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LETTERS | Wednesday, 30 April 2008 The forces of conservatism George Abela has many good qualities. He is a good friend to his pals, a devoted father, and is loyal to his followers even though he abandoned ship 10 years ago and never went back. He is not brilliant, but he is intelligent. He is not profound, but he is levelheaded.
Nevertheless, he has one shortcoming that overshadows all his good qualities. The man lacks substance. His recent press conference confirmed that he has no worldview and no overall picture of reality. He has no structural principles. He has no core, no vision. In the most profound sense, he does not know where he is going. That is why today he can say the opposite of what he said yesterday, without batting an eyelid. Nor does he have any difficulty saying one thing and doing another. He is capable of changing his skin and changing his policy like a chameleon. That is why he is a serial exploiter of opportunities and a brilliant survivor, but a hopeless shaper of reality. On Tuesday he insisted that the party should focus on the individual. Is he not aware that a fundamental modern social democrat value for this age and time is the power of community, solidarity, and the collective ability to further the individual’s interests? He turned 60 years old and that is a big minus for him as well. A party elects a leader for a minimum of 10 to 15 years. The Labour Party cannot afford to change leader once again in the coming 10 years. Will the Nationalist Party attack Dr Abela like they attacked Sant’s age, and label him as a kartanzjan owner? He stated that the MLP should be a party which attracts both young and old. But hold on: that should come naturally. I never saw Abela mingling with young people and truth is that during his first public meeting some days ago, young people were not present. Abela's entourage was made up of a majority of senior citizens and a handful of middle aged, die-hard Labour supporters. But how can he attract young people if his speech promoted the same conservative values that have been pushed forward by the Nationalist Party? Or is he going to push forward Alfred Mifsud's neo-liberal economic vision? During the press conference he was flip flopping continuously from party vision to country vision and to party vision again. His vision, if we can call it a vision, lacked substance. I am sure that many readers, like me, have asked the same question over and over again: where is the beef, Dr Abela? He said he will spend some time concentrating on the party before becoming an MP. Meanwhile we will have Sant leading the Opposition! The weirdest statement was when he reiterated that the Labour Party simply cannot afford to lose another general election. A modern statesman and a Prime Minister in waiting would have said: “I didn't come into politics to change the Labour Party. I came into politics to change the country”. This leadership contest is turning out to be a battle between the forces of progress and the forces of conservatism. As a party reborn, the Labour Party must make the coming decade a progressive one after several dominated by conservatives. Kevin Caruana Gudja What do Labourites want? There is a bit of a mess going at the moment in the Malta Labour Party (MLP) but after three defeats this is normal to have this situation ongoing. To top it all, there is an election of a new leader. Something that would be normal to ask is what do Labourites want now after these defeats? Ramon Muscat Complaining to the police I read and agreed with Saviour Balzan’s opinion of 5 March, 2008, that the Commissioner of Police John Rizzo should pay more attention, especially to those who have written to him complaining about corruption. It has been 14 months since my letter of complaint arrived at his office. I am still without an answer. Surely, from the administrative point of view, not to provide a quality and reasoned reply within a reasonable time amounts to bad administration and attract serious criticism. I have tried several other means to contact him to see if he has an answer to my complaint and what action he has taken since last May. I am not involved in politics, but if I was, I do not think I would have waited this long for an answer. Alfred Galea Any comments? |
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