Have you read this?
The leading article (editorial) in The Times yesterday:
LABOUR PARTY KEEPS SHOOTING ITSELF IN THE FOOT
An interview in the Labour Party’s newspaper with the man charged with drawing up the party’s electoral programme, Karmenu Vella, does not give one single clue as to how the party plans to tackle the island’s problems differently from the way the Nationalist Party is doing now.
Labour constantly accuses the government of being incompetent and that much of the island’s economic ills are due to its bad planning or to the wrong way it is tackling problems. But it has distinctly failed to show its competence by presenting its own workable alternatives.
There is something politically unreal in the way Labour is acting. It wants to get to power on its terms and conditions.
One such condition is that it chooses to hold on to its plans on how to govern to the very last minute of the election, that is, when the time comes for the party to publish its electoral programme.
So, do not ask Labour how it is going to address the people’s number-one complaint, that over the water and electricity rates; it will only tell you when it is ready with the answer. Do not ask how it plans to bring down the island’s national debt; that will be explained in its electoral programme.
In which democratic country is a political party aspiring to get to office allowed to get away with such a stand? True, all parties draw up political programmes at election time but they all explain their stands on particular issues over the time of a legislature and they all say how they will handle this or that better than their opponents if they were in power.
But not the Labour Party, whose policy in this regard has now become a joke.
In his interview with the party’s newspaper, Mr Vella was asked to comment on the Nationalist government’s criticism that Labour had no policies.
Mr Vella replied that the criticism made no sense because he knew of no political party that contested an election without having a plan. That may very well be the case but that is not what the people are expecting of the party.
They want it to act as a serious opposition party and meaningfully take part in the country’s political life by arguing situations and suggesting how problems can be handled better than they are at present.
It is through such work that the party can gain credibility. It is on the basis of its performance in and out of Parliament, on the strength of its arguments and preparedness, that the voters would be able to assess the men and women who expect to take over the country’s helm from the Nationalists.
The Labour Party is shooting itself in the foot because wise voters are unlikely to judge the ability of a political party to govern simply on the strength of a programme published just weeks ahead of an election.
Rather than taking the opportunity in the time left to the election to persuade voters that Labour is the right party to govern, it prefers to spend the time superficially criticising the government. What it should do instead is coming out with serious alternatives, based on studies and field work, rather than wasting time grandstanding.
Were it to do this, it would set the country to really think about considering the Labour Party as a worthwhile contender to take over at Castille when the times come.
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Well autumn is usually hibernation time, but the Times’ editorial team is, lo behold, waking up.
The wheels at The Times, grind slowly – but they grind
It’s called the social contract. Evarist could buy Karmenu a copy.
“The Labour Party is shooting itself in the foot because wise voters are unlikely to judge the ability of a political party to govern simply on the strength of a programme published just weeks ahead of an election.”
Wise voters eh. Therein lies the problem.
The Times is finally calling a spade a spade. All well and good – but to be fair, anyone with half a brain could have written that piece.
People from media commentators to men chatting in the local kazin over a beer have been saying exactly the same thing for many months now.
Much more interesting was The Sunday Times editorial about Saviour Balzan and MaltaToday. It’s about time this stalwart of the Maltese press started properly fulfilling its raison d’être once again.
Yas I rad it. I also just rad this beneath the ‘ Eur8,000 a grave’ news item on timesofmalta.com
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Today, 11:36
8,000 for the grave and 2,000 for the burial = 10,000 Euros
for a dad body , we are coming more expensive dad then alive ?????
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This is grave news, really.
It makes life worth living.
Crematorium anyone?
Costs next to nothing, and you end up—nothing.
This gives me hope. Most probably PL’s policies are so effective that if they announce them now PN will hijack them and solve all the country’s problems … and consequently win the next election. Now can I pull the other one?
I do not minimally agree with the above article, if the PL were to show his plans before the election has been annonced two possible scenarios can occur:
Scenario 1: The plan would be so good that the PN will change a comma her and a fullstop there and adopt the plan themselves stating that they were already working on something similiar if not accusing the PL of copying them.
