Saturday, 3rd October 2009
The Labour Party: A National Movement
Some people were recently amazed that a former staunchly pro-PN public figure, Marisa Micallef, has joined the Labour Party ranks. Indeed, there is nothing really sensational about this and I expect several other former prominent Nationalist Party supporters to do likewise. The reason is that while Joseph Muscat’s Labour Party has become a national, all-inclusive political movement, Lawrence Gonzi’s Nationalist Party has become exactly the opposite, i.e. an exclusive political club where power is vested in a small number of people who create artificial barriers which exclude the vast majority from any real and significant say in all major decisions.
The major strength of the Labour Party today is that its policies are aimed for and appeal to all members of Maltese society, i.e. all social groups. In the now rather remote past, the Labour Party in Malta was sometimes solely identified with manual workers. This was a natural consequence of the state of social development in the Maltese Islands at the time. With the passage of time and the rate of progress through the years, change within the PL itself has resulted in the Labour Party’s modernizing its structures and policies to encompass the needs, desires and goals of all social classes, all Maltese citizens, without the exclusion of anybody.
Putting the national interest before everything else, the PL today welcomes anybody who wants to form part of a growing national movement that is fed up with the hypocrisy of the Nationalists, of a PN Government which preaches one thing and does exactly the opposite. All citizens of goodwill will no longer tolerate the inefficiency and incompetence of the PN Government for which they are always being made to pay the price. Furthermore, it is clear that while Joseph Muscat and his followers are daily coming up with new and creative ideas on how to administer the country and create national wealth, Lawrence Gonzi and his colleagues have simply run out of ideas and seem to be going round in circles without any clear aim and direction while the situation in Malta continues to worsen on a daily basis.
Symptomatic of the way people are losing faith in Lawrence Gonzi’s empty promises and hollow propaganda is the number of youths who are joining the Labour Party. This is really heartening because the next General Election will be decided, above all, by the votes of youths, especially first-time voters. Youths want a political party which provides space for the realization of their ideals and dreams. They are, in substantial numbers, rejecting the Nationalist Party because of its cynicism and Machiavellianism. The PN is today paying the price for the way in which it won in 2008, using undemocratic means and questionable practices just within the perimeter of legality.
A new dawn is just round the corner for Malta. The innovative national movement spearheaded by the Labour Party will be in a position to realize its potential in 2013 or earlier if things continue as they are now. After the shambles of the past Nationalist Governments, I envisage at least a decade and a half of Labour in power because the PL is going from strength to strength under Joseph Muscat.
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Comments
@ J Martinelli.
The post 70s illiteracy was the obvious result of the ante 70s education system. The PN were in government from 1962 up to 1971. Think before you speak.
A point that I missed. The Government has not got the slightest idea of what is going on at the University (on the Island really), we are crying for nurses and even these souls have to fight for a place this year.
We witness and feel what is going on at the University rather than read it on partisan newspapers from faraway places.
It`s amazing, you still have no idea of what is going on on the Campus, you are blind to reasoning. To be quite honest, I belive that my niece would have stood a better chance under a Socialist Administration, the time will come when you will take your blinkers off.
Please get adjourned to what is going on between the government and the University.
Maybe your niece still has a chance.
Imagine what her chances would have been had the University been treated as an afterthought as in the Socialist days when its total population was 700, computers were shunned and one had to be a friend of a Minister to get in !
Of course, those were the days when the government pushed for more cobblers, masons, street sweepers and caper gatherers.
I made it loud and clear that I hate spoon feeding! Have a good look around you and your conclusions will not be different from mine!
Finally, if you read between the lines, today’s Times Editorial is a similar message I forwarded here some days ago: A message that outraged so much!
Today’s Times Editorial gives us all much food for thought. Prosit!
Charles, only them who can afford it, look around the Nationalist`s elected to govern and you will see what I mean.
“Fi zmien il-labour kien hemm 700 student l-universita” Labour got in Government in 1971, how many students were there at the University during the previous PN Administrations?
@ GiovDeMartino
"And with people like Joseph Muscat.........labour remain unelectable"? I like your good sense of humour. With Joseph Muscat Gonzipn got smashed and downsized to 40% support. Still in denial?
I will answer your questions when you define the meaning of 'political responsibility', 'progressive policies' and explain where I changed my tune. The answers I already gave you are clear enough if only you can make room for someone else's views on the comments you made.
@ Charles J Buttigieg
I have not yet watched Bondi+. When I watch it I will respond.
Whatever Gonzipn does is not perfect and I never claimed it so but it beats Labour's record thus far by miles!
Let's face it, when one buys a new car, his choice is made on the manufacturer's record, not based on future designs. Same here, if Gonzipn, with all its experience is imperfect, what makes you think that Muscat-Pl will not be worse?
Talk is cheap and as the Italians say - "Tra il dire e il fare c'è di mezzo il mare". Muscat can say what he likes and what the ideals could be but the only fly in the ointment is, he NEVER explains how to get to his destination.
It is a combination of a lack of vision, inexperience and the obstinate belief (ala Sant) that he knows it all.
@ J. Martinelli.
According to you, “Naivety is the product of those who will not see and will not hear. Lucky for me, I have enough sources of information and I am qualified to make sound judgments as opposed to those who assume that what the authorities do is automatically wrong.”
