News • 3 November 2002

Gab’s gift to the Labour party

It’s good for you to know. MATTHEW VELLA meets the face of New(ish) Labour, MLP President and spinmeister Manuel Cuschieri

HAMRUN - Speaking to Manuel Cuschieri is very much like being at a private audience for Tajjeb Li Tkun Taf. His voice is set at the same timbre of the assertive tone many have come to recognise through the Super One Radio propaganda afternoon hour. But he refuses to call it propaganda. "Information, not propaganda", he specifies.

"As MLP President my roles are those of co-ordinating activities such as the popular door-to-door schemes. These have included the collection of funds for the MLP headquarters and Maltastar.com. Then there’s the radio show, two different shows daily on current affairs, which I guarantee you is not an easy job. My work leaves me very little time for anything else."

For long, Manuel Cuschieri has been deemed the face of New Labour’s socialism – young (well, youngish), smart, concise, well-informed and politically-driven to bring Labour’s 1996 aborted electoral programme back into Parliament. Likewise, the many other faces of New Labour cadres such as Joseph Muscat and Glenn Beddingfield, upcoming youths who washed away the eighties’ uncouth socialism into a polished and savvy social democracy.

But Manuel Cuschieri remains the New Labour grassroots voice. He may have never read Karl Marx, but what a long way he has come. From juvenile door-to-door fund-raiser to the Labour pundit whose radio show turned him into socialist sweetheart and oft-abhorred propagandist.

Convinced of its popularity, Manuel Cuschieri points out the Broadcasting Authority figures which classified Tajjeb Li Tkun Taf as the most popular radio show in the last years. But he has also invited the wrath of many of Labour’s opponents, often for the arrogant and demagogic demeanour when launching an attack on the MLP’s rivals.

Or maybe it is because of his informed offensives, of which so far he has never been accused of libel. When his substitute clinched the airwaves a few months ago, a lawsuit found its way home. But Mr Cuschieri has kept his hands clean so far.

"Many are those who say my programme fosters hate amongst people. I can say that this is nothing but a clear programme of demonisation at my expense. I challenge any journalist to compare between similar programmes on other radio stations, the way people phoning in are controlled. I take responsibility for any single word that is uttered.

"I feel responsible and proud. We have managed to educate people on how to talk on the radio. There is absolute control of what is said. Today, compared to our initial programmes, our listeners do not overstep the mark. And those who feel cannot express themselves correctly on radio, prefer to listen rather than phone.

"If obviously, my programme is not liked by some, they can always just simply change station. But for everything else, the BA figures have already confirmed the popularity of the programme."

And true. Tajjeb Li Tkun Taf’s popularity is not only clocked amongst Labour’s faithful, for whom Manuel Cuschieri preaches lovingly. The other ears stuck to their trannies are those not of the Labour persuasion, who allow the silky and often haughty tone of Mr Cuschieri to pander to their rage. It could be a fetish. Hate often is.

But as for accusations on hate-mongering, Mr Cuschieri believes that if anyone has really fostered the political divide, it has been none other than PN leader Eddie Fenech Adami.

"As the leader of the PN, he may count his electoral wins as personal successes. But he has contributed to the great political divide through his instigatory behaviour. Then his policy of civil disobedience in 1981, and the parliamentary boycott – which as we now know from Censu Tabone’s biography, the latter said that the political crisis could have been solved at an earlier stage if the PN did not boycott parliament. He was one who did not agree with the boycott.

"I believed the 1981 election had delivered a funny result and the Constitution had to be changed. But boycotting Parliament was not the way to do it.

"It is important to be sincere in politics. Let’s take the PN’s hundred million liri promises. Now we have Eddie Fenech Adami saying he cannot promise anything to anyone. He duped the electorate by promising such impossible gifts in 1998. I don’t think this is honest politics. Eddie Fenech Adami’s political dishonesty is shimmering."

For Manuel Cuschieri, Eddie Fenech Adami’s successful electoral results throughout the last decade are nothing but interludes in a spate of financial squandering. But he contends that in 1987, the Nationalist Party inherited a "happy state of financial affairs" prior to opening up the market.

"You don’t justify opening up the economy by burdening the economy with unsustainable debt.

"In its first legislature, the PN wasted all the money that had been lying in the government’s coffers in 1987. In 1992, when all the money had been used up, they resorted to borrowing money, creating a public debt and also having to start paying interest on loans. Now they have to service this debt and pay interest. And to finance their ordinary expenditure they resort to more taxation, more debts and fruitless privatisation, as happened with HSBC.

"I think these are the results the nation is looking at. Take shipbuilding for example. What has been done to make shipbuilding a viable industry? Take the Freeport – it has absorbed millions in subsidies, and yet none has been forthcoming to the shipyards. Then there’s the PN’s environmental record."

