Earthquakes for prima donnas

Since the last general election the Malta Labour Party has literally stolen the limelight in news bulletins and on the newspapers' front pages. The talk of a new political season and the urgent need for an internal earthquake within the structures of the Labour Party have taken prominence over other important issues on the national agenda. As if there are no serious matters and tough decisions taken by the government which merit public debate and scrutiny! Unfortunately it's in our nature that we tend to mix up the cause with the effect; the principle with the detail; the emotional with the intellectual and what makes good news with the bad news! The media strive hard to limit its argumentation to the "message" rather than the messengers, their whereabouts and their personal nitty-gritties. It would take ages for our people, well for most of them, to realise that there is a huge distinction between perceptions and facts.

But in an era of widespread freedom of expression and pluralism, anything could be debated or reported irrespective of the consequential implications on our society. I should not wonder why the MLP, and all political organisations for that matter, attracts so much attention from both the media and all those who contribute towards the formulation of public opinion. But considering the local scene I tend to agree with those who claim that Labour's exposure in the media and in the public eye is more frequent and looked at from a negative perspective. Why should it be so? Is Labour suffering from a "media deficit" that is generated beyond its control? Is it because by nature they prefer to wash their dirty linen in the open? The problem lies within the MLP itself; not only in terms of its mishandling of projecting the right image as a result of poor public relations strategy and lack of marketing drive, but more so it is a question of substance, that is, its low credibility rating, as a political force, with the electorate.

In this scenario, it is not surprising that the new Labour Leader had to pontificate on many occasions on the urgency of shaking the internal organisational structures of the party. Ironically, as things turned out, the MLP had to go for a drastic overhaul - starting with a soul searching exercise - in order to maintain or rather regain its political relevance within the local scene. It is hard to understand how a "strong" party could end up serving the country from the opposition benches for a quarter of a century or even more. It's even harder to concede another defeat especially when the final result of the last general election should have been an easy going walk-over for the Malta Labour Party. Consequently, the party had no other option but to undertake a thorough analysis of the results and embark on a radical programme of change aimed at attracting the support of the majority of the electorate. The "electoral defeat" report gave ample ammunition upon which the leadership and administration of the party had to work upon. It analysed the causes and effects of the party operations, particularly during the electoral campaign, but it also showed the way forward and how the party shall improve its modus operandi. Unfortunately, some of the leading exponents of the MLP expressed their doubts as to whether this report was being taken seriously. The voting pattern that emerged following the elections of the leadership and the administration of the party have to a large extent corroborated their sceptism.

The bone of contention lies in the execution of the report recommendations and not in the appointment of new and old faces of those who have to assume the role of executors. The new leader seems to be determined to go ahead with radical changes in the structures and the operational set-up of the party. He talks no nonsense. He is calling another extraordinary general conference to approve the restructuring plans and he will be appointing a chief executive officer to oversee that the party as an organisation is run on a professional basis. He also mentioned the urgent need to reorganise the media set-up within the party not just in style but more importantly in content. He admitted that there is no more space for prima donnas! That says it all. But the proof of the pudding is in its eating. The next couple of months will demonstrate whether the MLP is back on track. The internal re-shuffle would be over but that alone would not make the Labour Party credible! One hopes that the next phase for labour would not be the removal of debris left by the earthquake...but the construction of a modern political force that put our minds at rest for an alternative government!

matyas@maltanet.net