As Malta approaches the run-in to the next general election, the political parties will switch their roles from the defensive to the offensive. They will proceed by deploying their troops, hitherto engaged in static trench warfare, on guerilla operations. The objective is to find weaknesses in the enemy’s defences.
All the opinion polls, as well as the bulk of editorial opinion, suggest that the ruling Nationalist Party is going through a bad patch, and that the MLP is on the upswing.
The PN’s political predicament is compounded by the ineptitude of some of its tired ministers, and by the fast growing perception of a ministerial lack of accountability. For better or for worse, a cocktail of bureaucratic blunders and ministerial impotence is currently being interpreted as evidence of guilt.
The odds are against the ruling administration, but the PN is not down and out.
Alfred Sant’s identikit
Being the party in office, the PN has valuable cards to play later on in the game. At this initial stage, it is concentrating on undermining the credibility of its main adversary. This is not the easiest thing to do, because the PN has been in power practically for the last 20 years – and the credentials in office of future MLP shadow ministers has yet to be tested.
The Gonzi administration therefore questions the qualities of the MLP leadership in the person of Dr. Alfred Sant. No one brings his identikit into question. No one questions his unimpeachable integrity, or his commitment to the public interest – still less his intellectual reach.
No. They question his consistency and whether he enjoys the support of the party grassroots. He is associated with the tactics, the rigidities and the policies of the Dom Mintoff days.
Things have changed since Mr Mintoff ruled the roost. At that time, there was one guiding hand in overall charge. Mr Mintoff took the ultimate decisions, and saw to it that they were implemented. The occasions when his senior colleagues or the party machine were publicly perceived to have exercised a measure of restraint were few and far between,
It is true that, remnants of the Mintoff legacy, in the form of social services and family jewels, continue to be embalmed in the MLP sarcophagus. But it is equally true that the leadership succession fell long ago, under the influence and control of a generation of Young Turks. Alfred Sant gave the party a new face, a new headquarters, and a new structure with its own independent media.
Ultimate imprint
Although Alfred Sant has been in the cockpit of MLP decision-making, party policy has the sanction and the imprint of the party general conference, where ultimate authority resides.
Conference debates are, traditionally, colourful as well as vigorous, This is, no doubt, partly because of a tradition of radical dissent, and of opposition to established authority in colonial times which still permeates the thinking of militant delegates.
Human nature being what it is, disgruntled dissidents with a chip on their shoulder come out of the shadows every so often to fan the embers of dissent.
In present day circumstances, internal party friction may be of comfort to “the enemy”. It may present opportunities to spin-doctors and columnists.
It will not swing the pendulum.
The pendulum swings under the weight of citizens who shift their position: either because they do not like what they see, or because they cannot endure what they experience. The pendulum swings if the electorate feels betrayed, let down or done in.
It swings if and when the electorate decides, actively and consciously, to exercise its sovereignty.
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