For the last few weeks, the world seems to have come to a stop. Not even the election of a new Pope managed to distract the local media from the general election.
If the PN is to change, it has to stop believing that it is God’s gift to the Maltese people
The magnitude of the Labour victory was as big as it was surprising. And, yet, the writing was on the wall. Opinion polls, the 2009 MEP and 2012 local elections all consistently indicated that the vast majority of people wanted a change in direction.
What was not expected was the way that the Nationalist Party mismanaged its electoral campaign. Evidently, the PN had been rotting from the inside and the 2012 last-minute comeback never materialised. What has happened to Elcom, that superior electoral driving force?
Realising that it was an uphill struggle, Lawrence Gonzi opted for the longest campaign since 1987. His hope must have been to use the power of incumbency to change the final outcome. No efforts were spared but the final result seems to have changed little.
Simon Busuttil has now publicly acknowledged that the campaign was lost before it started. Who was responsible for the PN’s recycled policies and negative marketing? Personally, throughout the campaign, I felt that Gonzi’s body language betrayed the state of his party. This culminated in his telling party supporters during the Sliema mass meeting, just a week before the election, “to each persuade two undecided voters to trust the Nationalist Party again”.
The new Prime Minister realises that the Government needs to move quickly. The first three months of the year are already gone and the challenges facing the new Administration, following years of mismanagement, are formidable.
This will essentially be a transition year; the Government needs to urgently win the full trust of the private sector to help kick-start the economy. The choice of a large Cabinet has been criticised by some commentators who conveniently forget that, three years ago, Joseph Muscat’s predecessor was obliged to appoint an additional eight parliamentary assistants.
Ultimately, what will matter is the Government’s ability to deliver ‘value’ for taxpayers’ money. The Prime Minister does well to insist that the new Cabinet abide by the highest ethical standards and remains close to the people. This will, hopefully, help the political class regain the trust of citizens.
The positive stance taken by the Prime Minister is impressive. He realises that if our country is to start moving forward again, all the social partners must learn how to work together. Social coherence is a resource that has to be fully exploited if Malta is to make a qualitative leap forward.
Just like his predecessor, Muscat has all the credentials to be well-accepted on the international scene, as evidenced by the high-level meetings he recently had in Brussels during the summit for EU heads of State and the inauguration Mass of Pope Francis.
The Labour Party has been given a very clear mandate for a change in direction. It seems that there are a privileged few in our society who keep finding it very hard to accept this. The PL’s commitment to work with everyone, irrespective of political belief, should not be seen as a sign of weakness. Those who put a spanner in the works of the new Government, putting partisan before national interest, should not expect to get away easily.
Five years ago, the pro-PN media was very loud and cynical about the way that the PL was rebuilding itself. Many then insisted that democracy required that all members, and not just councillors, vote for the party’s leaders. Obviously, as far as the PN is concerned, what is good for the goose is not good for the gander and only the party’s 900 councillors will be voting for a new leader on May 4.
The reactions of many PN exponents to the heavy electoral defeat show that they are still in denial. Believing their spin that our economy is in good shape, they challenge Bill Clinton’s dictum that elections are primarily determined by economic considerations. They keep confusing fuzzy numbers (such as the 20,000 jobs created) with how most families are coping in real life. And they end up blaming the people for having voted the way they did. If the PN is to change, it has to stop believing that it is God’s gift to the Maltese people.
The most clear-headed assessment of the electoral defeat was made by Mario de Marco who stated that the result was the “sum total of many things gone wrong” (The Times, March 12). He added that, for the future, the PN intends to safeguard the rights of each and every resident of these islands.
Well, even for the PN it is never too late. Let us hope that the report on the party’s defeat will enable it to do some deep soul-searching. Why did a simple message such as Malta Tagħna Lkoll (Malta for all) garner so much popular support? The people will be watching and judging the PN on its ability to morph into a modern, positive, inclusive political force.
The Maltese political landscape has changed for good. Our younger generations played a leading role during the electoral campaign; they have created a space for themselves that needs to be extended. The future belongs to them.
fms18@onvol.net