Scenario 2:` Should the plan God forbid have some minor flaws or it does’nt follow the PN clikka trend then all hell will break loose and the PN together with its media will tear it apart even though maybe it would benefit the country.
I know that a lot will come out guns blazing including dear Daphne but hey I am writing in a (kwazi official) PN supporting blog so its to be expected. Also I am aware that deep down inside a lot of you know I am right and its the Truth (maybe not you Daphne, I am afraid you are to far gone to be recovered).
Here are the reasons why MLP is not telling us what are their plans once in government-
Pull Malta out of the EU after they wreck the economy and change public opinion.
Engineer a plan to take over the dockyard again.
Eliminate the stipends and cut the University and Mcast budgets in half.
Substitute our liberalized economy to centralized economy.
Impose extra luxury tax on computers clamming too much money is leaving the island.
Stop smartcity in its track, claiming that the ordinary Maltese person will not benefit..
The Valletta city project will be immediately stopped and Renzo Piano is send packing home.
MLP can’t govern under modern Malta as it is too complex for them.
PN governments turned Malta upside down and now they are unable to control it so their plan is the revert to the old 1970s ways.
Take over Mepa, repeal all its autonomy to revert to ministerial discretion to permits, zoning and decisions.
Given the legislative nature of the authority’s current remit, the justice ministry should do fine.
Dissolve the Constitutional Court. Who needs human rights under Labour?
And mandate big sideburns on all the adult men plus make the wearing of polyester shirts and plaid bell bottom trousers with big belt buckles on said men the law of the land.
You forgot the tight white trousers
I read somewhere that rather than an electoral manifesto Labour will present a roadmap in 2013.
Something like this.
http://www.mazes.org.uk/impossible-maze-01.htm
”Il-Partit Laburista mhux se jwieghed kollox lil kulhadd. Se jkun qieghed jaghmel roadmap b’dak li jista’ jsir u dak li ma jistax isir fil-manifest elettorali tieghu” – Dr. Joseph Muscat.
Joseph, how about just putting up a sign saying ‘I’m lost’?
I have a hunch.
Joseph Muscat honestly thinks that the incumbents are handling matters as best they can be handled.
He genuinely believes that if Labour wins the next elections, Labour (assuming equal competence) will handle matters in the very same manner, or with only cosmetic changes.
But he can’t really say that, can he. “We’ll do things the same way, but differently”
Joey is incapable of thinking, full stop.
If he was, he would not rope in tainted and discredited labourite dinosaurs, nearing seventy, to help him formulate his thoughts and plans.
He would have consigned these mummies to his skips together with Cyrus, Jeffrey e bella compania.
His reliance on these jerks betrays his utter incompetence.
I say he’s the new kid on the block but the old padrinos are still alive and kicking and wielding a lot of influence.
He is politically immature and the responsibility of running a country is probably all a bit too much. I bet that behind that (over) confident facade he is petrified of the thought.
He would have no idea where to start from. After all where’s his track record as a politician? Nowhere.
Hence he must rely on those who do have the experience. Good or bad. And they are in a position to manipulate.
Since he has no idea, this fits in perfectly with my previous contribution wherein he probably believes that the current govt is doing a good enough job and he would not want to, or know how to, do things any differently. Quite frankly he can only assume that this govt is doing a good enough job. How can he tell, if he knows no better?
That is why Labour has not told us of its policies.
Joseph is at a restaurant where the food is great, and despite not being a chef, he is expected to explain to us in detail how particular dishes can be improved upon.
No can do.
In fact, he is only complaining about the bill.
Of course Karmenu Vella will not volunteer any information about Labour’s magic wand. What if the nasty Nationalists ‘steal’ an idea or two?
The real reason is that Karmenu knows nothing better than the methods used in the 70s and 80s which anyone with a sane mind will immediately reject.