He lets out a signatory snigger, complete with smirk. Now Labour’s focus has turned onto the environment, a new dimension to the party which so far has had the economy as its battlefront.

By rabid greenie standards, a risible affair - both the Malta Labour Party and Nationalist Party’s environmental gaffes have numbered many. Too many in fact. I point out that Labour’s record in the eighties is quite dismal, Lorry Sant’s erroneous and progress-fuelled planning having come in the way of much flora and fauna.

"Lorry Sant was the Minister behind many of the housing schemes that gave decent apartments to many people whose living conditions were disastrous. For this he is a man to be admired. He really worked for thousands of families who did not have satisfactory homes", he answers.

He does not think much of the Green Party either, who in their first days of existence, had been prime attackers of the late Lorry Sant and his alleged misdemeanours.

"I can only say that AD fail to convince people, as we can see through their electoral results. That is the gauge by which we can judge the general reaction of the people. In previous years there were people who wanted to revert the party to a pressure group and who today are no longer with the party."

But Labour are doing the green thing now, as is the fashion of politicians today. Even though, like the PN, the MLP are desperate for the votes of the hunters, and have already started appeasing and soliciting for their support, Mr Cuschieri argues a balance must be achieved.

"There must be a balance between the hunters and the environmentalists. The latter have to be respected and hunting laws have to be enforced. You cannot just switch off hunting, we have to be realistic. Education is key in this issue, because no one can impose their lifestyle upon anyone else.

"I personally do not agree with hunting and trapping, but I still respect those who practice this pastime."

Come 2003, the MLP will be stepping up the election drive, of whose victory Manuel Cuschieri is short and sweet about. "An electoral victory for the Malta Labour Party. I am certain the MLP will win."

But the latest Xarabank surveys have shown a relative majority in favour of EU membership, a figure that can be easily intertwined with any electoral forecast. He refuses to comment on "untrustworthy surveys".

"There were other surveys from those same sources showing Labour would win the local council elections by 1per cent, but instead Labour’s lead was 7 per cent.

"MLP are not considering full membership with the European Union, neither now nor in the foreseeable future. Our qualms are with the EU’s regulations, which we believe are not necessarily good for small states whose particular circumstances dictates certain limitations.

"The MLP analysed these regulations and applied them to the country’s circumstances. We believe the EU’s regulations are disadvantageous to Malta’s particular circumstances. Our alternative is that, as in other countries, we can achieve similar standards of living by collaborating with any other bloc, not just the EU but also the US, Russia, and others.

"When the EU option was first announced, people saw a certain dream in this innovative idea. But when people see Labour’s option for a partnership, they come to realise the difference between our realistic proposals and mere sweet words.

"The electorate will acknowledge the MLP’s realistic programme. Let’s not illude the people saying we can only join the EU. Malta can have other relations with other countries."

Spurred on by Mr Cuschieri’s certainty on electoral victory, I propose a likely scenario in which the EU referendum is won by the Yes camp, and where Labour follows up with an electoral victory. And with Romania and Bulgaria entering the EU in 2007, wouldn’t a new Labour government find late membership appealing?

"If the EU’s regulations will still be at our disadvantage, no. If they change to Malta’s advantage, we shall decide then. But I have my doubts, especially with the Treaty of Nice, which has given power to the larger states. As for the small countries, theirs’ will only be puny screams."

I ask him whether Labour’s EU stand may have disillusioned many, especially those convinced that Labour should have participated in the Malta-EU Steering Action Committee, otherwise having been able to give a more direct contribution to the negotiating process.

"It is no use participating in MEUSAC when this committee is geared towards full membership, which Labour isn’t. Some people criticise the way MEUSAC works - the latest is the hunting question, hunters have now been foiled by the negotiations after having been promised nothing would be changed."

We turn to the Mintoff saga. He no-comments all the way through a series of questions asking him what he thought about is-Salvatur ta’ Malta before his treacherous charade, and whether he now thinks highly, or lowly of him. Front Maltin Inqumu is also best left dormant. The Where’s Everybody boycott issue is also brought up but he decides to no comment on the accusations that the Xarabank presenter has a hidden agenda.

We finish off on lighter notes. Talking about football for example, he reveals his disillusionment with the Maltese scene. He talks about his excellent relationship with leader Alfred Sant and how the Labour trio of Sant-Brincat-Vella inspires him though their dedication and will. Then Australia, Antonello Venditti, and other political pursuits. And we talk about life in the singular, to which he refutes any indication to the contrary.

So, shall we be seeing Mr Cuschieri in parliament in the coming years?

"If the MLP asks me, I will do as the party considers in its own interest. I see myself as a football player, co-operating with the other team players. So I will abide by any decision that will be in the party’s interest. But I have to say that if I could choose, I would prefer to work in the central administration of the party. There are many valid politicians already."