One of the biggest challenges a new Labour leader will face apart from unifying the party and revamping and modernising party structures is to convince one and all that it is not living in a time warp and that it is well geared to address globalisation issues realistically, without abandoning its social democratic credentials.
The worst thing it can do is either idolise globalisation as if it was manna from heaven, rubbish it as if it merely consisted of threats without creating any opportunities, or, even worse, bury its head in the sand, by treating it as if it did not exist.
I feel that if the party wants to remain in sync with evolving trends and contemporary socio-economic developments it must constantly track the paths being pursued by various key globalisation issues.
To fail to do so would be tantamount to ignoring the fact that we are living in a digital age as well as showing that we are out of sync with realities happening on the ground both in Malta and also beyond our shores in what has by now evolved into a multi-polar world where today's emerging economic giants can also become tomorrow's military leaders and key players.
We are too small to hope to reform globalisation on our own as Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz advocated in his Making Globalisation Work wherein we came across a bold new plan from one of globalisation's closest observers and toughest critics.
But, on the other hand, we need to constantly examine how change is occurring even more rapidly all around us, appraise solutions being proposed as well as come up with ideas as to how we can apply them locally on a country-specific basis and even more important than that look to the future with courage and optimism; if need be by offering solutions that are at once modern, innovative, and yes - why not - also radical in a positive sense of the word. Before we can embark on such a difficult but challenging task we need to be bold and honest enough among ourselves to change the way we think.
Living as we do in an interdependent community - in a sense far beyond our membership within the European Union - brings with it a need to think and act globally.
It is within this context that we need to target anything from sustainable development and climate change to supporting the need to treat developing countries more fairly to the advantage of the developed world itself. In our heart of hearts, regardless of our political views, everybody yearns for a fairer and more just society, based on social justice and economic efficiency. Complacency and retaining or merely touching up the status quo are the worst pitfalls we could fall in.
All this must be done calmly and rationally but at the same time with a sense of urgency and immediacy, with the realisation that gone are the days when someone owes us a living.
Economic success requires getting the balance right between the government and the market, wherein government should limit itself to a regulatory role as a catalyst rather than as the doer and the be-all-and-do-all of society. The days of state intervention suffered a natural death after the collapse of communism.
Although there are many inherent threats in globalisation, at the same time we must work hard within our limitations to show, as Stiglitz put it, "that globalisation does not have to be bad for the environment, increase inequality, weaken cultural diversity, and advance corporate interests at the expense of the well being of ordinary citizens". We need to save globalisation from its 'advocates' as well as from those who tend to demonise it in an over-simplistic manner.
As members of the international community we are committed to show through our actions that the problem is not with globalisation itself but in the way it has been managed as well as in the manner in which governments and major political parties have reacted and adapted to it.
Treating globalisation issues as if they do not exist is definitely the worst solution we can come up with.
Mr Brincat is a Labour MP.