When he was elected Malta Labour Party leader, Joseph Muscat promised a new political season and said that that there will be an earthquake within the party administration that would put the MLP in a better position to win the next election, some time in 2013.

Today, 100 days after his election, it can be said that Dr Muscat has made an impact on the two fronts – both in the way the MLP is putting forward its politics as well as the internal changes that he has planned for the party structure to function better.

On the political front, he has made several attempts to raise public awareness or create a debate on issues that had either been forgotten or else were ideas that had been thrown in the public arena before but with little success.

For example, he brought the issue of divorce in the forefront when, in an interview with The Malta Independent soon after taking office, he said that he would give Labour MPs a free vote when the subject is brought in Parliament and a vote is taken. He also took the cue from statements made previously by Alternattiva Demokratika – but which had never been taken up by the public – that 16-year-olds should be given the right to vote in local council elections.

The way the MLP is reacting to important issues, such as the one concerning the privatisation of Malta Shipyards, is also positively different from the confrontational attitude that was sometimes taken in the past.

Within the party, he has set up a commission to come up with a plan for better use of the party media, and has appointed a chief executive officer who will not have a political role but will oversee the party functions from a technical point of view.

Other committees and commissions have been set up within the party to ensure that the MLP brings itself in line with contemporary management systems that give it a more solid basis to work from. The revision of the party statute that is being planned in also intended to lift the party into a more modern way of reaching out to the people.

One might agree or disagree with his ideas, but it is good to have a party leader – soon to be Opposition Leader too – who is pro-active. The role of a party in opposition is not only to monitor

government activities and criticise, but also to stir debate on matters of public interest.

When he was elected, many were skeptical about Dr Muscat’s ability to run a huge organisation with so little experience, doubting whether a 34-year-old politician who had never worked within the MLP structure and has never been in Parliament could control its reins effectively.

But in these first 100 days Dr Muscat has shown that he has the skills that are needed to bring the diverging factions of the party nearer to each other, as well as implement initiatives aimed to take the party to new highs in terms of organisation and public perception.

He has also managed to steer the party into a different attitude – one that is not afraid to say well done to the government when it feels it has done the right thing, gaining in its credibility when it then chooses to criticise.

Of course, the biggest challenges are still to come, but Dr Muscat’s “honeymoon” as party leader has clearly taken him close to the party faithful, and has opened new avenues with those who consider themselves as neutral voters.