The Marionettes are in town!

Yes, the venue was right! The antics were burlesque. Carnival was back in town on May Day.

The fake gesturing, nodding and smiling was reminiscent of the large masks that make the rounds of our capital's streets during carnival. However, this time the "festivities" were not organised by the carnival committee but by some section of the Labour Party which is hell-bent on condemning the MLP to the opposition benches indefinitely.

I am certain most of the Maltese public, both Labour and Nationalist, were gob-smacked by Alfred Sant's declaration that he would contest the position of party leader. They must also be galled by the arrogance of some who would persist in maintaining a leadership that has doomed the MLP to repeated losses at the polls and deprived Malta of a realistic alternative in government. This proposal will surely be detrimental to our small country and continue to foment polarisation and discord.

We need leadership in the opposition that will work for the greater good of our nation and provide a valid option for our island. The country needs an opposition with a sense of direction; one that will act as a constructive watchdog of the government but also maintain a strategy of cooperation when government policies are glaringly beneficial for Malta, rather than an attitude which is divisive and unwaveringly divergent. It is astounding that a segment of the MLP is proposing to retain this recipe which has failed it and which has been of no benefit to the nation, the Maltese worker or society at large.

The charade at Freedom Square will certainly deny many the freedom of making a choice at the next election, and possibly others. Should the current leadership be reinstated, many thousands of voters will have no option but to eschew an MLP that persists with its dead-end roadmap. I urge the objective elements of the MLP to hold fast and provide Malta with the breath of fresh air it so richly deserves and strive courageously for a change that will permit their party and this country to rise to the new challenges facing Malta at this bright moment of its history.