In politics one has to face reality and not fall into the trap of believing what is no more than wishful thinking.
Recently, I could not help but notice that several Nationalist Party exponents are starting to propagate ideas which are simply pie in the sky. Foremost among these is the idea that the PN can defeat Labour at the next general election or even at the European Parliament and local council elections next June.
Let me make it clear once and for all: forget the idea that the Labour Party is heading to defeat because of the sorry situation Malta is in at present. If Labour in power is in dire straits, the position of the Nationalist Party is not much better, indeed, I believe it is worse.
Yes, it is true that many people in Malta, me included, are simply sick and tired of corruption scandals, the destruction of the environment by greedy developers, the petty arrogance of several government officials who believe that they are accountable to nobody, etc.
However, let us be realistic: how many Maltese citizens are ready to entrust Malta’s future to the PN? Remember that this is a political party which is still recovering from the internal turmoil it has endured over the last few years.
Symptomatic of its sorry state today is the recent incident during the Ħamrun feast when its leader, Bernard Grech, was denied access to the PN club and had to beat a humiliating retreat. Can you imagine Eddie Fenech Adami in a similar situation? It is simply unthinkable and shows the depths to which the PN has fallen.
A leading Nationalist exponent recently wrote an article in Times of Malta in which he said that floating voters should seriously consider voting PN to rid Malta of Labour.
Forget it, my friend! For the PN to win a general election or any other election it would need to win over a considerable number of people who voted Labour at the last general election as well as others who did not vote or invalidated their vote. Given the present state of the Nationalist Party, it is highly unlikely that this could happen in the near future.
Do you seriously believe that such people are going to vote PN just because they are sick and tired of being let down by Labour? A few will indeed do so but not enough to tilt the balance and defeat Labour.
Other PN exponents have come up with the idea that the Nationalist Party’s only hope is for Roberta Metsola to become the new leader who would defeat Robert Abela in the general election.
Again, this remains just wishful thinking, now and in the near future.
Metsola may be extremely popular among Nationalist supporters and she would probably rally the troops and bring back many Nationalists who in recent years have abandoned the PN. However, this would still not be enough to defeat Labour.
One has to think with a Labour mind in such matters. How do most Labour supporters who have abandoned their party view Metsola? I assure everybody that they still view her in a most negative light.
It is extremely dangerous to try and destroy Abela politically- Desmond Zammit Marmara
Such people may be determined not to vote or to invalidate their vote but to vote for somebody such as Metsola…? That’s out of the question as she is still viewed as the person who damaged Malta’s reputation with her strong criticism of the Maltese government within EU structures. Whether such people are right or wrong is irrelevant. At the end of the day, it is their vote that matters.
So where does all this leave us? We simply have to face reality: Labour will, in all probability, be in power for many years to come. The PN is still not in a position to take over the reins of the country.
So the solution is to reform Labour, to make sure that, with Labour in power, the coming years will be much better for this country and its people than the previous years have been. Of course, this is much easier said than done.
I have always believed that there is a lot of goodwill on the part of the prime minister but I also believe that he has been let down in a shameful way by many of the people under his leadership.
It is extremely dangerous to try and destroy Abela politically as several on the PN side have been trying to do ever since he became PL leader. What guarantee have they got that Abela would be replaced by somebody who would lead the country in a better way? Now that Chris Fearne is out of the race, I can think of no suitable replacement for Abela at the helm of Labour.
Of course, it will be a long hard road to reform the PL. The recent social benefits scandal, which has disgusted all Maltese of goodwill, has served to illustrate the extent to which clientelism is ingrained in the mentality of so many Labourites.
This probably remains Abela’s greatest challenge, one which is not easy to overcome. Many Labourites seem to have a sense of entitlement when there is Labour in power. It is the same with many Nationalists when there is a PN government in power.
Many people still have the pathetic mentality that a Labour government is there to serve Labourites and a Nationalist government is there to serve Nationalists.
I still remember how, when I served as a local councillor and minority leader in the Balzan local council (2012-2019), people used to come up to me on a regular basis, asking me to remind the PL leadership to “take care of the Labourites” (jieħdu ħsieb il-Laburisti). Now if people put pressure on a local councillor, imagine the pressure put on a prime minister!
The solution to the crisis of values that Malta finds itself in is to help Abela initiate a period of reform within Labour. It will be a long, tortuous and complex process but it is a challenge that we can no longer ignore.
Meanwhile, I hope that the Nationalist Party will itself rise to the occasion and become worthy of its glorious traditions, as a strong opposition party is an absolute must in a democracy.
Desmond Zammit MarmaraDesmond Zammit Marmarà is a former Labour local councillor.