a party that will reflect the New EU Malta, that will respect pluralism and cosmopolitanism, a party that will make people from all social strata feel they are welcome within in – in other words a Liberal Labour!

The definitive majority of the electorate did not opt for a Nationalist administration and still they got one. This has created disappointment and disillusion with our political system. Malta must change its electoral laws and go for a three district system: Malta’s South - First; Malta’s North - Second; and Gozo - Third. That way the electorate will have a much better say as to whom it wants to be represented by and see to it that it will actually achieve that objective.

There are MPs who were should not have been elected to parliament; there are candidates who had to be MPs but are not. Elections should be held every four years. No person should occupy the post of Prime Minister for more than two terms. Had Labour coordinated their internal efforts more and cooperated much less with the party in power, we could have had an objective reform in our electoral laws. Instead the electorate obtained reforms intended solely to prevent third parties from being people’s representatives.

The people are annoyed because such amendments are not being made with the voters’ consent. Members of Parliament must remember all along that they are the representatives of the people and that they must do what the people desire.

Labour are in the mess they are in only through their own doing: the people wanted them in government but found no solace in their political strategies. Currently Labour is in complete disarray. Their loyal supporters are aware of that.

Labour’s new leader must be strong in every conceivable political sense. The rank and file must be listened to and must be allowed to voice their thoughts and opinions. The party must liberalise itself from insular political perceptions - we are in Europe to remain in Europe. It must restructure the party on European principles and concepts, giving basic rights to each and every citizen, giving up the myth that politics is run on the idiotic principle of giving and taking so that it will always be a win-win situation. The PN works like this, but the people want to feel at liberty to vote for whom they like and ultimately for whom they wish to lead and represent them.

Already the minority PN government is attempting to put pressure on the disjointed MLP parliamentary group on apparent matters of pairing and the Speaker carrot, but behind this there will be obviously other horse-trading negotiations. This nonsense will not do for the political sovereign: the government can either govern or not. . . if not, then the country goes back to the polls in Malta’s best interests.

The country expects a seriously-strong opposition not to listen to comments about equal partners as if we had a coalition government when indeed we don’t have and don’t want one in the current circumstances. The opposition, by whatever appellative called, should execute its main objective, namely to oppose constructively with suggestions, ideas and initiatives. It should not at any stage be the comforting nodding head of the government to assist the latter achieve what it wants irrespective of the explicit desires of the electorate.

Leader: Alpha Liberal Democratic Party

[email protected].