Editorial

Leo Brincat has established a reputation as a mild mannered, thoughtful and loyal politician. One can associate him with several things, such as IT, finance, as well as more cultural pursuits. What one definitely would not associate him with, is Exocet missiles. Yet in a letter to The Sunday Times today, that is precisely what he has launched.

Making overt reference to the Labour election for a number of senior party posts on August 4, Mr Brincat makes an appeal to party delegates - clearly feeling he has to do so through a public letter - to reflect deeply before casting their vote.

He does not mince his words, telling them that there is "no room for divisive and controversial figures". Then he clinically hones in on his target, saying "some of the arguments brought forward by certain incumbents to try and hang on to their role offend one's intelligence".

After listing them, Mr Brincat reveals that he has told the person concerned - unnamed but it is clearly Jason Micallef - that the general secretary's position is untenable; to which he was "impolitely told that when the time comes and I am proven wrong I should not even bother to congratulate him".

What reason could Mr Brincat have for expressing himself in this way?

He has no visible axe to grind, especially as he was recently entrusted by Joseph Muscat with shadowing a crucial portfolio - environment, sustainable development and climate change. This is clear evidence that the Labour leader holds him in high regard.

And in the same letter he is vociferous in his support for Dr Muscat's new wave, going to pains to say that the Labour Party cannot afford to see the political earthquake promised by its leader "halted or even worse aborted".

It can only be presumed that Mr Brincat has stuck his neck out because he cares about his party, and because he knows what happened last time, in 2003, when senior members of the MLP preferred to remain silent rather than challenge, as they should have done, their leader at that time. The party was the loser in the long run.

It could also be because Mr Brincat knows that Dr Muscat has already suffered one unexpected blip in the weeks he has been at the helm - in the form of the new deputy leaders - and he knows the party cannot afford, particularly at this stage, to have another one.

Again, as Mr Brincat points out, apart from floundering in the run up and during the election campaign, Mr Micallef has needlessly alienated key figures who Dr Muscat needs to be at his side if Labour is to make progress as a party: in particular George Abela and Michael Falzon. There was not one occasion or one outburst against the two men, but a persistent line that has made reconciliation all but impossible.

And reconciliation is everything the early days of the Muscat era has been about. Not just in words but in deeds.

Dr Falzon has been ap-pointed as spokesman for home affairs and, in a wise move, Dr Abela has been nominated as Labour's representative on Meusac.

Dr Muscat cannot be expected to publicly wade in to the debate over who should be Labour's general secretary. But nor can he afford to leave everything to chance. The coming week is a crucial one for him and he must do all he can to guide Mr Brincat's missile to its target.