Naivety is the product of those who will not see and will not hear. Lucky for the majority , they have enough sources of information and are qualified to make sound judgments as opposed to you and others like you who assume that whatever Gonzipn does is automatically perfect and what the PL did thirty years ago as well as what it is doing now is absolutely all wrong.
Please make your mind-up. Simply there is no choice! It is a matter of `take it or leave it`...and there`s more... some students that were late in applying for entrance had to fork-out some €8000 for a late application. Something you missed maybe?
Your response to my questions are not only ‘preposterous’ (as you claim) but evasive and worthless. You even changed the definition of ‘political responsibility’ as you deem fit and accordingly. This is where we differ. You change tune accordingly.
All you imply in your response we are living it NOW! And in many cases present situation is even much worse. The ‘back scratching’ is institutional NOW! Corruption and abuses are daily meals. Political discrimination is institutional NOW! The list is endless.
By the way I was in favour and voted for the EU. So what? Did you vote?
Still waiting for your response to ALL my queries!!
The little, if any, political mileage which you may have gained over the years for your precious Gonzipn was all neutralised on Bondi + last night by Robert Arrigo, JPO and Franco Debono. Debono’s concluding statement Quote “The people no longer trust us” Unquote. Or words to that effect, said it all.
No need to comment much about your niece's predicament.
You did it well yourself. No more room, meaning that there were so many applicants that there is simply no more room. Gone are the days when the University population was around 700. Nowadays there are over eleven thousand students going for tertiary education in the discipline of their choice encouraged by the government which gradually is turning the workforce into one of professional excellence and able to earn a decent living.
Naivety is the product of those who will not see and will not hear. Lucky for me, I have enough sources of information and I am qualified to make sound judgments as opposed to those who assume that what the authorities do is automatically wrong.
There is perfection, rarely reached, then there is good governance which is ideal and then there is mediocrity which by the grace of God we abandoned twenty-two years ago.
I told you before that you cannot and will not stop me from expressing my views.
Now, to answer your questions:
1 Political responsibility is running the country as best as circumstances dictate, not for political expediency. That's where the politics of the NP differ fundamentally from the Opposition benches occupiers - the LP.
2 Progressive ideas include the many already put in place by the NP government and do not include repression of the Press, thugs roaming the streets, Ministers who are corrupt doing deals under the table, etc. I'm not against progress - the LP is, by hindering it.
3 I don't have to change any tune as you alleged. I was pro-EU and did not have to change my mind five years after joining, 'in hindsight'.
As always you are indeed wrong. The only time I do not answer your questions is when your queries are preposterous or when I choose to ignore you.
May I ask you why nowadays you tend not to ever mention ‘political responsibility’?
Why are you so against progressive policies? Why are you so anti progressive ideas?
Why are you so ‘closed’ within and so against any new, progressive ideas? Why do you deliver so much ‘you know what’? Why do you change tune according to the side of the fence you are on?
I know that responding to my above questions is practically ‘mission impossible’.
I love that you prove me wrong, though!
I have a niece that has started university this week, her only wish or call it a vocation is to take-up medicine, a Doctorship, this was denied to her for lack of space in this section.
Please, get more information before you start tapping a lot of partisan nonsense.
You have to be living here to realise what is going on on at our university. So please restrain yourself to realities if you know what that means.
Appuntu Giovanni!
Forsi DZM mar l-Universita' fi zmien il-Labour? Ta li thallas tiehu.
Meta il-gvern kien jiddeciedi liema kors wiehed kellu jiehu bil-fors jew jibqa barra?
Meta biex tidhol fl-Universita kien ikollok bzonn ta parrinu, garanziji u 'point system'?
Meta il-kelma 'kompjuter' kienet daghwa fahxija?
Meta teachers u professuri kienu aggraditi?
Meta sena kienet maqsuma f'taghllim u l-kumplament l-istudent kien irid jahdem?
Meta jekk kont midhla tal-Ministru u ta kulur ahmar kont tidhol u taghzel liema kors ridt imma jekk blu tibqa barra jew tiehu li jibqa?
Meta kien hemm min iggradwa f'kors li ma kienx ghal qalbu, telaq il-professjoni u kellu jerga jibda mill bidu f-karriera ohra?
Bizzejjed Giovanni ghax qed tiftahli bokka li bil-mod nista naghlaqha!
If there is someone who does not understand Maltese, I will gladly translate.
Des, do you know why large corporations include a 'Confidentiality Cause' as a condition of employment for higher grades? Because any corporation which has been around for a number of years, knows very well that some executives sometimes seek greener pastures. By 'greener pastures' I mean - offered better remuneration.
And who wouldn't jump ship if one earning around e20,000 is suddenly presented with a carrot worth 40 grand a year? I stand to be corrected however since Marisa was not earning any mullah when the LP offered her a job and 40 grand is like winning a lottery! I don't blame her, I would probably have done the same thing with one difference. I would not have burned bridges before I jumped ship. Marisa did that, but with the bridge, went every shred of credibility she had.
Not long ago she was helter-skelter against the LP and Joseph (among others). Now she's cozy with the LP and particularly with Joseph.
Was she wrong then or is she wrong now?