Five years ago I was invited by the US Embassy in Malta to join what is called the International Visitors Programme sponsored by the Department of State. I was one of a number of journalists from European, Latin America, Asia and African countries who had to see how journalism, mainly investigative and political, works in the US.
This experience taught me a lot of things but two very simple facts really impressed me.
First was the fact that on some occasions when English speaking Americans sneeze, instead of our usual “Bless you” they got a “Gesundheit”. Americans use a German word to say “Bless You”? Yes they do.
The second fact came during a meeting with a political advisor to an important US Congressman. He declared that the first lesson he teaches his political clients is a philosophical thought originated by China’s Communist leader Mao Tse Tung.
“Understanding defeat today is preparing for victory tomorrow”.
A year ago the Labour Party lost a very tight general election, and the Nationalist Party managed to clinch another mandate to govern. While the Nationalists hailed Lawrence Gonzi as a great leader, Labour immediately started a process to review its whole structure. A report was commissioned to identify the mistakes committed during the run-up for the elections. Following that, the new party leader was elected and so were his deputies. This was followed by other internal administration change and importance was given key elements in politics.
Communications. Labour’s new leader, Joseph Muscat turned out to be a “great communicator”. His way of putting things while speaking in public, in Parliament, on TV programmes and in his articles, helped him get across to reach everyone, from intellectuals to the common people. From this point of view, it was and still is very evident that Labour is getting its messages through to the voters. Labour’s message is being received very loud and very clear.
Credibility. Worst thing for a politician is being labelled as “not credible”. And here we had a very clear-cut situation. Labour leader Joseph Muscat ranks way ahead of Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi on the “credibility barometer”. Public opinion surveys have showed this fact very clearly on various occasions. Lawrence Gonzi himself had to admit that he feels he is not being trusted anymore by various sectors.
Keeping in touch. During the past year, the Labour Party under Joseph Muscat showed that they are very well in touch with what the public is talking about. This helped the party to talk on important local issue and to set the political agenda. The Nationalist Party was all the time on the defensive role, and they resulted to be very bad defenders.
Debating the Labour Party’s motion to put back water and electricity tariffs to what they where pre October 2008, Lawrence Gonzi stated that he is going to vote very willingly against this motion. He declared this when thousands of families where saying that they cannot cope with the situation. Today more than 9000 families had their electricity and water supplies interrupted due to pending bills.
The cost of living kept going up and up and up. Gonzi denied that families were struggling to make ends meet and that what really troubled the public was the picture of the newly appointed President of the Republic.
He has been playing with employment figures, stating he created 7,000 new jobs and out came his minister responsible for the employment stating that the real figure is something round 2,000. Those with a part-time as a primary job topped the 27,000 mark, workers are facing difficult working conditions to save their jobs and still Gonzi was stating that he is doing great in the employment sector.
After a year since the promised Mepa reform by Gonzi himself, nothing has been done and while trying to portray himself as an environmental champion, the power station saga came along.
To top this we got the health care bombshell. Labour leader Joseph Muscat, got hold of an internal and confidential government document indicating how Gonzi’s government is planning to scrap the free health care system that we used to be proud of. Gonzi’s defence was a simple denial but the released document said it all.
Well, now we have a very clear picture about what the electorate thinks of GonziPN and his Flimkien kollox possibbli a year after, and what they think about the Labour Party today led by Joseph Muscat. It seems very clear that Labour learnt the lesson very well and is really heading full speed ahead in its direction to success.
Gino Cauchi is a Labour Member of Parliament