please study history well as convenient selectivity does not benefit anyone in the long term. Of course the PN have now improved - they have optimised their messages of falsehood and manipulated the majority to bring them where they had planned to - the EU. This year there is the crisis of the Dockyards coming up and in a couple of years, under the present administration, we will have VAT on food and medicines and EU citizens will freely come and work here. It shall be then that the question about how good EU membership is will be asked. Well thanks to those 1500 - it's all yours GonziPN!
Joseph Grech-Attard
Apr 23rd 2008, 12:01
I suggest to Dr Abela to "Tell us more, tell us more, Dr. Abela" only when someone also "tells us more, tells us more" of who murdered Raymond Caruana and Karen Grech ( somebody, if I am not mistaklen, once hinted that he /she knew), who threw 'balavostri' in Zebbug, who was responsible for all the bombings during MLP Governments (including the placing of a bomb under the car of the then Chief election commissioner, Major AA Grech in the '80's), why was the MLP censored from state-owned radio and its newspapers sanctioned from public institutions, like state hospitals in the 60's, the shooting at socialist supporters in Gozo, etc: and, more recently, who is going to provide for the huge amounts of extra cash we all have to dish out for Mater Dei, Manuel Dimech bridge, St. Paul's Bay bypass, etc. MLP does not carry the palm of martyrdom, so neither should others.
anthony Camilleri
Apr 23rd 2008, 11:38
Mr Saliba, of course any decent human being should be 'againt the darkest days in our country's history'. Do you mean to say that you stand for all that!!
anthony a. mifsud
Apr 23rd 2008, 10:36
Well done Mr. Saliba .
That is exectly how i see it.
Dr. tell us more.
Tony
John Saliba
Apr 23rd 2008, 09:54
So Dr. Abela disagreed with Dr. Sant and the rest of the cabinet in calling an early election. It sounds almost unreal, but he also said that: "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." This is definately 'hot news' that came out of his mouth. Interesting, the next thing he will say is that the Malta Labour Party has always been againt the darkest days in our country's history, i.e. the Socialist violence, threats to private schools, the burning of the Times of Malta premises, the attacks on the Curia, on the Nationalist Party headquarters, the suspension of the Constitutional Courts and of course they never wanted to stay in government for five solid years even though the overall manjority of the electorate rejected them. Tell us more, tell us more, Dr. Abela.
Joseph Azzopardi
Apr 23rd 2008, 09:39
The last sentence says it all. Dr. Abela is once again confirming that he is not going into this for any personal gains but for the benefit of the MLP. I simply admire him and wish him well. It will be a pity if those that are tasked with the election of the new MLP leader do not make the right choice at this point in time.