While the political engineers of the Nationalist Party are making their last desperate attempt to overhaul the old engine, which has propelled their party for the past 20 years, the Labour Party’s aircraft has been cleared for take-off. In the coming few months the electorate will have some stark decisions to make after comparing the suitability of both political parties to rule to country for the next five years.

So what are the choices facing the Maltese electorate? This time round there will be no strategic decisions to be taken on Malta’s membership in a political or economic body. Both parties agree that now that Malta is a member of the EU and has adopted the euro currency there is no looking back and we must make the best out of EU membership.

The question the electorate faces is: who is more qualified to fight for Malta’s interests in the EU and to bring about the benefits which were so openly promised five years ago, but which are still eluding us? The Labour Party has proven through its three Members of the European Parliament that it has the ability and willingness to fight for Malta’s interests in Brussels and obtain those benefits, which should be ours by right, if only we approach the EU bureaucracy well prepared with determination.

Another question the Maltese electorate will be asking itself relates to who is more determined and capable to reduce the burden of taxation and control the incessant increase in the cost of living. The taxpayers who have to struggle from day to day to make ends meet are financing the consequences of bad mismanagement decisions taken by this administration. A profligate government that has been plagued by corruption and incompetence is squandering their hard earned money.

The recent saga of the over-expenditure of the Mater Dei Hospital, the loss of the Maltacom plot of land in Qawra, the not so recent debacle of AzzurAir and the purchase of the Avro aircraft, the silly investment in the bankrupt port of Brindisi, and the extravagant expenditure to purchase Malta House in Brussels, are just a few examples of the incompetent way the PN has mismanaged the country in the past 20 years. Do these people deserve to be trusted again to manage the finances of this country?

Labour has committed itself to work for the good of all Maltese families by easing the tax burden. We made a concrete proposal, which will benefit all Maltese families, when we pledged to reduce the notorious water and electricity surcharge by 50 per cent. Our families deserve this support after years of being fleeced by a government who did not care much to deliver value for money to the families it was supposed to serve.

No doubt the PN spin doctors will switch on their scare machine to brainwash the electorate that, despite their party’s obvious obsolescence as a modernising political force, they remain the better option. They will tell you that Alfred Sant cannot be trusted and that Labour will be the government of just the Labourites, forgetting how they have continuously used political patronage in the last 20 years to hold on to power.

I have militated in the Labour Party for decades. My party and I are committed to serve in a government which will defend the interests of all Maltese people, be they Labour, Nationalist, or Alternattiva supporters, or simply apolitical. The tribal mentality, which the Nationalist Party has exploited to the full over the last 20 years, will be eradicated.

Those who have felt aggrieved by this government’s decisions, whatever their political inclinations, will be given an opportunity to prove their case and offered remedies if their allegations are proven. These cases will be fast tracked because justice delayed is justice denied.

Those who in the next few months qualify for employment with government and State owned organisations have no reason to doubt that a new Labour government will retain their services whether they are on probation or not.

We will be a government for all Maltese who have the good of their families and their country at heart. Our war will be against the corrupt and the parasites that have sucked the life out of the hard working Maltese families. We will offer no refuge to anyone, whatever his political belief, who has betrayed the trust of the people.

Yes, the Labour Party has been cleared for take-off and we will soon reach our destination.

Dr Mangion is deputy leader of the Opposition.