When I look at the contenders for the Labour leadership, I look for who strikes me as having the potential to be the next Prime Minister.
The winner on that count is very clear in my mind, Joseph Muscat. Joseph has the passion for politics, the priorities that the country at large cares about and the presentation skills to represent Malta in the company of any nation’s leader or on the doorstep in an election campaign.
He is a family man, who understands the importance of a meritocratic society where people from any background can work their way to the top. Having watched Mr Muscat and observed the way he has positively handled his briefs since he came into the European Parliament, I have to say that we have a leader which is best for now and not to be kept in some sort of “incubator” for some future days.
Over the last few years I have felt like something of an oddity. I could count on one hand the number of Labour voters I know of my generation being 22 years old. Hearing Joseph Muscat speak over the last few weeks has reassured me that I’m not just in a niche reserved for losers. He has articulated a reason for normal people to feel comfortable with the Labour Party.
It is clear that Muscat is the best thing to have emerged in the Labour leadership race by a long way. The speech he gave last Friday in his first public meeting hit home with unerring accuracy, one of the few times I’ve ever seen a speech and felt proud to be a member of this Party. Muscat is young, fresh, intelligent, charismatic, charming and accessible. I believe he is unique as a candidate in that he is young and untainted by association with previous disliked Labour governments as well as having other essential characteristics.
What our country needs now is a leader with the courage to make changes for the better. But the Labour Party has lacked a leadership that isn’t frightened to stand up for what is right and what will make our country a better place, a place that can be respected. In Joseph Muscat, the Labour Party can have such a leader.
If this great party of ours is ever to be electable again, it needs new policies which are relevant to the world in which we live today, not twenty or more years ago. We can only win by moving back to our natural place, in the centre left political spectrum, not further and further to the right as we could well do with some of the Leadership candidates.
If Muscat can get himself elected and impress a new set of values on the Labour Party, he has every chance of attracting the support of thousands of floating voters. I know lots of them who would consider switching to Labour if he was leader. To re-connect with the electorate we need Joseph Muscat. He has the youth, the personality the policies and hopefully the staying power to displace this incumbent government.
Sharon Tanti
St Paul’s Bay
Yes, it is painfully apparent that Norman Aquilina (MaltaToday Midweek 23 April) dismally failed to understand my contribution. So much so, that he went off at a hysterical tangent citing some kind of conspiracy, stating that it is “clearly obvious” that I am “part of an orchestrated campaign aimed at undermining a particular candidate” – pity the editor did not publish this veritable howler on Sunday, it would have provided great entertainment fodder to a much wider audience.
It is typical that just because I do not fall over myself drooling at the prospect of Joseph Muscat as Labour leader, avid supporters like Mr Aquilina, believe that I must form part of some faction that is working under cover to bring the man down. Truly mind-boggling stuff, but let me backtrack for a moment; arrogance does not lie in having long-term plans Mr Aquilina, but in the absurd notion that a fifteen year plan can be successfully hatched in about as many days and presenting it to the people like some fait accompli. Will Dr Muscat graciously tell us just with whom he has consulted on this grand plan and for how long? Or has he already inherited the glass castle; lock, stock and barrel from the outgoing monarch along with the latter’s long-term visions?
Contrary to what Mr Aquilina has implied, I do not impress easily and having bitten the dust like almost half of my fellow countrymen in yet another electoral defeat, driven by the same party machine that is now proposing Mr Muscat as “the anointed one”, please do pardon me if I come across as a cynical old hag. This is the same party machine that has dragged us into one electoral defeat after another for more than two decades – practically a lifetime. Is it any wonder that most are now sceptical of anything or anyone the “bigwigs” at Hamrun propose as the next big thing?
Mr Aquilina has also mentioned Dr Muscat’s ability to “articulate a vision” and “a plan that concretises that vision”; given that he seems to have inside information on this grand plan, why does he not enlighten us mere mortals with some actual “concrete” evidence as to how this shall be tackled? And while he’s at it why not give us a blow by blow chronicle of Dr Muscat’s achievements at European level, for the benefit of all die-hard sceptics before attempting to elevate him to super-statesman status? Alternatively, shall we just visit Dr Muscat’s website and get all the information we need? Maybe persuade us that in spite of Dr Muscat spending the best part of a decade opposing the EU vision, nowadays we would not stand a chance in Brussels if it weren’t for him?
As for “Muscat repeatedly stating that he wants change big time”, haven’t we heard this one before, ad nauseam? Throughout the years we somehow managed to eliminate one set of “untouchables” only to trade them for another, maybe a bit more clean cut and articulate but still “untouchables”. So Mr Aquilina truly believes that Dr Muscat will dispose of the people who are currently rolling out the red carpet for him all the way to Hamrun? Please do feel free to pull the other one!
Throughout his piece, Mr Aquilina has repeatedly confused the issue, having the unbelievable gall to claim that I have an old-fashioned notion of how ‘to do’ politics. No, Mr Aquilina, unlike you, who purports to know what’s “in my book”, I do not condescendingly claim to know what the best qualities in a great leader are. That is quite subjective. However, I do know that sheer arrogance is not one of them and whether for real or otherwise, Dr Muscat is invariably coming across that way. Oh, and incidentally, Dr Muscat’s supporters bleating “Cry Wolf” every time someone does not worship at his shrine, sure is not flattering his cause in any way.
Giselle Scicluna
Xghajra
