Nationalist Party MP Francis Zammit Dimech denies that the party is simply lifting ideas from the Labour Party as it seeks to reform itself, a criticism repeatedly made by Labour Party officials.

Dr Zammit Dimech had chaired the party commission responsible for revising the party’s statute, a statute that was approved in a PN General Council last month.

This revision, however, got a cynical reaction from the Labour Party at its general conference the following week, with a number of speakers – including deputy leader Toni Abela – accusing it of copying and pasting the statute Labour had approved a few years ago.

Similar claims were made last year, when the party announced that it would have two deputy leaders instead of one – a system that has long been in place within the Labour Party.

However, Dr Zammit Dimech laughs off such claims when asked to comment: he acknowledged that the party did look into what Labour was doing, but it examined the structures of other parties in Europe as well.

“Parties evolve, and when we carried out a change of the party’s statute we had a look at the statutes of other parties. We have no problem in admitting that we had a look at the Labour Party statute, just as we looked at the statutes of other parties in Europe, in particular those of parties within the European People’s Party,” he notes.

The MP maintains that he has been informed that now the PN’s new statute is out, Labour is itself interested in emulating certain ideas it had not yet considered, such as ensuring that an equal number of men and women are represented in its executive council through separate voting lists. He adds that he would have no problem if the Labour Party adopts such an idea.

“What is ultimately more important than the statute is how the parties function, and how they deliver,” he insists.

“I think that within the PN, we have reason to be proud of what we have achieved when we were in office. For the country’s sake, I look forward to when the PL can say the same, but I do not think they can do that so far.”

Dr Zammit Dimech also points out that ahead of the last general election, it was the Labour Party which sought to present itself as “PN version 2.0,” a factor which, he maintains, also contributed to the PN’s defeat.

From one extreme to the other

Asked about what went wrong in the run-up to the party’s heavy loss in the last general election, Dr Zammit Dimech cites two main reasons, including what he describes as the “time factor”: many concluded that after 25 years of a nearly-uninterrupted run of PN governments, it was time for a change.

The other reason, he maintains, was that the party was focused on ensuring that the economy kept moving forward through turbulent times, possibly at the expense of losing touch with people’s personal grievances and of neglecting its own problems.

The party was plagued by infighting during its last term in government, although Dr Zammit Dimech insists that most of this was related to “difficult personalities”. But he sees the silver lining in the situation the party found itself in.

“At the end of the day it indicates that we were totally focused on getting results for the country at the level where we felt duty-bound to produce results. It was an extreme situation,” he maintains.

On the other hand, he insists, the country now faces another extreme.

“We are now seeing a Labour Party that is certainly not neglecting itself, and certainly giving a lot of attention to personal requests. But at the same time, it is not getting the big picture right,” Dr Zammit Dimech observes.

Faced with surveys – including one carried out by The Malta Independent last week – suggesting that people are more likely to rate the government’s first year positively, the MP maintains that it is far too early, and adds that people normally defend the choice they have made. But he insists that there are a number of worrying indicators which should be taken into account nevertheless.

“I do not expect people to be critical of their own choice so early and I myself will never be critical of the people and of the choice they make, because that is what democracy is all about,” he notes.

He states that people who voted for the Labour Party did so in the expectation that it would be superior to the previous government, comparing the situation to the purchase of a product.

“If the product does not work, it is not your fault for making the choice on the basis of the information available, but is probably the fault of the manufacturer… or perhaps of the salesman.”

An interview focusing on Dr Zammit Dimech’s decision to run for the European Parliament will be published in tomorrow’s edition of The Malta Independent