A few days ago I followed a documentary on Corfu. The commentator said that the inhabitants spent much of their time in the hot summer months, drinking tea and ouzo and talking about politics. The political malaise also permeates the Maltese social fabric and whether you are having a coffee, attending a social function or even sobbing after a funeral people come to talk to you about politics. In reality, it is not politics, it is gossip.
The most popular topic in the recent weeks was the contest of leadership posts within the Labour Party. People ask me my predictions, and comment on the leadership contenders as if they knew them since baptism. With an exception or two, even the so regarded ‘intelligent’ political observers do not contribute much by way of objective criticism; they too have their agenda and enjoy the gossip as much as the ordinary citizen.
I wish the Labour Party a good choice because the selection of leader could make or break Labour. Party delegates should keep in mind that the person they choose should have the intellectual power, charisma and energy to steer Labour to victory in five years’ time.
But Labour has to make other reforms. I have never understood why Labour should have two deputy leaders. I remember quite well the time when Labour had one deputy leader, the unforgettable Anton Buttigieg. Anton followed the leader and never in his career gave the impression that he was the leader himself. The new Labour leader should make it a point that the Party speaks with one unified voice. It should not be mandatory that whenever the leader speaks, then automatically, one or the two deputy leaders add their version.
The idea of two deputy leaders cropped up in Mintoff’s days when the strategy of divide and rule was a natural sequel of colonialist politics. Mintoff wanted to dilute the strength of power-mongers within the party, and hence the idea of two deputy leaders. Perhaps the party should revisit this issue once the waters have calmed down and if the two posts of deputy leader are retained, then the role of the deputies should be clearly spelt out and be limited. No party can speak with three voices at the same time.
The new leader would also have the task of reinforcing discipline within the party. It is no longer tenable to have every Tom, Dick and Harry, who in some way or another is involved in the party machine, plays the prima donna.
The new Labour leader would also have the task of building a new infrastructure for party funding. The party should be administered on a sound financial footing, that does away with unnecessary expenditure and invests its finances in employing the best people who have new ideas and can lead the party on to a new era.
Fossilized structures have to be revisited. It is high time that a party commanding the vote of half the electorate be run on a professional basis. It has to be managed in a professional manner. The party should continue to accept the voluntary services of those who offer them but the administration should rest in the hands of professionals employed for that purpose. They should be adequately paid but monitored to ascertain that they are really contributing to the organisation.
The new leader is bound to have a difficult start and if Labour wants to re-invent itself it must do it quick but steady. After an election loss it is only natural that party activists feel disoriented and confused. The much prolonged leadership contest did not help the recovery. Labour has had difficult times in the past but managed to rebound with strength. The country needs a strong and valid Opposition, and the onus will not rest solely on the elected leader, but on every single member of parliament who is elected to represent the people and work in a group adhering to party discipline and leadership.

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On the other side of the political divide there is the PN. An ardent supporter of the PN recently expressed with me his preoccupation that if Labour weakens, then the PN government would have no serious opposition and in his own words, the government would do whatever it fancies. I did not mince my words, and asked him why, if he knew the PN could become such a dangerous government, did he vote for them in the first place? He told me that he has been brought up as a Nationalist and would never in his life vote for another party. But he wants Labour to do his job. Unfortunately we live in an environment that is dominated by politics, and politics of the wrong type.
I rarely read suggestions of how the country can move forward. Certain newspaper columns are ripe with gossip; hypothetical conjectures, vindictiveness and hatred, and sometimes fabricated ‘facts’.
The national broadcaster is not helping much and the BA Chairman was right when he said that much more is expected from PBS so that the station would honour its Constitutional obligations.
The last election had various casualties and has shown that the major parties need to reassess themselves and re-shape for a more challenging future. The price of oil, Malta’s position within the EU and the menacing threats of globalisation on the employment sector, need a quick reaction to safeguard our standard of living and improve it. That’s why we need a professional political class.