There is only one word to describe the administration of the Malta Labour Party: cruel. They knew that with Sant they stood a good chance of losing once again, and yet for their own selfish reasons they adamantly refused to face what the general public has been telling them: change the leader.
This is not a question of attacking Sant as a person as I am sure that that is what the administration will conveniently attack: it is a question of what is good for the party. The administration knew that from the beginning and they are all responsible for this failure. It happened in 1998, it happened again after the referendum, it happened again in 2003 and again in 2008. 
Flat warnings have been given to the administration on a silver plate that with Sant, the party stands no chance of winning a general election. The new faces in the administration after the 2003 flop were entrusted with the task of removing the leader but betrayed those who elected them by changing their position from that of a catalyst to that of allies to Sant and his entourage. Not only that but they called traitors all those who called for a change in the leadership because they had the guts to say what they said behind closed doors and not in the face of their leader.
The traitors are not those who put the good of the party above their personal ambition, but those who put their personal ambition before the party and use the party machine to achieve their personal ambition. It is true that ambition plays an important role in any political and personal career but in the administration this was dangerously obvious, to the extent that they forgot all about what is good for the party and their blinkers allowed them to see only that was good for their personal gain.
It is also cruel to put all the responsibility only on Sant because the whole administration ought to have resigned. They are all responsible for this mess as they were all reluctant to face their leader for fearing of losing their political career as happened to all those who had the courage to do so. They are all responsible for depriving Labour supporters of another term in government: they preferred to stay in opposition than to lose their hot seat in the party.
They proved to be cowards: both in the case of Pullicino Orlando when Sant backed out from facing him outside Television Malta when he had all the ammunition; and in the counting hall in Naxxar, where they left deputy leader Michael Falzon and party president Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi on their own while the other deputy leader was stamping his feet because Marie Louise Coleiro did a better job than him, and the secretary general went into hiding when he knew that the party was going to lose. Now they are inundating us with puerile explanations as to why they left the counting hall and my reaction is that we are sick and tired of their bullshit and they might as well go and tell it to the marines.
Now they want to make sure that the new leader will not bring the catastrophic changes that are so badly needed within the party lest they will be in trouble. They, once again, are trying to put their selfish interests before those of the party for losing their grip and their political power. But how can they continue to be so cruel? Why are they so insensitive to the Labourites and non-Labourites out there who are all so concerned that this country has been rendered into a one-party state which is lucky enough to have Gonzi who does not bulldoze all over us?
If they want to continue to be in Opposition then they may as well stay there, but the message is clear: if they want a cosmetic change for their selfish interests, then the only hope for the Labour party is go for a split. The message from the voters this time was clear: we are not happy with the Nationalist Party but we do not trust Labour. People who were in Naxxar tell you that there were many first preference votes for Nationalist candidates and the second and subsequent votes for Labour party candidates. What does this tell you? This shows that even the Labourites sent the message that they do not trust the present administration.
It will not be a bad idea for Labour to survey how many of these votes there were and I think that I will not be mistaken by saying that the Labourites gave the victory to Gonzi: they sacrificed their vote for the sake of saving the Labour party. But if now they see that such sacrifice was not good enough, because the people at Hamrun do not want to change, than they will definitely feel that they have no party any longer. And the only solution, the way I see it, is for the party to split in order to be able to survive.
Of course, this will not be a perpetual one but temporary until the people at Hamrun realize that the love of the party must come before their personal ambitions if they want to stand a chance of facing Gonzi seriously in 2013. The party cannot be so stupid as to follow in Sant’s footsteps and put aside the people who have different opinions on how the party is to be run. We take Sant’s words “Hadd mhu ghar-rimi” seriously and not just as an election slogan. Even the people in the present administration have something to contribute for the good of the party: but for the good of the party must be their focus and not the good of their personal gain.
The results of the elections were a disaster for Labour. The MLP did not gain any votes since 2003, notwithstanding all the cases of corruption, arrogance and intrigues that plagued the Nationalist party and notwithstanding that Labour had concrete proof in some cases. This continues to show that the electorate still did not trust Sant with the job of Prime Minister. In the case of Pullicino Orlando, it seems that the only person from the Nationalist party who believed him was Gonzi himself, when he ruled him out completely from his cabinet. 
The administration knew that the Gonzi product was better than the Sant product, so much so that they were very cautious not to expose Sant on their billboards and coached Sant to stick to certain issues; so much so that he was not able to go off on a tangent when the occasion arose, like the time when Pullicino Orlando went to face him at Television Malta, or when the remedial class issue was forwarded. 
It is now therefore paramount for the delegates not to act on emotions and not to allow the party machine to play on their emotions. The issue now is not who has the sweetest face to be party leader but who is the most eligible to challenge the Gonzi product: if Gonzi and his wife and family are in that product, the new leader of the Malta Labour Party must also have a wife and family on the bandwagon. More so, he must have something not similar to, but better than the product than Gonzi’s package has to offer to the Maltese electorate.
Labour has many people outside Hamrun who are full of enthusiasm and eager to rebuild this party. The MLP has nothing to be ashamed of its glorious past; but its present administration has for selfish reasons distorted the party’s soul, buried the party’s history under the carpet in the false hope that they could run a party without a soul. 
And the first challenge of the new leader will be regain the soul of the party!