Presidential running mates

There is in this country a silent group of independent Labourites who no longer vote Labour. As soon as the first contenders for the Labour leadership were known, the idea of uniting George Abela as leader with Joseph Muscat as his deputy went on the wish list of this vast group of Labour non-voters who still regard themselves as Labourites.

Then Lino Spiteri ably articulated the notion in one of his articles in The Times. That article gave comfort to the independent Labourites who exchanged e-mails, now in the knowledge that they were not alone in thinking that this combination could be the perfect solution to Labour's aspir-ations for the future.

The next thing we knew was the story on PBS. Things seemed to be moving fast and the likelihood of converting the wish list into some reality seemed close. Little did anyone know that Dr Muscat had flatly rejected the idea, had informed PBS before the bulletin went out that he would not be engaging in that ball game and that PBS had ignored Dr Muscat's denial.

I believed the PBS story when I heard it because I had been told by a friend of mine, who is usually very well informed about what goes on in the Labour camp, that somewhere along the line Dr Muscat had expressed a view that he would not object to going along with a plan like that. Obviously, my friend was wrong on that one since Dr Muscat has now denied it outright.

No doubt , as the potential leaders look for a platform of their own to sell to the delegates and/or whoever else will be voting for them, they will all need to factor in those thousands of Labourites who left the MLP because of Alfred Sant and his weird policies, among them the 8,000-odd Labourites who voted yes in the referendum and who then crossed the Rubicon and voted Nationalist in the 2003 election in order to preserve their vote in favour of Malta's membership of the EU. In the last election those Labourites did not vote Nationalist, because they are not Nationalists, but they did not vote Labour either. They are to be found among the 28,000 who did not vote in this election.

The new leader will have to bridge across to that significant group before he makes any other move. He will need to involve them in the changes he will be proposing in order to overhaul the MLP and its policies for the future. I believe that contenders for the leadership of the MLP have many good qualities to display before the delegates and party members.

Dr Muscat, who together with Dr Abela has so far stood out among the rest of the pretenders for the post, certainly has a lot going for him. However, those who are not back in the party yet because they have not yet seen the end of Dr Sant in Maltese politics see Dr Muscat as being too close to Dr Sant, too favoured by the old Sant clique, too much of a Sant crony before and after the EU elections and much too young to give them the comfort of being the leader they need and would support.

Personally, I have always considered Dr Muscat as a man of great promise both as a working journalist and as an MEP, and I see him as an equally-promising candidate for the leadership. However, I don't think that that should happen now but in 5-10 years' time, when Dr Muscat will have matured enough politically, will have gained enough parliamentary and perhaps ministerial experience, when the party will have gone through its new paces and when the time will come for a first review of the policies and actions initiated by Dr Abela whose time as party leader will then be up.

Without wanting to throw cold water on Dr Muscat's proposals, my own view is that turning the Labour Party into a debating society is not the way to go.

We all know how those party debates end up - face up according to the wishes of the ruling crowd. Overhauling the party and its policies, attracting back disillusioned Labourites, opening up to floating and uncommitted voters and turning this party into a winning force, confronting Lawrence Gonzi, his formidable team and his current arsenal of €800 million to spread around in the next five years, requires the experience, the skills, the guile and the political savoir-faire of someone like Dr Abela who can also bring back serenity to Maltese politics with his own personal style of facing off with Dr Gonzi in the House.

Dr Muscat and Dr Abela, on one ticket with a politically-mature, experienced supporting team behind them, will be a skilful match for the Nationalist Administration.

Those within the MLP who can still make this happen will be doing a service to the party and to the nation. In fact, I believe that this is the way the leadership election should be - presidential - with each one of the candidates choosing his or her own running mate.