Born in 1974, new Labour leader Joseph Muscat belongs to the generation of Maltese who spent their younger days during the post-1987 silent revolution.
A cursory look at his CV shows that in May 1987 he was attending a Church secondary school and that he later attended its Sixth Form - a school that survived Labour's infamous onslaught against. On his official website, he even acknowledges the effect the school ethos had on him, boasting that it taught him a sense of discipline and how to make good use of the time available: two characteristics that later helped him hone his management skills.
Unwittingly, Muscat personifies the positive effects of the 1987 change in power. For him entry to University was just a matter of qualifications and he did not need any sponsor: the stipend system saw to his immediate needs. After attaining his first degree, he even continued studying for his Masters in European Studies in the first such course organised by the European Documentation and Research Centre of the University - an unheard of possibility before 1987.
In 1992, Muscat joined the MLP radio station and was among a group of journalists - ironically led by his erstwhile leadership contender, Evarist Bartolo - that also was instrumental in the setting up of Super One Television. Again, this would have not been possible without the liberalisation of the broadcasting airwaves - a decision the MLP strongly opposed.
During the Sant administration, he was involved in the setting up of IPSE, a state institute aimed at the promotion of small enterprise and created as a result of Malta's application for EU membership. Ironically, Muscat was later an important cog in the MLP's strategy against EU membership, by producing the notorious 'Made in Brussels' series for Super One TV.
After 1998, he was employed by a financial services company, one of many that sprouted in Malta following the conscious decision of the PN administrations to open up Malta's economy. His exposure on the MLP's airwaves and Malta's decision to take the PN's advice and opt for EU membership led to his being elected an MEP.
In other words, Muscat's CV is a celebration of the positive turn-around that several PN administrations wrought since the 1987 change in government. That is why I thought he showed a lack of maturity when he told Labour supporters the obvious untruth that he owes his university education to the Labour Party. To keep on this silly tack, he even claimed that he and his wife owe the successful end to a difficult pregnancy and the birth of their twins to Labour's contribution to the health sector over 20 years before they were conceived!
The truth is that Muscat would not have made it if Malta had remained stuck in the siege mentality of the Dom Mintoff/Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici regime and had the MLP succeeded in creating a permanent socialist generation, as former minsiter Wistin Abela once intimated.
I remember that to the chagrin of Mintoff, some time before May 1987 Ugo Mifsud Bonnici - who was then opposition education spokesman - told a rally of youngsters how lucky they were that they would be living in a society not dominated by Mintoff's quirky way of doing things. Of course, Mifsud Bonnici did not have Muscat in mind at the time, but hindsight shows that he was spot on.
Muscat - as we know him now - would not have been possible without the change in direction Malta took since it elected a PN government in 1987. He has grown up free of the Mintoffian shackles that are indelibly registered in the collective memory of those of my generation and this, together with his outgoing character, should make him quite a pleasant change in Maltese politics.
This is not to say that Muscat has an easy task ahead of him. Nor that he is automatically up to his task.
His first priority must be ditching the albatrosses around the MLP's neck and ironing out the differences between the bits and pieces of a divided MLP by overcoming the obvious personal divergences that developed during Sant's leadership. Other important tasks will follow. His diary should be already full for the next two years.
Whether Muscat will lead the MLP to that elusive victory at the polls is still to be seen. Barring stupid mistakes as a result of his evident cockiness, he stands to benefit from being the new untried kid on the block and therefore materially and actually representing change, a ploy that Sant could only pull off in 1996.
At this point in time, I think it is unwise to join any of the two choruses that are singing Muscat's praises or his faults. There is, of course, a certain amount of bluff in what he is saying but undoubtedly he should be given a chance to prove himself, at least in his new role of MLP leader.
micfal@maltanet.net