The Nationalist Party and the PN-leaning independent press know no limits.

They first tried to give the impression that we were against the proposed Dubai IT investment. Then at a later stage they went one further by claiming that when overtly supporting the project we committed another political u-turn.

It all started with the media release that I issued a few days after the project was announced.

Judging by what Lawrence Gonzi, Tonio Borg, Austin Gatt and Joe Saliba had to say during their political conferences, on TV and in the media I had come out against this investment and had even tried to scare away investment from the island.

Il-Mument even accused me of having acted this way out of sour grapes.

I am more than convinced that these people did not even have the decency to read the entire statement that I released – which is incidentally still available on the MLP web-site.

At no stage did I denigrate the Dubai investment so much so that I stated that we welcome any serious investment that can pave the way by leading to the creation of new productive jobs.

Just because I mentioned that a similar model was being introduced in India I surely did nothing wrong.

Neither did I cast any suspicions or doubts on the integrity of the prospective investors just because I mentioned certain hiccups that arose before their project got the green light in India.

When I stated that I hoped that the whole matter will be treated far more seriously than the Gama Textiles project I was in no way casting doubts on the financial standing of the Dubai promoters.

I was merely addressing Minister Gatt in the hope that he will handle the whole affair with far more maturity than he did regarding the botched Gama Textiles job.

When I issued my statement I was still completely in the dark whether agreement with the Dubai investors had been merely agreed upon in principle or else whether a memorandum of understanding had already been signed.

I could never be against investment from the Gulf countries when I had been criticising this government since the days of former Foreign Minister Joe Borg for having kept a relatively low profile in its relations – both diplomatic and commercial – with the countries of this particular region.

I am so much in favour of investment in IT that my colleague Carmelo Abela and I had recommended that the Social Affairs Committee should carry out a thorough discussion of our island’s requirements and potential regarding IT, innovation, research and development. In fact this process is well underway and we have already had very professional presentations from Prof. Anthony Theuma and Dr Mario Vassallo among others.

It is a pity that what triggered the whole ‘saga’ was the title which another local leading newspaper chose to give my media release when it stated that Labour’s reaction to IT investment was lukewarm. This was something which Nationalist propagandists jumped upon.

But then one should not feel surprised by such antics.

It was only the day after that we were ‘told’ that Labour was set to win the local elections by securing 51 per cent of the vote. What better way to rally and mobilise the vote of disgruntled and disillusioned Nationalist voters!

If anybody ever tried to scare away investment from Malta it was the Fenech Adami opposition when in 1982 they had called on German export credit guarantee firms to tread carefully when dealing with Malta. All this because of the political crisis resulting from the 1981 general elections. This is something documented and reported in the English language media of the time.

My sincere appeal to the government is not to try and win points on the basis of these cheap tricks.

The true reason why they are resorting to this gimmickry is that they want to make recourse to diversionary tactics at all cost to keep people’s minds off the mess they have made at both a central and local administrative level.

In the coming days Labour should continue to work hard in its campaigning as nothing can be taken for granted especially when we are up against a powerful block consisting of the PN itself and its allies in the ‘independent’ media.

Anyone who has any doubts about what I am claiming should merely consult the leaked top secret report on the PN’s dismal performance during the 2004 Euro elections when the rapporteurs concluded that the Nationalists were aided and abetted throughout the campaign by the local independent media as well as by the state owned television station PBS.

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Leo Brincat is the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and IT