Austin Gatt may be right after all

The general election is almost two years away, the campaign has not started and we are not yet in election mode. Yet talk of which party will prevail at the polls is already underway. On the Granaries Austin Gatt surprised many by suggesting that the PN will win all the elections in the next 20 years. How could the PN win again after being in power for almost a quarter of a century? This is a question I am faced with frequently when visiting PN supporters. The assumption is that being in power for a long stretch will render the party unelectable. As we have witnessed in 2008, that is not the case and the electorate chooses the party which at the time provides stability, security, the best policies, the best team of candidates and, above all, the best leader.

In six out of the last seven general elections the PN led by Eddie Fenech Adami and Lawrence Gonzi prevailed simply because it proved to be better than the Labour Party in all of these factors. Furthermore, at the same time as leading the country the PN continued to renew itself. Eddie Fenech Adami stepped down at his popularity height in 2004, only a year after winning his fifth election, the office of the general secretary changed hands four times since 1987 and in the present Cabinet there is not a single member of the 1987 team.

The PL, on the other hand, changed its leaders only after suffering consecutive election defeats. Dr Sant had to lose three elections and a referendum before bowing out. Despite changing the leader following the 2008 election defeat, the PL led by Joseph Muscat only performed cosmetic changes within the party and the earthquake we have been promised came only in the form of a changed party emblem. Everything else within the party remains unchanged.

As much as he wants to be seen different, the Opposition Leader is following his predecessor’s pre-1996 tactics, taking advantage of people’s discontent, promising everything to everyone all the time while refraining from suggesting any credible alternatives. This is exactly what Dr Muscat is doing in the case of the water and electricity bills. There is no question that the utility bills are worrying families. The Labour leader is promising to reduce the bills if he is voted in but does not give any indication as to how he is going to go about fulfilling his promise.

That is also what Dr Sant did with the issue of VAT in 1996. He promised to remove VAT and replace it with a fairer and simpler tax. The electorate took the bait and voted Labour in that election. A few months later Dr Sant replaced VAT with a tax that nobody understood and threw the country’s finances into a complete mess. Dr Sant wanted to win the 1996 election at all cost and in the years leading to the election, he only acted to please everyone. The real plans on how to lead the country when entering Castille were absent.

Dr Muscat is following in Dr Sant’s footsteps. He is obsessed with becoming Malta’s youngest prime minister and like his predecessor is committing a grave mistake by not planning beyond the election. It’s as simple as that.

This strategy worked for Dr Sant in 1996 but will not work a second time round. In this day and age when politicians are continuously under media scrutiny it will take a lot more than frivolous promises to win the support of the electorate. The people want a strong, sensible, credible and visionary leader whose only concern is not his own ego but rather Malta’s interests.

If Dr Muscat wants to win elections he ought to change his attitude. The Maltese are intelligent people and will not be fooled twice by the same party. Apart from cosmetic changes, the PL has not changed despite losing one election after another. General elections are important occasions and the Maltese people use their vote wisely. That is why Dr Gonzi is confident of winning the next election. That is also why Dr Gatt may be right after all.

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