There was a time when Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his Labour movement could do no wrong. There was a time when his message reached out not only to disillusioned Labour supporters but also to disenchanted Nationalist supporters and more importantly to the middle-of-the-road voters who held no particular party allegiance. There was a time when his words went unquestioned, when he was given the full benefit of the doubt. There was a time when he was the king of a movement. That time has passed.
This is not to say that Muscat’s time is over. That kind of verdict can only be delivered by the electorate or the Labour Party delegates. This is to say that from a certain point onwards, Muscat lost his universal, or rather local, appeal. He is now a politician who speaks convincingly only to his hard-core party faithful. His words are only accepted without question between the four walls of a Labour Party club. Beyond those walls, his words are treated with suspicion, the same suspicion that is meted out to most other politicians.
This puts Muscat in new territory. The whole of Malta was practically safe territory for him up to a few months ago. Now he is constantly finding himself behind enemy lines. Every day seems like a fight for survival. Everything and everyone, including the independent media, is now suddenly looking and sounding ‘negative’.
He must surely be wondering what led to this situation. If he is not, I am sure that many people in the Labour Party are. Why is their government, elected on such a strong majority 36 months ago, suddenly facing an uphill struggle that becomes steeper with every day that passes?
The answer is very simple: trust, or rather the lack of it. Trust is the golden touch of any politician. A politician who is trusted can, metaphorically speaking, turn lead into gold. Politicians who are not trusted will soon see their gold turn into lead.
Muscat had a golden opportunity to change the way politics is played in Malta. The nine-seat majority gave him a unique platform to do away with some of the remaining shackles that bind us to a political reality of the past. He could have done away with the system of vote-trading. He could have introduced meritocracy across all levels of government. He could have implemented a zero-tolerance to corruption attitude. He could have governed in the true interest of all, irrespective of their political creed.
Joseph Muscat is constantly finding himself behind enemy lines. Every day seems like a fight for survival
He was voted in, trusted by the vast majority of the Maltese people, specifically to deliver these. Instead he delivered the very opposite. Which is why the trust levels he enjoyed all but evaporated.
The Nationalist Party knows a thing or two about losing people’s trust. After governing for the good part of a quarter of a century the PN found itself in a position where it could not convince the electorate that the sun came up in the morning and set at night. We lost the electorate and we lost the sympathetic ear of the independent media.
Gaining back that trust is hard. It starts off with recognising one’s mistakes. It then requires amending one’s ways, building bridges and showing how past mistakes will not be repeated. The party is trying to do all this. We are aware that the electorate’s trust is not some switch on, switch off affair. We will not regain that all-important political cornerstone overnight. But we will battle on, thankful of the significant progress we have achieved so far but humble enough to recognise that more, much more needs to be done.
We will continue questioning government as is our duty and responsibility to do. We will continue to protect the interests of those who feel downtrodden or abandoned by this government. We will fight abuse and make sure that those who commit it, whoever they are, are brought to justice. We are doing our best to do all this. We are putting across proposals on how to deliver the new style of politics that was promised three years ago by Muscat and never delivered. We are stating not only what we wish to achieve but how we can and plan to achieve it. We are stating how we intend to introduce new ground rules that put everyone on the same footing.
We are committing ourselves to give a stronger voice to Parliament and therefore a stronger voice to the people and their elected representatives in the choice of sensitive public appointments. We know that the time for selling nice sounding political concepts is over.
The electorate has been bitten and is now more discerning, more cynical and weary of any political party or politician that comes forward with buzzword promises. And with reason. Which is why our promises must be built on concrete proposals that not only state the objective but how that objective is going to be achieved.
Which is why we are coming out with our plans now, halfway through the legislature. We want everyone to know what we stand for. More than that, we want to build our plans on the aspirations of every citizen.
The Nationalist Party is reaching out and will keep working at reaching out. We have no right to expect your trust but we have a duty to work for it. And that is what we are doing.
Mario de Marco is PN deputy leader.