Tuesday, 5th August 2008 - 10:38CET
Grixti intends to remain active in MLP
Alfred Grixti
Alfred Grixti, the runner-up in the election for the post of MLP general secretary, said today that he wishes to remain involved in political activity within the Labour Party.
Asked to comment on the outcome of the election, Mr Grixti told timesofmalta.com: “the delegates have spoken and that’s it - end of story”.
Although disappointed at the outcome, - which saw incumbent Jason Micallef win with a 141 vote advantage over him - Mr Grixti said that as he had declared from the very beginning, he would respect the will of delegates.
"When one contests such elections, one has to have an open mind, knowing that things can go wrong."
He said that feedback and information he received during the campaign had not indicated the sort of result produced yesterday.
There were people who were arguing, for example, that the blanket "anti-Jason coverage" in all media worked in Mr Micallef's favour, Mr Grixti said.
Asked whether that was also his opinion, he said that he was at the moment only collecting data for analysis.
Asked about his future in the party he said he was a Labour deputy mayor and a member of a local committee. He wanted to remain involved as long as the party and the people kept him in his positions.
All election candidates, he said, had to put the election behind them and get down to business.
This was the second time that Mr Grixti had lost the election to the MLP general secretary post to Mr Micallef.
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I am quite busy but believe me, I appreciated your offer and I am glad that there are persons like you that genuinely seem to be interested in principles more then in partisan politics. But the problem here is not my opinion about AST but what might be his fresh input in national politics. I know that AST for eg was a very good lecturer at University in diplomacy but in my opinion he did not impressed at all when he was Foreign Minister. Among some things to mention during those days are the diplomatic management during the hijack of the Egypt Air, the Top-Secret agreement on national security with Communist leaders in Korea, the letter to ambassadors in diplomatic mission in Malta not to have any meetings with the Opposition (PN), the issue of ‘Indhil Barrani’ and the arrest of Italian DC politicians in Malta ecc. Now be honest and tell me if someone with such a CV not to add his input to CNI till weeks ago, can be credible in front of the general Maltese voter to offer a new political season within an alternative Labour Government at administrative level as international secretary.
vote. This is nothing but manuuplation. The favour has been paid back to Jason Michallef.
Word has it that Joseph Muscat will not be resigning from the European Parlament before the end of his term, I hope this is not true because then we will surely have been taken for a ride.
Joseph Muscat was pushing for Jason Micallef to be re-elected Secretary General and knew that Jason Micallef couldn't have been elected if the 50% +1 rule was in place.
You write; "After electing Dr Muscat as the party leader that was clearly supported by conservatives within the party, the delegates continued to elect other conservatives "
Do you call Toni Abela and Anglu Farrugia conservatives? They are far from being conservatives. Both of them belong to the extreme left of the political spectrum.
Wonder what is wrong with the MLP.
Finally I congratulate Jason Micallef on his re-election.
The problem was that Gino Cauchi and Joe Chetcuti knew what was going to happen and sacrificed themselves for the good of their party but to no avail. Whilst Alfred Grixti, Joe Vella Bonnici and Keith Grech could have together found an alternative arrangement to oust JM. If this election had to be conducted just like the Leader’s and the Deputy Leaders’ ones,
it would have been much more difficult for JM to hold on to his chair.
I cannot understand why these elections are different. It is a question of “Two ways and two measures” I suppose.
Now, if I am not mistaken, Leo Brincat had said that if this result had to be true, as it is now, we have the MLP in a unique situation. Mr. Brincat had compared the situation that has been created to a car with two wheels moving forward (new leadership) and two wheels moving backwards (old party administration) = Moving forward to the fourth consecutive electotal defeat.
I have no doubt that Mr. Grixti will remain active he is a loyal party man through and through. I think this is as much as I can stomach though .
The rhetoric regarding change uttered in emotional speeches has a very short shelf life and decays very quickly indeed. This should have been the real test for the new leadership, they failed miserably. Fail to see a real commitment to an open door policy for intellectuals at CNL in the near future. It would make an interesting anthropological study though how a community professing to the same value system consistently tries to undermine itself! Cognitive dissonance running riot. Will the new administration seriously be discussing the report re last election defeat? Whose going to be the brave lad spelling out the obvious?
On another tangent how do you reconcile Dr. Abela , Dr. Falzon and Mr. Brincat with the charismatic Mr. Micallef? Interesting scenario that! I sincerely hope we will not be treated to nauseating scenes of 'lets kiss and make up' there's a limit to what fed up, taken for a ride labour supporters can stomach.
Way to go MLP delegates - way to go!!!
For Jason MIcallef it was a strong showing. Now let's hope that he learns from his past mistakes.
Now was the ideal time for the MLP to change if it wants to have new and valid persons and with this change you can only attract new voters.
It is a great loss for the MLP.