Labour’s policy was always, and will always be the absolute control of the economy, the refusal to move ahead with the times and the complete absence of confidence in the Maltese worker.
If Karmenu Vella had to reveal how they plan to govern, the plan will have so many gaping holes, one could drive a fleet of trucks through them. Labour has yet to present one single set of plans, properly costed out and balanced with the planned revenue and from where it plans to derive the required revenue.
Presenting plans now, would give the Nationalists and independent accountants to tear them to shreds, and the LP wouldn’t like that. Would they?
But the nagging question remains; who is really in charge at the Mile End?
In a normal democracy, there would be symmetry in credibility between choices for government. Unfortunately for the ability of voters to hold both of the political parties in Malta accountable, there is and has been gross asymmetry between them.
At least, in this leader, the Times is calling a spade a spade regarding the Labour Party (PL). This is not to say that we also don’t want an accountable PN. It is just that sometimes rational choice leaves no options. But voting is not always rational.
And it seems the PL are banking on an emotion based vote — certainly from their core voter, but can they count on everyone (or anyone; although they seems to want to be all things to all men in their courting behavior for the vote) else in significant numbers?
It depends how much Maltese voters want, or are willing, to gamble with their futures and the futures of a generation. God deliver us from non-rational voters. Amen.
On a tangent….
http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16091543
http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16091304
Two news items thousands of miles apart, one depicting hope and the other deep reflection.
Allow me to share what I think is related to this deafening silence of the PL about their plans.
Last Sunday I had an interesting conversation with a PL activist, an individual who after tapping a niche market has made some good money and amongst other owns a block of three flats with the top two reserved for his two teenage daughters, a small summer residence, a smallish cabin cruiser and three cars, one of which is an old car which he inherited. Really nothing extraordinary – probably accessible to any hard working and financially disciplined person.
I was telling him that future governments would need to consider the introduction of wealth tax, if education and health were to remain free. To cut a long story short he told me that he agreed because after all, it was in line with all left inclined governments across the globe from Obama to Zappatero.
For a while I let him sing the praises of such a measure which he believes the PL will put on its electoral program going as far as tying it in with the financing of the living wage. Then I drew his attention that he would probably be one of those affected by such a wealth tax.
It was as if I dropped an nuclear bomb on his head and he felt hopelessly cornered trying to come out of it by insisting that such a tax would only affect the upper classes, by which he meant the very rich capitalists.
How is this related to the PL silence. I really believe that PL are actively considering such a measure (for ideological reasons) but are fully aware of the negative effect it would have at the polls, at least on those discerning electors.
Why does the MLP get away with it? Easy, The Times should know the answer since it is not doing much by way of inquisition.
I consider this article to be an aberration and, unless it is substantially and consistently followed up similarly in the comming weeks and months will go nowhere to convince me.
Labour is not shooting itself in the foot. Malta is being shot in the head by the inertia of journalists to query the opposition.
hey Daphne im a teen Maltese artist/student im a 5th former student studying for my o levels, apart from that im also trying to make a name for myself in the local music industry,would you kindly check me out on http://www.youtube.com/stefangaleaofficial or http://www.stefan-music.com, I heard you promoted a local artist onceon your site :)
thanks,
Hi Stefan. I’m in charge of Daphne’s music promotion department. We’re currently working to send Clinton Paul to Eurovision. Your style is different, and I see a strong potential to hit the teeny-bopper market. Shades of Justin Bieber.
My suggestion to you would be to think hard, over the next twelve months or so, on developing a freestyle comeback. I was impressed by that running man around 2:40 in your “Fittest Girl in History” (who I presume is the filly at 3:50, though we only see her silhouette).
See
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20111019/local/joseph-muscat-complains-of-hacking-demands-investigation.389857
I wonder when they will start selling PL-branded tin foil hats.
“LABOUR PARTY KEEPS SHOOTING ITSELF IN THE FOOT”
I can’t get over how their minds work. And it’s not just the PL but its supporters too.
They don’t go by facts at all. But they don’t just lie either. What they do is tie themselves up in “If”s.
