UPDATED - Muscat reacts to Sant comments
'The country is facing new challenges and the answers to these challenges cannot be the failed solutions of the past' - Muscat
Labour leader Joseph Muscat has reacted to comments by his predecessor, Alfred Sant, who earlier today criticised the party analysis of the March 8 general election defeat.
"I take note of any advice that comes my way, be it from former leaders or the media, and then I move ahead. Labour is embarking on a journey and its destination is success. The country is facing new challenges and the answers to these challenges cannot be the failed solutions of the past.
"The Labour Party we are building is the future," Dr Muscat said.
In his comments, made in a two-page article on l-orizzont, Dr Sant said that in the discussion and the reflections which the party needed to make about the future, there was no need to heed those who always wanted to weaken the left and the PL. The Sunday Times and those of the same ilk could not serve as a fount of useful advice.
“Unfortunately, neither can we follow the analysis and advice found in the report on last year’s electoral defeat commissioned by the Labour National Executive. It has too many mistakes of fact and appreciation to offer us a guiding light. It seems that those who wrote it have little clear knowledge of the personal and organisational environment of a political party. Therefore, the report gives major importance to trivial matters while what was really problematic in the Labour campaign hardly gets a mention.”
Dr Sant said he had purposely stayed clear of the subject until now to enable the new party leadership to settle in and his good intentioned reflections would not be given a twisted meaning.
In his feature, over two pages, Dr Sant, as he did in his resignation press conference, attributes the PL defeat “by the slimmest of margins” to the PN’s power of incumbency, saying that one would be starting on the wrong foot if the electoral defeat was viewed like it was a landslide in favour of gonzipn. That implied giving gonzipn a licence to act, as it was doing, like it had a strong mandate and could do what it liked.
Dr Sant alleges violations of the constitution during the election. He criticises how Air Malta brought Maltese from abroad to vote, the way public funds were squandered and jobs and contracts were awarded just to win votes. The Prime Minister, he says, made promises he knew he could not keep. A huge number of ‘illegal favours’ were given.
Dr Sant insists that for the future, the Labour Party should follow a centre-left social democratic policy that would moderate socialist measures so that they could become acceptable and attractive while maintaining continuity.
He says the party’s focus should be on eight sectors: Europe, the economy, education, the welfare state, illegal immigration, the environment, corruption and good governance.