Something is rotten in the state of Labour

Jason Micallef's oversight in not paying his party membership while occupying the post of MLP secretary-general should have been, in itself, a very minor issue. In any normal political party, the number of people who would be privy to such a detail would be a very restricted handful in the upper echelons of the party structure, and the problem would be solved in a matter of minutes.

Not so in the MLP. The story found itself discussed in the MLP executive - and hence leaked to the media of the MLP's political adversaries - after the closing time for nominations for the election of MLP officials. That is, when it was too late for Mr Micallef to iron out such a small problem without any consequences.

In other words, those who would have been expected to tip off their secretary-general about his lapse were, in actual fact, conspiring to put him in a most embarrassing position and to make sure that the story is leaked and publicised. Mr Micallef's actual oversight pales into insignificance when one considers this brutal reality. Jason Micallef today is four-square behind Alfred Sant and the real target is, obviously, not Mr Micallef but the Labour leader.

The news that the party executive had, in the words of an anonymous Labour dissident, "irregularly regularised the irregular" should not have come as a surprise. Yet, this action was in stark contrast to what happened some time ago - under Mr Micallef's tenure as secretary-general - when the MLP did not approve the candidature of the Marsaxlokk Labour mayor on the grounds that he had failed to pay the party dues for some two years. With Dr Sant at the helm, all Labourites are equal, but some are more equal than others!

This absurd episode is very important in another way, because it is a palpable symptom of Labour's malaise: a pointer to a situation that no self-respecting political party should find itself in some 12 months before a general election that it intends to contest by presenting itself as the country's alternative government.

Leaks and internal strife have been dogging the MLP ever since the downfall of the Sant administration in the summer of 1998. Since that fateful experience, much water has passed under the bridge and the top party officials have all been replaced. Today's party officials are, in fact, quite different people from the ones that were in office when the MLP fought the 1998 election. Except for one man: the party leader, Alfred Sant.

Meanwhile, the MLP has managed to lose many of its more talented personalities. It is not possible that the Labour grassroots are unaware of this situation, and happy about it. It is not possible, either, that the very people who are running the MLP knowingly dismiss these tribulations as if they were water off a duck's back... which brings me back to the starting point: attacking Jason Micallef is tantamount to attacking Alfred Sant. The problems bedevilling the MLP stem solely from the leader himself.

Disagreements within political parties are the rule, not the exception. Wherever there are more than one person forming a group of people, disagreements are bound to arise, even if these people have a common purpose in life. But these disagreements should lead to more open interaction between the persons concerned and to intelligent compromises.

Within Dr Sant's MLP, disagreements simply lead to purges and more purges. Ask Alfred Mifsud and Anna Mallia! The problem is not one simply caused by expected routine disagreements, and is therefore one of a much more fundamental nature. Something is rotten in the state of Labour.

One of the best election billboards ever was the 1998 PN billboard showing Alfred Sant and a number of dissenting MLP personalities with the words: Ma' Sant ma tahdimx - a clever play of words that drew attention not just to the uncertainty of life under a Sant administration but also to the fact that too many people from the MLP were finding it impossible to work with him.

Dr Sant's record indicates that he cannot handle dissent and internal conflicts within the party he leads. He has been found lacking too many times when this type of leadership endeavour was needed - circumstances that every leader of a political party is expected to confront regularly as part of his job.

It was Alfred Sant's 'management style' that led him to abort his administration and call a premature election in 1998 - with disastrous results for the MLP. In this way he 'resolved' the differences he had with many valid people: Dom Mintoff, Lino Spiteri, Alex Sceberras Trigona and George Abela. These are four characters who - I am sure - disagree between themselves on a number of things: they could hardly have been a united 'front' against Dr Sant's way of doing things. Indeed, it does seem as if the MLP has been going through a permanent tragi-comedy for the last ten years, ever since Lino Spiteri resigned from his ministerial post in March 1997.

Were it not for Dr Sant's way of doing things, 2006 would have been an election year with Dr Sant defending his record of two terms in government. Instead we have a situation in which a whole generation of Maltese have no idea of what a Labour government looks like, except for a passing glance at Dr Sant's 22 months and his strange way of giving up power.

The problem is that Labour keeps on repeating the same plot and following the same script. Today, instead of raring to go, it is bedevilled with internal strife. Before 1996, the electorate was unaware of the internal tensions within the MLP while today the disunity is public knowledge. As is the fact that in ten years, Dr Sant did not manage to learn how to handle internal party tensions.

It is hardly surprising, therefore, that many political punters believe that a Sant victory in the next general election would lead to a repetition of the 1996-98 script.

micfal@maltanet.net