Is Joseph Muscat to become the icing on a rotten cake?

After Jason Micallef's re-election as general secretary of the Labour Party, some questions have crossed many people's minds.

Do the delegates (of both parties for that matter) really represent the grassroots and the wishes of other voters? Have the delegates/kunsilliera become a simple rubberstamp for the party machine or, even worse, a smokescreen for the parties to do as they please?

It doesn't take a sociologist to realise that John Citizen expected a full change in the MLP rank and file, not just faces but more so in attitudes. People saw in the MLP's constant overconfidence of victory a lot of arrogance and very little substance. This we thought was water under the bridge until the MLP delegates decided to regale us with a Labour leadership far inferior to the previous one. I mean, no one can honestly say that Anġlu Farrugia, Toni Abela, Alex Sceberras Trigona and last but not least Jason Micallef are in any way the bright future of new beginnings.

The delegates chose a young, inexperienced leader and threw him in an arena of old-timers who have proved to be a huge liability over and over again. The "winning generation" has become a recycled one that inspires little hope and throws all the baggage on party leader Joseph Muscat's shoulders.

Let's face it, Dr Muscat has no other choice but to try and win the next general election single-handedly. That might be a realistic goal, keeping his positive attributes in mind, but what about after a Labour victory? Will we have 1996-98 all over again? Will these old forces emerge, once the much-needed MLP victory is achieved? Will these people allow Dr Muscat to govern properly or will they be, as another newspaper stated, an albatross around his neck?

How can people like Dr Sceberras Trigona, anchored as he is to three decades ago, expect to earn our respect when he was the same person who had dealings with Communist North Korea and was on a par with Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici on the EU membership issue?

How can people like Mr Micallef, who is unwanted by half his party and who lost every shred of credibility, expect people like former deputy party leader Michael Falzon to forget all that happened and for us mere mortals to forget his disgusting behaviour on election night?

How can the delegates expect to be respected when their decisions fly in the face of reason and are a direct challenge to common sense and the public's wishes?

The MLP delegates' vote can only be described as a very sad pantomime from which the best lesson learnt is that these glorified activists and the blindfolded are no longer the ones with the right foresight, understanding and knowhow of where a party should stand and where it should head for. They have become more of a liability than the asset they used to be.

If Dr Muscat really means business about his much taunted "earthquake of change" he should start by "re-organising" the decision-making mechanism of his party to reduce the possibility of this mess of confused and incoherent voting patterns ever surfacing again.

Other than that, Dr Muscat risks becoming nothing more than the icing on a rotten cake.