Grixti intends to remain active in MLP

Oscar Cassar

Aug 6th 2008, 23:19

@ Alfred Agius

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.

Joseph Camilleri

Aug 6th 2008, 08:41

Sorry to say but I am disgusted at the way things are being run within the M.L.P. . What right had Joseph Muscat to turn down a motion calling for conterters to be elected with a 50% + 1
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.

alfred agius

Aug 5th 2008, 22:43

Oscar Cassar -You`re underestimating the qualities of Alex Sciberras Trigona. If you`re certain that you can hold on to your remarks regarding Alex I invite you to an exchange of political ideas with him in a friendly atmosphere that will certainly make you change your idea of him and the labour delegates that voted for him. You will find that you will have a lot to learn from him and a lot of his argument that will fascinate you. I will make arrangements for this meeting. All you need to do is to pass on you tel. no to the editor of tis paper and I will communicate with you. So much for a democratic and informed dialogue that helps us understand and value each other.

J farrugia

Aug 5th 2008, 15:59

I'm not sorry that Alfred Grixti and Joe Vella Bonnici were heavily defeated. They let true labourites sown. I am happy for Gino Cauchi and the other one who showed humility and service to the party for bowing out with honour and dignity in the knowledge that their little part was to be beneficial for a change in the adminsitration. But for these two heavyweights....bah.. their egoism knew no bounds. If they were wise enough, they would have done what GC and the other one did. Come to an arrangement and one of them leaves the arena, so that all possible votes would go to the challenger. And would have beaten Jason Micallef with a large majority. But... that was yesterday.

Joe Vella

Aug 5th 2008, 15:21

Why is everyone blaming the Delegates. Joseph Muscat should shoulder all the blame. Afterall there was a motion put forward requiring that the elected person recieve 50% + 1 of the votes. It was Joseph Muscat that insisted to have the motion withdrawn.

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.

Joe Vella

Aug 5th 2008, 15:11

@ Oscar Cassar

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.

Michael Catania

Aug 5th 2008, 14:57

Alfred Grixti took this defeat with dignity and for that I respect him. The delegates knew what they were doing, and is it not amazing that the conservatives are still harping about the party's ideology. We are socialist through and through and we are a party of conscience. The team at the top is now a force and hopefully those around them will take some of the burden as well to show the nation that the MLP is an alternative Govt.
Finally I congratulate Jason Micallef on his re-election.

Angelo Vassallo

Aug 5th 2008, 14:34

Unlike what Maria Attard wrote, the absolute majority of the MLP delegates knew exactly what they were doing and obvious what they wanted. In fact, 56% of the delegates wanted JM out of the way.

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.

martin portelli

Aug 5th 2008, 14:28

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.

Robert Aquilina

Aug 5th 2008, 13:40

I have great respect for both Alfred Grixti and Joe Vella Bonnici, however I believe that they erred in their campaign. It was always evident that Jason Micallef had his own faction within the delegates and the fact that he is an incumbent in a position which is similar to a CEO should have been enough to realise this. What happened was very simple ... the majority of delegates that wanted change were fragmented between two very valid candidates. Hats of to the two who realised this and dropped out of the race as they are really the ones who have the good of the party and the country at heart.

Maria Attard

Aug 5th 2008, 13:34

It's a great pity that the majority of MLP delegates do not know what they are doing, by re-electing JM they are ensuring that the Labour Party remains in the wilderness, despite having elected the very charismatic Joseph Muscat, Then they re-elect the same person responsible for the last election campaign loss!!!
Way to go MLP delegates - way to go!!!

Mario Bonnici

Aug 5th 2008, 13:10

This election showed again that negative campaigning always works against.
For Jason MIcallef it was a strong showing. Now let's hope that he learns from his past mistakes.

R Azzopardi

Aug 5th 2008, 12:38

What a pity....not electing such a valid person. I cannot understand the reasoning of the delegates taking into consideration that a big majority of the Maltese of good will wanted to get rid of Jason Micallef.

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.

Oscar Cassar

Aug 5th 2008, 12:10

On the contrary to what Mr Mario Calleja just wrote, I think that not having Mr. Grixti as general secretary of the MLP is a great loss to Malta’s politics in general. I simply ask what are the intensions of the MLP delegates? After electing Dr Muscat as the party leader that was clearly supported by conservatives within the party, the delegates continued to elect other conservatives and the only ‘new’ face in the administration practically is Dr Sciberras Trigona – en Minister under the Dom Mintoff leadership. In my opinion all this gives only one result and that is that the Labour delegates (who knows how and why they are appointed) do not vote in the real interest of the party never the less in the interest of better politics for our nation although they had several warnings and signs.

Mario Calleja

Aug 5th 2008, 11:17

Having Mr. Grixti as general secretary would have been a serious change to the MLP but the delegates threw away this opportunity and re-elected JM. I wonder why!!
It is a great loss for the MLP.