Barely a month ago, in this very paper, a Labour supporter wrote that Joseph Muscat reminds him of "Dom Mintoff in his prime and Alfred Sant in the years before Malta's reactionary elements ganged together to cut short the national leadership of one of Malta's most capable Prime Ministers" (January 5).
If the author thought he was flattering Dr Muscat I believe he went completely off mark. I remember Mr Mintoff in his prime as I do Dr Sant's Premiership. Mr Mintoff, in his prime or not, lost control of law and order. Dr Sant simply lost control.
The author takes offence when people try to blame Dr Sant for Labour's three consecutive election defeats and referendum, might I add. Who then should the "people" blame? A leader is elected to lead. A leader takes decisions that either make him or break him. Dr Sant's decisions broke him. So, please, spare us rhetorical statements like: "All Maltese, not only Labourites, should be grateful for what Dr Sant achieved for Malta under immensely difficult circumstances". What "immensely difficult circumstances?" Was he referring to the then non-existent global financial recession the world is experiencing now, perhaps?
Now let's examine what Dr Sant actually achieved. Apart from pulling off four major failures at the polls, he managed to quell the Labour thugs who had been on the rampage since his predecessors' days. Good for him but may I point out that, as a leader of a political party, he was in duty bound to right any of his predecessors' wrongdoing as Dr Muscat, the present Labour leader, is trying to do now.
Attempting to excuse Dr Sant, the author wrote that Labour's last instances in power were turbulent times and that they were caused by the internal differences within Labour created by Dr Sant's and Mr Mintoff's different "visions". I tend to agree that incompatible "visionaries" were operating within but I still contend that Dr Sant's stubbornness was what broke the camel's back.
Today, I can safely say that the more things have changed within Labour the more they have remained the same. Too many ghosts from the past are still hovering around. For starters, most of Mr Mintoff's old faithful and their "vision" are back. Secondly, Dr Sant's diehards and their "vision" are also still alive and kicking. Thirdly, to add more spice to the piquant goings on, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici and his supporters with their anti-EU "vision" are still tottering around and, who knows, perhaps there are other flies buzzing around laying their "vision" in the sticky ointment.
One simply cannot ignore the controversial Labour leadership contest between George Abela and his followers with their "vision" versus Dr Muscat, which was no walkover.
It is quite surprising that Dr Abela's nomination for President (which did not emanate from within the Labour camp) did not even receive a unanimous vote. Eight Labour members of Parliament did not vote and two actually voted against. This is very strange indeed considering that Dr Abela was one of Labour's deputy leaders of the "winning" team in 1996 and a very popular runner up in the Labour leadership race less than a year ago. So the "internal differences" still exist.
Lino Cassar, a staunch Labour weekly columnist, alleged last month that information is still leaking out of the red glass house. How could this still be happening if Labour is now supposedly one big happy family? Dr Muscat has spent the last few months trying to bring the family together. He has administered placeboes to calm and cure his party. Perhaps he should prescribe a more aggressive treatment to eliminate the infection that has long been festering and is spreading fast.
Earth-shaking measures could be Labour's only salvation and Dr Muscat would do well to do away with platitudes and find a way to re-invent Labour and not simply recycle it. The pledged "earthquake" needs to reach much higher levels on the Richter scale to leave a mark.
The Labour leader must realise that he just cannot continue trying to please all his people all the time. He does well to hug and pat his buddies. He does well to smile and ask for forgiveness.
He does well to love everybody and ask everybody to love him and his wife. But when it comes to his leadership, I somehow feel he is being held hostage by the harmful dynamics he has so misguidedly created for himself and his party. Furthermore, last Sunday's two-hour long speech of his was fraught with anti-government barrages and destructive criticism, which reminds moi of his predecessors' expertise of "progressive" partisan politics all the way!