Editorial 14/07/2002

Volte face

Financial consultant Alfred Mifsud’s denial in a daily newspaper considerably changes an earlier statement made by the same garrulous and extrovert Labourite politician.

Last weekend he said in the clearest of terms that he would not contest as an MLP candidate if the Labour Party did not retain VAT as the country’s tax regime.

Understandably his comments created some media furore and surely no one can blame the newspapers and TV if Mr Mifsud and Dr Sant were the centre of attraction for two or three days.

Reacting to this miniature storm, Dr Sant said in the clearest of terms that it was not the policy of the party to change course whenever preconditions were tossed around by any of its candidates.

This led to an uncharacteristic retreat by Mr Mifsud, who, in a letter in The Times, wrote sheepishly that he no longer had any preconditions to make on his candidature and that he was 101 per cent behind the leader.

Such a volte face proves that Mifsud couldn't take more unnecessary flak on his goodself. He probably realised that the whole matter did him no good.

It also points to the fact that the party has stood steadfast when it comes to such unorthodox pressures.

The position on tax is an inevitable one, and one should expect that Labour will not kick out VAT.

When this is confirmed, we will be the first ones to congratulate the MLP. But not before reminding them of the precious time we lost readjusting the VAT regime after its hasty substitution in 1996 with the disaster called CET.

The road to Damascus

The other day, Noel Farrugia, a former Agriculture minister voiced his concerns on a Manwel Cuschieri show that Malta was in danger of losing its sovereignty.

So far so good, but then he went on to state that foreign ‘forces’ were working to destabilise the Labour party’s dissemination of information on the EU.

It sounded like a comment on a radio broadcast from the long forgotten outbursts of Radio Moscow.

Mr Farrugia’s thesis was obviously supported by Mr Cuschieri who did nothing to subdue many of the exaggerated claims.

Mr Farrugia knows all too well, that the European Union does little to interfere in the internal decision making process of candidate countries. Perhaps he has not realised that the EU is hopeless at organising underhand stratagems. The EU is such a tangle of checks and balances, that such a project would not be possible.

Proof of this is the dormant nature of the Europe delegation in Malta. If there was ever need of evidence that the European Union is alien to all this, the delegation’s holiday mode confirms this.

Indeed for such a pro-European media publication, it is a shame that the European delegation and most notably its ambassador Ronald Gallimore do little or nothing to stimulate interest in the European Union.

We have always said that it is up to us to get into the EU.

On attaining membership we have no doubt that as Maltese we will make the most out of Europe and its institutions.