I bet you that all those alien to the Labour Party are currently asking: what is happening in the MLP? One might be quite rightly asking why the Labour Party, in the scorching heat of July, and in a season when one is hardly expected to do anything, organises a delegates’ assembly on three consecutive evenings.
Labour activists know well enough what is happening. What is happening is that Labour is in full forward gear to get Malta out of its dire predicament. Labour is presently amassing its energies to rid Malta of the present incompetent and arrogant administration and make room for an energised, innovative and willing Labour administration – an administration that this country so badly needs!
Labour started this process more than a year ago, when it began consultations for the preparation of the document on the economic and social regeneration of Malta and Gozo. The process was met with scepticism by the Nationalists and their cronies, who labelled it as a useless academic exercise. But what an exercise it has turned out to be! Labour has thereby set the agenda for a much-needed process of consultation in drafting the so-called “documents”. This process involved the energies of both those within the party energies and those of other constituted bodies. Our offices were bombarded with suggestions and recommendations, which we welcomed gladly.
This so-called “futile academic exercise” has turned out to be a political exercise that has enabled many people to contribute their ideas freely and positively to help our economy, our administration and our lives, and lift them out of the present mess that this administration has put them in.
No wonder the Nationalists did not, and still do not, understand what is going on. Their much advertised notions of dialogue and solidarity of days long gone by have produced an administration that is devoid of any listening skills and has been described as being arrogant, not only by Labour, but also by people who in the past have given the Nationalists their unequivocal support. No wonder the Nationalists ridicule the process. They don’t understand it. It’s not the way they do things. Their way of doing things is different. Theirs is a decision of the few, put into practice by the few – with disastrous results.
The foundation document for the present exercise, launched in July 2005, opened the way for a generalised discussion on the economy. It highlighted the need to enhance the political commitment for a better life for everyone, and the inevitability of a comprehensive social security system, that only Labour can think of and deliver.
Today, economically, it is only the Nationalists who do not admit that we have a crisis in a third of our economy – the tourism sector. Earlier this year, our annual general meeting discussed the document on tourism, in the drawing up of which we involved all those in the industry. We have a proven track record in arresting the decay of this industry in the 1996/98 administration and of building the foundation for its regeneration – something that we can, and will, do once again.
The environment has also been on our agenda. The general management of our environment leaves much to be desired. The environment has simply been abandoned and it is totally mismanaged. We are definitely suffering from essentially bad planning, and this despite all the eloquent speeches and the establishment of the Malta Environ-ment and Planning Authority and the numerous empty promises of a new start that will benefit everyone and, more importantly, Malta as a nation. All this was, however, so evidently brushed aside last week. The extension of the building schemes exercise was challenged by one and all, not only by the environmental organisations but also by a wide cross section of Maltese civil society, including the environmental organisation of the Church in Malta. And with them were the Labour Party. Again, so much for dialogue and solidarity. It is absolute Nationalist arrogance that surfaces yet again.
It was, on the contrary, in the widest participatory spirit that the Labour document on the environment was prepared, discussed and approved. The document itself proves that Labour is conscious of the issues involved and is already prepared to undertake a serious political programme in order to get us out of the mess into which this administration has put us. On the contrary, the minister in question has labelled those who expressed themselves against the recent exercise as suffering from “mental problems”.
In the real world, businessmen, industrialists, academics and all those who endeavour to succeed in life, are fully aware that to perform well one needs to plan in advance. An integral part of planning is to identify, analyse and understand. This is followed by generating those ideas that will deliver the necessary solutions. The next move, from the planning aspect of the present exercise, will be the political will that Labour has in order to implement these ideas. Rest assured that Labour has the ability and the will to govern and deliver a better Malta for everyone.
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Dr Michael Falzon is the MLP Deputy Leader for Party Affairs