Be the change you want

As I write this article, the new MLP leader Joseph Muscat must be applying his finishing touches to his last speech as a member of the European Parliament, which he will be leaving after a four-year stint. Four years that transformed Dr Muscat from a Eurosceptic to a Euro champion.

One of his tasks will be that of orchestrating the same kind of transformation within his party and to convey the message to his delegates and supporters that EU membership was, indeed, the best deal that we could get.

Many see Dr Muscat as the answer to end the many years in the wilderness that the MLP has endured. Years characterised by U turns and lack of concrete policy, which left our country lacking a constructive opposition for much too long. His attitude and easy talking may go down very well with those that have distanced themselves from Labour in the past but it is now time to put his plans into action and really get the ball rolling.

Dr Muscat's time as a member of the European Parliament is an important asset, which I hope he will put into practice when it comes to making politics in Malta. He knows only too well how important cooperation and dialogue are when it comes to tackling key issues. He knows only too well how much the concept of dialogue is a key factor when it comes to voting on and adopting reports here in the European Parliament. I just hope he will adopt the same stance as Leader of the Opposition.

Since being elected leader, Dr Muscat has used the slogan A New Political Season incessantly. In his vision, he stated that, since the opposition represents nearly half the electorate, it should therefore be consulted and respected throughout the whole legislature. I have no doubt that Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has no problem with that, given that the opposition will seriously be constructive and not use this merely as a public relations exercise.

Dr Muscat also highlighted 10 priorities for our country. Ten points that, I must say, the Nationalist Party has been implementing since being voted in way back in 1987.

The MLP leader mentions the environment as his first point, a subject that Dr Gonzi listed as a priority when becoming Prime Minister and which the PN has been advocating much earlier.

Education is another sector where the PN excelled by making tertiary education available to everyone without discrimination and increasing the number of University students tenfold, not to mention the building of new schools and the refurbishing of many others.

When it comes to the economy I will not be exaggerating if I say that pre-1987 we barely had an economy. Nationalist governments always gave the necessary support for the economy to expand and, thus, better our standard of living.

The aim of every government is to make the country a better place. The starting point is to eliminate social injustices and poverty. The PN firmly believes that, in order to close the social gap, we need to curb abuse and help those that are really in need.

Dr Muscat also mentions employment as one of his priorities. In stark contrast with what Labour's policy was, Nationalist governments opened the doors to new business and new investment, thus generating thousands of jobs, whereas Labour's option was overloading the civil service and the parastatal corps.

Dr Muscat also mentioned the public health service, which, I think, is one of the best in Europe; with the opening of Mater Dei Hospital we have assured that the Maltese citizen gets the best treatment possible. This hospital was labelled unnecessarily large by the Labour camp only for them to call it state of the art in another typical U turn.

Civil rights and dialogue are also given priority and, when reading all this, for a moment I thought that I was reading from some PN manifesto because the points mentioned as priorities by Dr Muscat were the same that previous Labour administrations had denied its citizens.

I'm sure that our country has matured since then. Let's hope that those dark days are gone for ever. I hope that Dr Muscat will have the courage to agree with the government on key issues and be the constructive opposition that he has promised to be.

Let us hope that he really believes we can be the change we want.

Let us hope that he will manage to eradicate old party politics and really open the way for a new political season and start making politics the way Dr Muscat made it in Brussels.

May his experience be of benefit to the whole country.

Mr Casa is a Nationalist member of the European Parliament.

david@davidcasa.eu, www.davidcasa.eu