There are none so blind...

In a mere couple of days, if things go according to plan, we will know who will be leading the Malta Labour Party in future. With a rather thorny Prokofiev Sinfonia Concertante for 'cello and orchestra playing insistently while I plied up and down the 50 metres of the National Pool counting the ubiquitous sticking plasters, I tried to imagine what life would be like with an acceptable Leader of the Opposition in harness; one that does not talk off the top of his head and regrets nothing... Gasping after a vigorous backstroke I let Mischa Maisky's expressive 'cello playing calm me into a more organised thinking mode. I believe that any of the five candidates presents a definite improvement on what there was but what we need now is nothing but the best.

Since March 8 we have had endless soul-searching, internecine skullduggery, invective hurling, oracles from the past, self-flagellation and the most shamelessly amusing stunts which, all being fair in love and war, I have no problem with as long as the delegates, whoever they may be, don't either.

I wonder whether this exclusive representation of delegates fully realises what a ginormous responsibility they are shouldering by being solely responsible to choose not only the MLP leader but also the next Prime Minister; for, if the rule of logic applies, the MLP should, by 2013, be well in to score over the PN provided these delegates choose wisely and well. Were I a delegate I would no doubt be spending sleepless nights agonising... but then...!

The report about why Labour lost has been published amid much furor. Predictably, there were no startling revelations. The writing was always on the wall; plain as day.

Never has the saying that there are none so blind as those who will not see been more appropriate. Had the MLP won in March it would have been by default and sheer luck simply because the campaign was utterly dull and uninspired and nobody, but nobody of the floating class was inclined to give a go to a party spouting balderdash about plans for a new beginning when we are none too keen on being Sisyphus. I admire the decision to publish and be damned. It shows political maturity.

We all know that I was spot on when two weeks before the election I declared that I was voting with a gun to my head. The last election did not give us, the people, a democratic choice. Because of Malta's quixotic electoral regulations the upshot was that you could not vote for any other party except the PN and the MLP. Any other vote would have been a vote for the MLP.

To make matters worse, an invalid, unutilised or destroyed vote was also a vote for the MLP which is precisely why Harry Vassallo was greeted like a conquering hero on that tension-filled Sunday morning when the rank and file of the MLP supporters had been bamboozled into thinking they had won the day!

To get back to the delegates who, at the end of the day, carry my own future and yours in their hands, may I reiterate once more that for once they should take their political blinkers off and vote for a man or woman who can plausibly be a Prime Minister of Malta and not leader of the MLP alone.

The PN has, by and large, evolved to this inclusiveness. The formula has not been altogether perfected however the spirit is willing... It is therefore now the MLP's turn to mature into a party that can provide an alternative style of government that will not be Sisyphean by upsetting applecarts, halting the economy and sending shares spiralling down. So dire is the MLP's need to rejuvenate if not reinvent itself that anyone associated, no matter how tenuously, with the recent past automatically loses credibility. Therefore, veteran ex-ministers had better stay at home embroidering their memoirs.

The online polls have been consistent depending which ones you decide to believe. This paper's online poll firmly puts George Abela in the lead while another's puts Joseph Muscat as absolute winner.

The other contenders hover in limbo. Both polls are misleading and neither of them reflects the cross section of delegates. Therefore, we have absolutely no idea what the oligarchy of delegates could do on Thursday.

Any one of the candidates could be a winner. It all depends on whether these delegates are able to think out of the box.

If they can keep in mind that the report clearly implied that the reason for the MLP's string of defeats was its loss of appeal to the floater then, logically, they should, sure as eggs are eggs, choose the candidate that can and will appeal to the floater in 2013 and lead the MLP to victory at last.

kzt@onvol.net