Labour leader Joseph Muscat has gone on record saying that mediocrity is prevailing in the country. It is sad that the Opposition Leader, who when elected to his current post promised an earthquake of change, has now fallen in the trap his predecessor had fallen into – and that is denigrating Malta and the Maltese.

When Dr Muscat became leader in June 2008, Labour seemed to be on its way to start a new chapter. After having lost so many elections, and largely because of its leader and the positions he took, it was thought that Labour would have changed the way it perceived the nation.

But after a good start, Dr Muscat is turning out to be too similar to Alfred Sant.

Labour’s main fault in the past 20-25 years has been that of not having any confidence in the Maltese people, and of having taken positions which were opposite to what the people wanted.

It was against Malta’s membership of the European Union, believing that this small country would have been swallowed up by continental Europe and that our voice would have been lost. Things have turned out quite differently.

It was also against the introduction of the euro as our currency, saying that more time was needed and that the economy should be stronger before Malta made such a move. Once again, things have turned out quite differently and, with the benefit of hindsight, the change from the lira to the euro has been even more beneficial than previously thought, considering the international crisis that ensued.

These are only the two major issues on which the Labour Party took a stand which went against the interests of the nation. There were others which exposed a party that had little belief in the capabilities of the Maltese.

And now we have it again from the new, young, self-declared progressive party leader. Dr Muscat may have good intentions, but he is coming across as a leader who has no faith in the country that he would like to lead in the years to come.

Admittedly, the country could do better. The government needs to be spurred into working harder and more efficiently. There are sectors which need seeing to urgently. But there is a sharp difference between this and the “mediocrity” that Dr Muscat chose to refer to.

Is it mediocrity that there are thousands of students at the University and MCAST, studying a wide array of subjects that were only in the dreams of the pre-1987 students? Is it mediocrity that in spite of the recession, the number of jobs that were lost in Malta was limited and most of these workers found alternative employment? Again, these are just two things that the Labour Party cannot describe as being mediocre.

One of the most important things that people studying to become teachers learn is to never call their students “stupid” or describe them as “mediocre”. This is because each and every one of them has some kind of talent that should be supported and developed. Calling someone mediocre or stupid shows a lack of confidence in that person’s ability to succeed.

And yet this is what the Opposition Leader is doing – to the country and to each and every Maltese.

It’s the wrong approach. It is understood that the opposition’s duty is to criticise, and it does well to keep the government on the alert. But an Opposition Leader should never resort to calling a country and its people – the same country and people that he would like to govern and lead – as being mediocre.