‘I am ready to unite ... to lead’

Labour leader Joseph Muscat closed his party’s annual general conference yesterday with an emotive and personal speech that left several audience members in tears, not least his doting wife Michelle.

“To my children, who may watch this speech in the future with a better understanding, I ask forgiveness for not being there for them enough and for the suffering they will endure simply because I am their father. I’m sorry,” he said, as he prepared his eager party delegates for a tough election campaign.

He also thanked his wife for putting up with hurtful personal attacks made in their regard.

Without once referring directly to Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi or rebel Nationalist MP Franco Debono – the protagonists of the ongoing political crisis – he said Labour was united and ready to govern.

Four years ago, he said, the Labour Party went to the electorate with the fundamental flaw of focusing on the election rather than the prospect of governing, while expecting that a victory was theirs by right.

A “broken” party had now grown into a movement with a solid team of capable candidates ready to serve, he said.

Dr Muscat, who celebrated his 38th birthday yesterday, warned the coming campaign would see a panicked PN trying to instil fear about Labour’s inexperience and his youth. “We will respond with hope.”

The Labour leader spent most of his 30-minute speech speaking about how his upbringing had shaped his political values, rather than delving into policies.

He said his mother came from a staunchly Nationalist family while his father was from a family that put loyalty to former Labour leader Dom Mintoff before their own jobs.

“One of the advantages was that I could understand both sides of the argument and I could never hate ‘the other’. How can you choose between your mother and your father?”

Dr Muscat said he learnt the value of free healthcare as a child when his father had a heart attack at a relatively young age and the state paid for his medical tests abroad.

He also recalled a conversation with his grandfather, who despite being Nationalist told him that he voted for Dom Mintoff in 1976 when Labour introduced the pension system, only to then make him promise that he would not “tell Nanna”.

The conversation had been sparked off by the young Joseph Muscat wanting to know who the family sided with. “We side with Eddie Fenech Adami because he is on the side of righteousness. But righteousness is not always on the same side,” Dr Muscat said, paraphrasing his grandfather.

Dr Muscat spoke about his education at St Aloysius College, where the dispute between the Church and state forced him and his peers to attend lessons in secret.

In a humorous reference to his former classmate Dr Debono, who it recently emerged got better results than Dr Muscat, the Opposition leader said he remembered his now famous class, planning escape routes in case of police raids.

Dr Muscat said these episodes taught him about the importance of keeping Church and state affairs separate.

He said his “humble” upbringing taught him the importance of hard work and private enterprise, as well as social justice. It also taught him that women “make better decisions” and should therefore be given more positions.

Dr Muscat said Labour acknowledged its past mistakes but also celebrated its successes.

The Mintoff era freed Malta from colonialism but the Fenech Adami era gave the Maltese the freedom it needed in 1987, once the Labour government began to stagnate.

Now, Dr Fenech Adami’s political project had started to come undone and was “on the brink of failure”, he said.

Avoiding all mention of other former Prime Ministers like Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, Alfred Sant and even Lawrence Gonzi, Dr Muscat projected himself as the next great leader after Mr Mintoff and Dr Fenech Adami.

He said the time for “leadership by cliques” had to be replaced by an era where everyone is given a fair chance.

Making no mention of his party’s anti-EU stand, Dr Muscat said his post-Independence generation should be free to dream and work towards becoming the very best in Europe.

“Our time has come,” he said. “I am ready to decide. I am ready to unite. I am ready to serve. I am ready to lead.”