It was almost with a sense of guilt that I had to absent myself from the keynote speech of the MLP leader last Sunday as well as from Friday’s MLP AGM sitting, but as parliamentarians we had been committed for months to accept the invitation extended to us as Foreign and European Affairs Committee to be the guests of the Saudi Arabian and Kuwaiti parliaments, where intensive ministerial, parliamentary and commercial meetings have been lined up.

I felt sorry missing out this particular AGM as this could easily prove to be the last party AGM before the next general elections are called.

Nevertheless I am instilled with a sense of confidence that we are on the right track, having over the past months lived through the intensive consultation process that paved the way for the formulation of Labour’s key policy documents.

This is a process alien to the Nationalist Party, particularly since the last election was fought and won strictly on the EU issue with the Nationalists hardly bothering to put together a serious and well thought out electoral manifesto.

The same had applied to the 1998 elections which came about so suddenly and so abruptly that only months before former PN leader Eddie Fenech Adami had been seriously thinking of quitting his position at the helm of the party, while the party itself hardly had enough time to reorganise itself or inject any new blood into its team. Particularly in its front bench.

I have been involved in various consultation processes within the MLP ranks but never have I experienced so many wide ranging meetings where the MLP used these meetings as a sounding board, before putting together a series of draft documents that were eventually discussed at parliamentary group and national executive level.

All those who occasionally bring up the excuse that they do not know what Labour’s future policies are, are as politically dishonest as those who claim that they do not know what today’s Labour Party stands for.

Mere perusal of the MLP website shows that all draft policy documents have been available in PDF format from day one of their public launch.

Obviously it is now up to the party to distill such documents, and come up with a user friendly and easily digestible electoral manifesto in point form, that will show the way forward to one and all. To rank and file Labourites, to disillusioned Nationalists and floating voters and yes, even to diehard Nationalists too.

It has become pathetic that every time the Labour Party organises its annual general meeting certain independent media gang together to launch full frontal tirades against the MLP leader and its key officials.

This has become part of the psychological warfare geared at demoralising Labour delegates at a point in time when they should be rallying behind their leadership to map the way forward.

Last week an editorialist argued that Alfred Sant’s Labour Party is not the first or indeed the last party in opposition to promise a new beginning.

What the editorialist does not seem to have realised is that this has become the rallying call of most families we visit in the privacy of their homes.

Only last week I was welcomed by a Nationalist family in Ta’ Xbiex who traditionally vote Nationalist and who had supported Malta’s EU membership bid. They made it very clear to me that given that they were fed up with more than 20 years of a Nationalist administration and given Labour’s serious commitment to maximise the benefits for the island within EU structures, they were determined to vote Labour as they felt that we could come up with fresher and far more imaginative ideas than the present administration which has long gone by its sell by date.

Certain anti-Labour strategists are intensifying their campaigning because they are conscious enough to realise that at this delicate juncture it is important for them to give the impression that the MLP lacks a strong direction as well as the ability to formulate coherent policies, in order to cast serious doubts as to its ability to take charge of the country’s administration in the near future.

This short-sighted strategy betrays one major flaw.

Rather than trying to encourage the electorate to vote PN on the merits of Nationalist administrations including the present one, these strategists are merely conducting a smear campaign geared at scaring potential voters away from Labour’s ranks.

Luckily for us, the Ta’ Xbiex case I mentioned is not an isolated one.

This does not mean that we can afford to be complacent or over-confident.

I am quite sure that Lawrence Gonzi, with his neck on the line after a succession of local government and European Parliament election defeats, will be relying on every trick in the book to cling on to power. But circles close to the Nationalist Party are quick to reveal that plotting is already afoot to formulate options for a Nationalist post-defeat scenario.

While some argue that Dr Gonzi might hang on as leader depending on the extent of the defeat at the polls at the general election, another go for the leadership by John Dalli is still considered very likely, while other factions tend to be backing Austin Gatt who has succeeded more in terms of deliverables than his cabinet colleagues. Nationalist “Young Turks” are even setting their eyes on Tonio Fenech if they choose to go for relatively new blood at the helm of the party.

These things might not be speculated upon in pro-Nationalist newspapers, but when meeting Nationalist activists in social circles one realises that they have already become the talk of the town.

The Nationalists are fearing a Labour victory because it risks exposing serious malpractices and cases of maladministration.

They are equally concerned that Alfred Sant has a spotless record when it comes to political cleanliness and integrity while others fear that if he does indeed manage to inject a dynamic realism into the running of the country then that could set the Nationalist Party back more than a couple of years.

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Leo Brincat is the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and IT