The Labour Party now has a new leadership with a very challenging task ahead of it. There are three priorities, which any new leadership of a political party that has just lost an election, needs to address in earnest.

No doubt, the first task to be undertaken by the new leadership is to start a programme of change that will eventually see the Labour Party modernise its internal structures, its communications strategy, and the content of its political message. It is natural that many party members, and even elected deputies, have in the last few weeks vented their frustration at not seeing the party victorious in the last election.

Some degree of recrimination and finger pointing was inevitable, but the time will soon come for all of us within the party to direct our energy to positive action to reform the party. In a political democracy everyone has the right to express an opinion on how one’s political adversaries should reform themselves.

Quite honestly our political adversaries have exercised this right to their heart’s content. But ultimately it is the Labour Party membership that should accept the appeal of the new leadership to discuss and plan the way ahead. I am convinced that this will be done in an open and participative way.

A second priority for the Labour Opposition is to constantly scrutinise the government’s operations. We have already seen how hollow some of the promises made by the Nationalist Party a few weeks ago have proven to be. The elimination of subsidies on bread, the scrapping of the shared ownership scheme for first time buyers, and the Prime Minister’s confirmation that the Income Tax reforms are being postponed indefinitely are just a few examples.

The Labour Party will be a loyal Opposition. By that we mean primarily being “loyal to the people” and not to those who may attempt to mismanage the country for their benefit. This is why it is important that all Labour MPs unite behind the new leadership to ensure that we continue to be an effective Opposition. Our frustration at recent election failures is no excuse to weaken the party leadership in this critical time when so many thousands of Maltese families are looking to us for support and direction.

This brings me to the final, and perhaps most important, task for the new party leadership. Our new leaders need to lead the party from the front. We have to avoid political inertia and, however dejected some of us may feel, we must show true leadership qualities by keeping in touch with the electorate, understanding their concerns and relaying their voice in every forum which democracy provides us with.

We are in politics primarily to make a difference for the better in people’s lives. We have a grave responsibility that befalls any leader: to sacrifice our own interests to ensure that the interests of those who asked us to represent them are put first in the political agenda of the country.

In a few weeks’ time we in the Labour team will have to put behind us the bickering, which was understandable in the first few weeks after a major election defeat. We must unite behind the new leadership to ensure that people who are not happy with the way their lives are being affected by the present governance of the country will be given an alternative solution in the next election. We must commit ourselves to stand four-square behind our new leaders because a disciplined political party is a winning party. There will of course continue to be differences of opinion on how we should proceed on any particular issue. But in the end we will want our leaders to lead from the front knowing that all of us in the party are backing them to the hilt to offer viable alternatives to improve the lives of our people.

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