The purpose of what the Labour Party is proposing as its platform for the coming general election has now been made clear. In his discourse of last Sunday, Dr Joseph Muscat made one point above all else, that we need to look to the future without any Party constraints; without any clique constraints. The Labour Party will have at its core the value of meritocracy. Anything less is unacceptable.

Why is this important?

Our country, under its present administration, has been divided into the red and the blue. Any such divisions are odious and serve only to foment a certain kind of hatred which is at the service of the few. What use is it to our country’s economy if half the population is disregarded, if half the merits of the population remained unused? We talk about meritocracy without, sometimes, looking into the demerits of Government without meritocracy. Meritocracy has been put simply as “a system of government or other administration… wherein appointments and responsibilities are objectively assigned to individuals based upon their ‘merits’, namely intelligence, credentials and education, determined through evaluations or examinations” (Wikipedia).

So what is advocated by meritocracy is the choice of the best people for the job at hand. Although the above definition refers to systems of government, its scope is far wider. It must include our leaders in education, in justice, in ethics, in economical matters, in sustainable development, in renewable energy, in sporting excellence, in financial institutions, in shipping, in education and many others. Meritocracy cannot be seen only as the ideal to which a government must strive, but must lie as a core value of our day-to-day decision-making process.

The lack of meritocracy leads to situations of injustice and inefficiency. When an incompetent individual is placed in a position of trust not on merit but because he forms part of a clique, the knock-on effect is, quite naturally, incompetent decisions. This will result in ineffective administration and inconsistent results. Beyond the basic injustice of choice not based on merit, there is the attendant fear of wrong decision-making. The end – incorrect – result might be due to, on the one side, incompetent decision-making or, on the other hand, couldn’t care less decision-making. Both are wrong and both are avoidable with meritocracy.

The Congress

Was not the Labour Party Congress held last week a breath of fresh air? From the perspective of the man in the street, at last we have a political movement making it clear that every individual has the right to make his voice heard. That he has every right to put forward ideas for a future generation. That it is useless to keep harping back to the possible negatives of the past. Our economy needs this fresh approach. It needs new ideas put forward by new people and by people who are not party people: technocrats and other people “in the know” and not just giving vent to their frustrations but proposing solutions. This was the intention of the Congress, and it was an unqualified success. Well done to the attendees – their ideas were all welcome.

This is what the ideals of the Progressive Movement have come to mean to the Labour Party. This is why these ideals have come to form the basis of the road map indicated by Joseph Muscat: an interweaving of ideals and policies with only one goal – improving our country to the extent required to make it the best in Europe in all respects. There can be no higher goal, and in order to reach it there can be no restrictive party or financial shackles. The time for cliques is over.

Compare and contrast.

The PN’s 21 September celebrations this year were characterised by something different: constant direct and indirect criticism of Dr Joseph Muscat; repeated references to economic policies of over 30 years ago; ad nauseum references to what happened in our country a quarter of a century ago. The PN still lives in the past and still embraces the confrontational way of doing politics. The PN celebrations were an exercise in negativism. The PN has not moved on.

The Labour Party’s congress was an exercise in positivism. The Labour Party wants a society governed by people selected according to merit. This is the only way forward for Malta.

I reiterate – compare and contrast!

Simon Micallef Stafrace is a 1st and 8th District Labour Party candidate