The long wagon train

Rather than a thousand shoots blossoming into as many different flowering plants, mankind will come to seem like a long wagon train strung out along a road. Some wagons will be pulling into town sharply and crisply, while others will be bivouacked back in the desert, or else stuck in ruts in the final pass over the mountains."

That is the prediction that author Francis Fukuyama makes in his bestselling book, The End of History and the Last Man. It follows an analysis of the history of mankind, taking into account the latest developments of contemporary history after the fall of communism, and the growth of globalisation.

Fukuyama adds that while there will be a few wagoners who will have lost their sense of direction and are temporarily heading in the wrong direction, and one or two wagons will get tired of the journey and decide to set up permanent camps at particular points along the road, "the great majority of wagons will be making the slow journey into town, and most will eventually arrive there". Even more significantly, "the apparent differences in the situations of the wagons will not be seen as reflecting permanent and necessary differences between the people riding in the wagons, but simply a product of their different positions along the road".

What may well hold in respect of the history of mankind, particularly after the recent liberal revolution, holds in respect of our country. I find that the metaphor of the different wagons, painted differently, but containing different families hoping for a safe journey, is a very appropriate one to describe Malta as it stands so close to choose the safest path to guarantee our future.

The other weekend the Nationalist Party held a historic General Council where the theme addressed was the choice that needs to be made to safeguard future generations.

The Opposition Malta Labour Party is unfortunately the only major party in all of the accession countries to be vehemently opposed to their country's membership of the European Union. It was embarrassing to hear one of their Members of Parliament addressing the historic meeting of Members of the European Parliament together with MPs from the accession countries speaking in favour of the EU, in favour of enlargement, in favour of accession countries joining, but not in favour of Malta becoming a part of the Union!

To apply Fukuyama's metaphor to the situation, the MLP wagons are "bivouacked back in the desert, or else stuck in ruts in the final pass over the mountains". Whether they are camping in the desert or blissfully trying to enjoy the Swiss Alps and imagine transporting them to the Mediterranean is beside the point.

They belong to the category of wagoners who "are temporarily heading in the wrong direction". I am confident that eventually we will be able to talk of their having been in a different position along the same road!

It has happened before to other Labour parties. The examples from UK and Greece are two classics. The Labour Party in Malta will eventually change its position and steer in the right direction. Still, under its present leadership, it is unlikely to be in a position to do this before the referendum or even before the general elections that will follow.

Since it is only too clear that many on the Labour wagon realise that the direction they should be heading for is the EU, the Labour Party leader's decision is probably for a boycott. That will be the strongest form of pressure that he can apply on his own supporters to prevent them from expressing the opinion that they would like to express. He has recently declared that he will announce what stand he would take on the referendum only after that the referendum date is announced. To me that offers further proof of what his intentions are.

Once the referendum and the general elections are over and Malta proceeds to join the EU, the MLP will proceed to carry out its own restructuring. The party will participate in the elections to elect Maltese Members of the European Parliament and will by then have already 'changed' its stand on the EU. It will however be too late for the party to state that they stood for Malta's membership at the moment when it mattered, at the hour when it counted.

What is even more tragic is that, had Labour to be returned to office, they would make no change of heart! They would have managed to derail the entire wagon train and Malta would be out of the EU for good.

In this scenario Malta would not have opted for the present status quo since there is no such thing as remaining as we are. The Union would have become 24 members strong and we would be left drifting on our own and facing the consequences.

In this historic hour the persons on the wagon train who are "pulling into town sharply and crisply" have a unique responsibility to remain on their steady path, ensuring that the destination is reached on time. The derailed wagons can be salvaged later. It cannot happen the other way round.

Once upon a time, a former Labour prime minister would shock a Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly by declaring that there were two Europes, one of Cain and one of Abel. He believed in the one of Abel, and he had his own particular way of choosing between who was who!

Ironically, following the collapse of the Berlin Wall and all that it represented, one cannot ever talk of two Europes! After the EU forthcoming enlargement, a common European house built on the solid foundations of peace and democracy would offer abode to a united family that has found the best historic and proven formula to bring the age of wars across frontiers to an end.

Addressing the concluding session of last Sunday's Nationalist Party General Council, the Prime Minister gave a strong message when he declared that he will not decide when and how the referendum and election are to be held in the interest of the party, but in the interest of the country. He wanted the people themselves to decide whether or not they wanted EU membership. What he did want to assure the people, however, is that the decision by the people will be implemented. The choice to be made is one in the national interest.

It is a matter of days before the negotiations for Malta to join the EU will be concluded. The forthcoming Copenhagen Summit of EU Heads of Government then precedes the drawing up of detailed treaties of accession for the countries qualifying for membership.

Logically, it cannot be long before the people of Malta are asked to confirm through their vote whether they agree or not with the final package negotiated for Malta. It will be a historic hour when each and every one of us will need to weigh in the different scales the arguments for and against membership in the light of the concrete package negotiated.

The alternative is not the present status quo but the unknown results of so-called partnership negotiations that the Labour Party is trying to lure the electorate into.

What we do know is that when Labour was in Government and froze our EU membership application, unemployment soared and the country's economy grinded to a halt. Moreover, our standards of living declined and the people suffered arbitrary taxes and other fiscal measures that did not even succeed to reduce the national deficit, which simply shot up to record levels.

It is a far cry from the achievements made by Government over the past four years. What we delivered to our people and what we set out to achieve for our country through EU membership were complementary goals.

Tomorrow evening we can make an objective, calm analysis of what the country has achieved so far and how the country can move forward in the same direction as we listen to the Budget speech being delivered by the Minister of Finance. The Prime Minister has already pointed out that we should not expect any gimmicks, but only a realistic assessment through which we can plan our future with renewed courage and self-confidence.

The long wagon train is moving in the right direction, except for some derailed components that will have to catch up later. Still in general the Maltese population is on board and looking forward with determination to our European destination.