Whoever is advising Joseph Muscat on strategy, if indeed there is anyone at all, has his or her knickers in a twist and is caught up in the wrong era. Two examples in the space of less than a week have served up ample evidence of this.

The first came a week ago last Saturday. Speaking during the May Day celebrations, the Labour leader revealed during his speech that a company implicated in the VAT fraud scandal had been handed a contract by the government.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with the revelation of such a fact. On the contrary, it is in the public interest that it emerges. But this is the stuff of journalists - not the kind of thing that should be disclosed by the Leader of the Opposition while he is addressing a mass meeting. The role of a prominent politician these days is to criticise government policy and propose credible alternatives.

The second case occurred last Thursday night during the vote in Parliament on the opposition's motion condemning the government over its handling of the contract for the Delimara power station extension.

Again, it was in the public interest for the opposition to probe the issue in the wake of the Auditor-General's report, which was highly critical of the manner in which the contract was awarded to BWSC. There are several aspects which the government has failed to adequately explain and some of the Nationalist backbench MPs who were previously vociferous on the issue have now gone quiet - only reinforcing many people's belief that their protestations were more about furthering their political careers than any genuinely held concerns about citizens or their constituents.

But by behaving as it did - walking out of Parliament in a theatrical manner - the Labour Party let itself and the people down.

No one is contesting that Nationalist parliamentary secretary Mario Galea said 'yes' by mistake. However, Dr Muscat erred by acting in an insensitive manner - in light of all the circumstances - and by giving Labour MPs their marching orders before the Speaker had time to make a ruling on the subsequent point raised by Foreign Minister Tonio Borg.

The Labour leader then made matters worse when he said the Speaker, whom he had openly endorsed just a few days ago, was being "led by remote control by the Prime Minister". Gimmickry, insolence and sensationalism are unlikely to impress thinking voters.

It is possible that Dr Muscat thinks he is managing to imitate some of the tactics employed by Eddie Fenech Adami when he was in opposition 30 years ago. But, if so, the Labour leader is making a very poor fist of it.

For starters, today's context is entirely different. Dr Fenech Adami made revelations during the course of mass meetings because the Labour government at the time denied him access to the broadcast media. And he made use of Parliament in a particular manner because he was denied a legitimate right to govern the country after the 1981 election and because democracy was under genuine threat. Neither of those factors is even remotely present today.

Moreover, Dr Muscat seems to have so far failed to understand that people will not vote in substantially large numbers for politicians just because they promise change (on the evidence of the inconclusive British election result, David Cameron will now testify to that); they will vote for them when they see a package of substance that will deliver something better than they already have.

If he wants to emulate Dr Fenech Adami in anything, that should be his starting point.

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