When the hacking scandal broke out in the UK it wasn’t because private information ended up in the press, therefore there must be hacking going on. It broke out because there was proof of the hacking taking place, and so it was investigated.
There is no proof that Dr Muscat’s emails were hacked.
Say this to a PL supporter and they will say: “True but e mails from Dr Muscat to a journalist ended up in the hands of the PN media. ”
And then they start:
“If the PN are responsible for this then it is the lowest they have ever reached and are a threat to democracy”
That magic “If” sends the rest of them on a fantasy journey in a world where that ‘if’ is true.
“They are disgraceful. They are dictators.”
But it doesn’t stop there.
“If they are doing that to a journalist, what else are they doing to private citizens?”
Another “if” falls into the equation and off they go talking about how oppressed they now feel and how disgraceful the PN is and how scared they feel, and all the while I’m sitting there thinking “You’ve made the whole scenario up yourselves, you buffoons.”
In the end they’ve thrown so many ‘ifs’ into the conversation that no one knows what is real and what is not, so they decide they might as well take everything as fact to avoid going back on the conversation and realizing they’ve just imagined everything – because that would be too much of an effort anyway.
Daphne, they do this to you too.
“If she were an independent writer then she can and should write what she likes – BUT IF she is employed/paid by the PN then she should be stopped”.
And once again that “if” sends them into a frenzy and they go on and on about how terrible it is that this is a possibility and after a few more status updates they have forgotten how they got to their conclusions in the first place.
Then, eager to be the ones who have come to the most horrific conclusions, they race through all the bogus political talk and come up with some other allegation, and then others build on it, and it snowballs and all they end up with is a headache and a self-induced bad mood.
And what is worse is that the PL helps them do this by throwing around empty accusations to support their fantasy scenario, designed to make the PL look like the saviours in waiting.
The Labour Party finds it difficult to look back at the reasons why it has lost so many elections recently and learn from their mistakes.
They continue to blame power of incumbency, stolen votes and myriad other things except the truth which is that at the end of the day the party has no real policies or the ones they present are either no good or badly presented.
In the last election for example they had been saying they were a government in waiting from the day after the previous election and yet when the election date was announced they still had no electoral manifesto ready.
They put one together with haste.
Because they failed to mature their ideas and proposals through proper consultation processes the manifesto was full of mistakes and half-baked ideas. Remember the leader of the Opposition blaming the computer?
They were so unprepared that for example on the issue of the introduction of a reception year they were unable to communicate what this was and how it would be implemented.
The government minister responsible for eduction quickly renamed it the repeater year and it took the Labour Party the whole election campaign to explain and try and convince the electorate that this was the way to go.
If the proposals that the LP has are not going to be put forward and discussed then there is a very good chance that the same will happen at the next election.
The Times is slowly getting its mojo back.
Very heartening to read!
There is a common misconception that those who put pressure on the PL to put forward concrete proposals are referring to the electoral programme. This is not so because, after all, the PN itself has not published its manifesto.
The proposals that people (and not just the PN) expect from the PL relate to issues which have to be faced right now and not post-2013.
How come, for example, that Joseph Muscat did not pronounce himself on the hospitalisation of injured Libyans? Is he in agreement with the MUMN or does he think that we should accept the war casualties whatever the union says?
Antoine, while I understand your point, this is exactly why Labour will present a road map, and not a programme, in 2013.
Each road will have multiple lanes. Each lane will have different rules, depending on the interest group that voted for the party. One can be “agree with the MUMN” and the other “accept the war casualties whatever the union says.” You can imagine the chaos and the road rage.
“Se jkun qieghed jaghmel roadmap b’dak li jista’ jsir u dak li ma jistax isir fil-manifest elettorali tieghu”
Did I read that correctly? Are they drafting an electoral programme that says what they’re NOT going to do? They’re the reason they can’t do anything right.
Why is this surprising?
I well recall how the concept of “partnership” was shrouded in mystery for months, and never fully explained…