It looks like the Nationalist Party is on the mend and heading towards becoming once more an effective opposition. Once the leadership issue gets resolved successfully one can realistically hope that, in two years’ time, the party will stand a chance of defeating Labour.

One needs hope since the prospect of an additional five years of Labour is soul destroying. The potential and ability of Labour to continue sinking Malta are as yet unabated.

It will take years of consistent commitment to restore internal confidence in state institutions and, on so many fronts, the island’s reputation within the EU and internationally.

Over the last few years, serious shortcomings within the PN have distracted many from fully comprehending how much more of a huge problem is the dysfunctional Labour Party for Malta. The departure of Alfred Sant in 2008 saw Joseph Muscat take over and immediately start work on his corrupt road map.

All the rot that happened in government, from 2013 to 2020, is traceable to the management of the party in the five years prior to Labour’s election victory. What a lesson there is to be learnt from closely watching whatever goes on in a so called ‘government in waiting’ party! This applies also very much to the PN. The seeds of corrupt governance are sown within a party prior to accessing power.

Joseph Muscat surely could not have kept an airtight lid on what corruption was being planned. All who really counted must have known, so many more did not oppose, hoping to benefit, so many more ‘loyals’ were ingenuously, but perhaps genuinely, only focusing on the desirable prospect of Labour in government.

A party with a Boffa, Mintoff, and why not, an Alfred Sant, social conscience, was sold out to international fraudsters, to rotten local old money, to new money and new aspiring, so called, business people.

Filthy developers and so many ‘consultancy’ professionals also boarded the gravy train, not to mention the various politicians and party ‘faithfuls’. Had there been, within the party, openness and transparency this tragedy might not have happened.

The Nationalist Party cannot be described as Malta’s political panacea, far, far from it. It too has a lot to answer for and needs reforms. However, it has to be unequivocally stated that in comparison, the Labour Party has turned out to be a tragedy for the island.

This tragedy is sanctioned by a massive electoral support, an unquestioning support that amplifies the disaster. 

Intelligent Labourites are fed a story about a chief of staff who witnessed the first step of a massive hospitals scandal, however, his presence at the signature ceremony had to do with just the procurement of the meeting room. There is no information on who organised coffee and biscuits! He then stayed on to watch a minister put on a blindfold and proceed to sign a binding government document.

Intelligent Labourites are asked to put up with another minister who admits to have knowingly operated in a second division ‘kitchen’ cabinet, the real powerful cabinet being another one, with restricted membership.

It will take years of consistent commitment to the island’s reputation within the EU and internationally- Arthur Muscat

There are hundreds of other examples of very serious corruption and misdemeanors that intelligent labourites have been asked to put up with.

This state of affairs leads one to conclude that, at the moment, the Labour Party is 100 times more of a liability to Malta than a confused and misled Nationalist Party. The PN is indeed confused, but is still brilliantly capable of openly rebelling when two prominent members are caught out soliciting material support from discredited donors, rebelling when an attempt is made to unjustly and callously kick out an honest ex-leader.

Within the Labour Party, the long dominance of Dom Mintoff established discipline and unity as desirable ‘virtues’, as ends in themselves.

This characteristic Mintoff nurtured by always warning about the ‘enemy’ outside the gates. Joseph Muscat consolidated and maintained these two ‘virtues’ by systematically buying off, with corrupt rewards, whoever was potentially threatening the peace, or rather threatening the achievement of his corrupt road map.

This approach of Joseph Muscat weakened, almost fatally, those genuine decent elements that need to restore respectability to the party.

The Labour Party must radically reform itself, all this fatuous talk of ‘continuity’ must stop, for the party’s and Malta’s sake. Probably the Labour Party can only undertake such a reform if it reverts to an opposition.

There is no magic formula that will guarantee a selection of a valid leader, in truth it boils down to an assessment of a person’s potential to function validly in a difficult and multi-faceted role. Of course, we need to talk of proven personal integrity, an ability to responsibly interact with honesty. 

Of course we need to consider a mastering of the art of nurturing healthy loyalty, a questioning loyalty.

The skill to delegate and a sprinkle of honest and clever astuteness should wrap up the attributes of a good leader. By now enough, and a lot, is known about Adrian Delia, the ‘tesserati’ need to compare this with what has so far been revealed about Bernard Grech’s potential to function as the new PN leader. Let us hope they make the right choice!