News • 10 November 2002

Give me New Labour any day!

Saviour Balzan argues that most people will have no problems with New Labour so long as the roadmap leads us somewhere somehow

Other than the urgent need for a third party in parliament, a reasonable Labour Party with a new outlook is something we would all welcome.

It is reasonable to suggest that Malta needs a change at the very top. It is essential in a democracy that people in power rotate, call it a day or allow for new blood to replace the old blood.

I should be the last to stand up for Alfred Sant. And yet, I cannot help saying that there have been too many falsities when it comes to describing Alfred Sant.

True he is a spinner and an opportunist and not very warm and somewhat eccentric. But I could say the same for so many other politicians.

The first popular criticism refers to his election as leader of the Labour Party in 1992.

Everyone seems to have forgotten that in all fairness in 1992, the election of Alfred Sant as leader was a far better choice than that of Lino Spiteri. That is when one considers Spiteri’s track record as minister and politician before 1987.

In all honesty I too, would have voted for Alfred Sant.

The second point refers to PN fuelled rumours that Alfred Sant does not see eye to eye with people like Joe Grima, Karmenu Vella and Charles Mangion.

Even here, I wonder whether this is completely true. If this was the case then we should be pleased not displeased with his stance.

Lest we forget, Joe Grima was the man who chose to describe Eddie Fenech Adami as a buda and gay (pufta were the precise words) and stirred a hornet’s nest when a constitutional impasse was sought in parliament for the rusty electoral system before 1987. Grima is now the darling of the Nationalist Party.

While Joe Grima is abrasive, Karmenu Vella comes across as Mr Nice Guy, but then his political history as a minister in the days of Old Labour is not something you would want in your cv.

The same applies to Notary Charles Mangion, an affable soft spoken fellow by all means, but someone who is best remembered for his notarial activities for some of the late Lorry Sant’s henchmen.

When Alfred Sant as is rumoured. keeps them at arm’s length, we should not castigate him but appreciate him.

When he moved in as leader of the party he acted quickly to ask the suspended police officers who had ‘camped’ at the Labour HQ and offered their services, to leave the MLP premises.

He sneered when gorillas surrounded him and this led many labourites to think differently of him. One of the better known Labour thugs (the late Ganni l-Pupa) went so far as to declare that he had found ‘God’, then he proceeded to become a super grass for the Nationalist Party. God finally caught up with him when he attempted to burgle a bar down a loosely held drainpipe.

The Nationalist Party is concerned with hitting out at Labour at all costs even if it means exorcising some of the more prominent members of Old labour and regenerating them as virgins.

The story goes on with Alex Sceberras Trigona, the youngest ever Foreign Affairs Minister, a salon leftist enamoured with the old world of non-aligned countries, he too was pictured as someone ostracised by Labour.

But surely, Sciberras Trigona’s views on global affairs would lead to chaos if applied to modern day foreign policy.

The simple truth is that the alternative Labour line up that is presented to us by the Nationalist party is no replacement for today’s Labour Party.

Labour cannot redeem itself if it does not change tack on Europe and come up with some fresh faces who can offer us vision coupled with direction. It should also stop making silly Leo Brincat like declarations about how heads will roll once Labour walks into Castille and removes the fresh flowers for plastic ones.

And most important of all they have to be bright individuals with an understanding of economic matters and a nose for the challenges of the future, namely the environment, women issues and the third age.

Phew, that was not difficult was it!