Vote George, get credible

In the next few days, Labour delegates will elect a new party leader. It's a momentous decision after three electoral defeats, a short-lived government and another three electoral defeats before that (counting 1981, which, for all intents and purposes, was a defeat).

Labour's problems are deep-rooted even though its delegates might be tempted to think that the last electoral result was so close it was almost a draw. It wasn't. The March 8 election was a home game for Labour, with much going in its favour, yet it still managed to lose. Why?

It's a question of credibility. I can talk from experience: My father was actually a Labour candidate twice in elections in the 1950s but I have always voted Nationalist as the PN has had credible leaders who were not just politicians but statesmen. In football jargon a brilliant hat-trick: George Borg Olivier, Eddie Fenech Adami and Lawrence Gonzi.

That is why the Nationalists have dominated Maltese politics for more than a generation. That is why they have governed competently and have been on the right side of all important choices facing Malta. Unfortunately, Labour leaders since Dom Mintoff did not understand the difference between partisanship and statesmanship.

Labour delegates have five candidates to choose from. I mean no disrespect to the others but only one of them can be a statesman. That is George Abela.

I have known him for many years now. Dr Abela has many of the elements that unquestionably make him a capable leader. His stint at the Malta Football Association, his sterling work in the GWU, his deputy-leadership of the MLP in the early 1990s can all bear out his competence and his ability to lead. His political nous is unimpeachable. He tried to forestall Labour's awful implosion in 1998. He voted for EU membership in 1998. He has had nothing at all to do with Labour's dreadful mistakes in the last 10 years. All these make for capability.

But Dr Abela is more than a capable leader. He can bridge with people of different opinions coming from different backgrounds. He is as comfortable at the Workers' Memorial Building as he is being interviewed by this newspaper. He feels at home in Swieqi as much as he does in Qormi or Cospicua. He has gravitas and likeability. He is liked by independents, even by Nationalists. Some short-sighted Labour elves are trying to turn that into a shortcoming. But what's wrong with being able to bridge with all kinds of people? Statesmanship is, after all, about finding the common ground, about playing politics as a positive sum game.

It's crunch time for Labour and it's akin to football. They have the best player they can choose to lead their team. He's willing, able and available. All they need do is say yes to the player with whom they can play attractively and stand a much better chance of doing well, for the party and for Malta.

Does Labour want a leader without any of the baggage of past mistakes and at a par with Dr Gonzi? Does Labour want to give this country a really new beginning and change from the yah boo politics of the past to the politics of credibility? Then Dr Abela is the choice.