Editorial

This promises to be a red-letter week for the people of this island. The prime minister should, by Friday latest, announce the date of the referendum in which the people would be summoned to say whether they want the island to join the European Union by May 1, 2004. That is a momentous decision binding on subsequent legislatures and, indeed, future generations. Unless, of course, the people themselves decide to undo what they themselves would have done.

This clear example of popular sovereignty contrasts sharply with the attitude Alfred Sant has decided to adopt, not just in his unequivocal stand of refusing to bow to the outcome of the referendum result and his subsequent threats of boycotting same but also in the way he decided to react to the prime minister's proposal made to him just over a week ago.

Dr Fenech Adami's proposal could well have been a "game", a move aimed at cornering Dr Sant. Few, if any, would have expected the leader of the opposition to take up what the prime minister had offered in terms of agreeing on a referendum and general elections date. It was precisely because of that reason that The Times last week called on the government to go ahead with holding the referendum so that life can return to normal as quickly as possible.

The government is wrong in continuing to play games with the opposition headed by Dr Sant. Unfortunately for the country and its people, the government has realised that its staunchest ally in its pro-EU membership and anti-"partnership" campaign is not Gunther Verheugen, Pat Cox, Simon Busuttil or the regular columnists in the English-language press, as Labour like to claim, but Dr Sant himself.

Dr Sant persists in making claims that do not hold water. He continues to hit out at critics with arguments and a sort of conduct that, at best, are unbecoming the sort of politician which the Labour propaganda machine depict Dr Sant to be.

A case in point was yesterday when Dr Sant countered Mr Verheugen's use of a graph to compare what Malta would receive as an EU member as against under a partnership arrangement by recalling the amount of bombs dropped on Malta in World War II. One would have expected a lot better from the leader of New Labour!

The government and the Nationalist Party can hardly complain at such a performance by Dr Sant. Indeed, they have very little to worry about. It is the Labour Party that should really be worried as their leader continues to dig his head deeper into the mud which he himself has been stirring.

It is impossible that all those around Dr Sant are happy with his antics. However, given the way politics work in this country and the strong hold the leadership has on the party - in both political parties, to be fair - it is unlikely anybody will have the courage to stick one's neck out, especially in this late stage of the legislature.

And yet, something the Labour Party must do... if anything to let the people speak - in a referendum first and in an election eventually. Then, Labour will have to bow to the people's will even if that means "revising" the composition of the leadership.