With the silly season well upon us, I imagine that many will be reading this contribution from the comfort of their sunbeds.

The height of the Maltese summer should have spelt a lull from politics, however, this will not be the case this year.

For too many months now, the Labour Party’s clarion call to the government has been to call an early election. This has resulted in an opposition hell-bent on maintaining the momentum with press releases, press conferences and political dialogues whereby government representatives are denigrated and empty electoral promises are the order of the day!

Joseph Muscat is not in an enviable position. As a “new” leader of a “new” movement, which is promising to bring about great change to these islands, he must well and truly dig deep to be able to deliver the rhetoric with the right pregnant issues to convince a highly sceptical electorate. Away from the verbose, voters must be convinced on the viability of his alternative government should the PL clinch the victory they so hysterically aspire for.

I would imagine that Dr Muscat has a campaign adviser who is prescribing and recommending the way forward in this premature electoral campaign. He would do well to dispense with the services of this mentor who has seemingly failed to open his eyes to the fact that his branding is nothing short of ridiculous.

Dr Muscat is trailblazing in hollow pledges and scoring points for his ability to spin when he should shut up and to shut up when he should be delivering.

His latest dialogues, press conferences and/or media statements are all symptomatic of a politician who, in his relentless pursuit to charm his way to victory at the polls, is not only distracted from the bread and butter issues of the nation but has also fallen victim to a style of politics that has robbed him of the precious intuition and perception that a successful leader needs. Were it not agonising, it would be almost comical to sit back and watch Dr Muscat perform within the parameters of his latest style of doing “popular” politics. As a true master of spin, he magnifies and extracts mileage out of issues that he would have done best to stay out of. Conversely, he deflects asserting himself on policies and chooses to sustain his political arguments with pie in the sky statements in moments when the electorate solicit compact assurances from him.

Dr Muscat has been a protagonist in the PL for some 20-odd years now. This should have provided ample time for him to understand that, spin as you may, there comes a time when you have to deliver.

The Maltese electorate is not what it used to be and, while spin may well do the job of satisfying media content, it will certainly not appease the electorate’s aspirations of a credible, alternative government.

Dr Muscat’s immediate audience may well greet him with thunderous applause when he delivers empty promises with such gratuitous eloquence but, far from the madding crowd, the voter is still waiting. Waiting and hoping that this style of politics is merely a strategy that will take a famous U-turn to present the electorate with a party and a leader whose stated policies will inspire enough confidence to witness a result at the polls.

I regret to say that, on this point, the electorate is going to be exceedingly disappointed! Beyond the pomp and circumstance, Dr Muscat systematically fails to deliver, regularly disappoints, invariably takes wrong decisions and constantly projects himself as an opportunistic politician.

Selling us another set of trombones will not do! It is time to start putting beef to some extremely serious challenges that this country faces or will be facing whether we like it or not. Voters will decide on track records and mapped out plans for the future of our country and not for someone’s ability to mud-sling or to witch-hunt.

Being on the right side of history requires a number of skills that no media machine or campaign adviser can help you acquire.

The Maltese and Gozitan people will be closely following Dr Muscat’s campaign and, ultimately, decide not on superficial tactics but on policies that will see our families enjoying a better quality of life, work opportunities, training and education for our children, a sustainable health service and the peace of mind of knowing that a dependable party is in government to ensure the safety of our future and our children’s future. This is why Labour just won’t work!

info@carolinegalea.com

The author is a Nationalist Party electoral candidate on the fourth district

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