8th May 2008
The Malta Independent - Friday Wisdom
The Malta Independent - Friday Wisdom
Today
marks the 21st anniversary since
the PN gained government in 1987 following 16 years of Labour administration.
They have been in power ever since, bar a short 22- month interlude, and, all
things being equal, this unusual and unhealthy long tenure of power will grow to
26 years by the time the electorate is consulted again in 2013.
In delivering the result of the 2008 suffrage, the electorate gave Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi a clear message. He was elected Prime Minister without an overall majority and with a mere half-quota advantage over the opposition with a reason. The electorate wanted the PN in government not to get too comfortable with their long tenure and to treat the opposition with respect. They wanted the PN to remember that the majority of those who voted were not in favour of Gonzi becoming Prime Minister and that the renewed mandate, narrow as it may be, is only thanks to the unpopularity of Alfred Sant who forced the electorate again to vote Labour out of government rather than vote the PN back in government.
I am therefore surprised that less than two months after the election, Prime Minister Gonzi and his government seem to have forgotten the welcome sign of humility they showed in the first days and are treating the opposition with the conceit typical of governments beyond their second consecutive term.
Take the speech he delivered in a party conference organised to honour 1 May Worker’s Day celebration. The suggestion to start organising a bi-party conference to discuss the evolution of workers’ rights in a globalised world seems sensible enough and should be seriously considered by Labour. But passing disparaging remarks about Labour’s tradition of organising a May Day afternoon parade in Valletta was arrogant and conceited.
Firstly there is no reason why the proposed bi-party conference and the traditional May Day parade should be mutually exclusive. In fact they complement each other very well. In the proposed conference, Labour would be searching for a vision of its rightful place in a world which is becoming a global village, rendering labour unions and national governments less relevant than they used to be.
The May Day parade on the other hand, is a demonstration of pride for past achievements. Labour remembers the time, less than a zillion years ago, when voting was the privilege of the land-owning elite class, when women had no right to vote, when workers were not protected by any legislation regarding conditions of work and minimum wages and when social security was notable by its absence.
Even though experiencing two-and-half decades out of government, Labour has good reason to celebrate every first of May. At the very least, they celebrate the fact that they forced the PN, which was traditionally a party of the blue blood, to become a party of the mainstream and constrained to adopt left-of-centre policies in order to gain and retain government. Without such acute conversion and adoption of social democratic doctrine, the PN would not have endured in government as much as they did. Workers have ample reasons to celebrate the victory of their policies over those of traditional unbridled capitalism so dear to PN till 30 years ago.
Whatever the Prime Minister thinks, Labour should continue to celebrate the traditional May Day parade even if we all become millionaires. We should never forget where we came from, nor forget to pay homage to those that suffered on the road to getting here.
Equally smug is the government decision to appoint Louis Galea as Speaker of the House ad interim, but permanently if Labour don’t accept the two conditions the government made for giving Labour the facility to choose the Speaker.
The condition for such a facility to be linked to a pairing agreement is understandable. I am confident that with goodwill from both sides, a package could be put together which includes both the pairing agreement and Labour’s right to choose the Speaker of the House. What is offensive is the government’s insistence that Labour’s choice must be restricted among the crop of its MPs. If Labour were to agree to this condition, they would effectively be doubling the government’s majority in the House and in a sense, would be acting spiteful towards the electorate that wanted to give the PN the slimmest of majorities in the House.
But the significance of this condition for the Speaker to be chosen from among Labour MPs goes much further than that once Louis Galea, no longer an MP, has now been chosen by the government. What the Prime Minister is basically telling Labour is that he still considers Labourites as children of a lesser god and that in this country there are rules for the PN and different rules for Labour. So it is acceptable for the government to appoint a Speaker of its choice from outside the House but it is not acceptable for Labour to do the same if they are offered the right to select the Speaker.
This sets a very poor backdrop for negotiating a pairing arrangement once the new Labour leader is elected. Without such pairing arrangement, government’s parliamentary life will get so complicated that it could very well be forced to reduce the importance of parliamentary debates in the promulgation of legislation.
This does not augur well at all for democracy.
Add to this the haughtiness in keeping the electorate in the dark completely on the JPO affair and you have all the hallmarks of conceit and arrogance even before the legislature actually starts tomorrow.
And with the JPO affair I don’t mean the criminal or police investigations. I mean the clear breach of governance in having a political candidate in the government’s ranks saying bare-faced untruths about what he knew or did not know about this matter during the election campaign.
The thing I expect most from the next Labour leader is to ensure that Labourites are no longer treated as children of a lesser god.
It is happening all too frequently these days that I meet people who in all honesty, without the slightest intention to offend, tell me how they marvel that a person of my sort... (flattering adjective) could be a Labourite.
There is an ingrained perception among the PN that you have to be stupid to be Labourite.
Treating Labourites as an inferior tribe has unfortunately infiltrated the PN’s DNA and this can only be corrected by making Labour electable again.
marks the 21st anniversary since
the PN gained government in 1987 following 16 years of Labour administration.
They have been in power ever since, bar a short 22- month interlude, and, all
things being equal, this unusual and unhealthy long tenure of power will grow to
26 years by the time the electorate is consulted again in 2013.In delivering the result of the 2008 suffrage, the electorate gave Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi a clear message. He was elected Prime Minister without an overall majority and with a mere half-quota advantage over the opposition with a reason. The electorate wanted the PN in government not to get too comfortable with their long tenure and to treat the opposition with respect. They wanted the PN to remember that the majority of those who voted were not in favour of Gonzi becoming Prime Minister and that the renewed mandate, narrow as it may be, is only thanks to the unpopularity of Alfred Sant who forced the electorate again to vote Labour out of government rather than vote the PN back in government.
I am therefore surprised that less than two months after the election, Prime Minister Gonzi and his government seem to have forgotten the welcome sign of humility they showed in the first days and are treating the opposition with the conceit typical of governments beyond their second consecutive term.
Take the speech he delivered in a party conference organised to honour 1 May Worker’s Day celebration. The suggestion to start organising a bi-party conference to discuss the evolution of workers’ rights in a globalised world seems sensible enough and should be seriously considered by Labour. But passing disparaging remarks about Labour’s tradition of organising a May Day afternoon parade in Valletta was arrogant and conceited.
Firstly there is no reason why the proposed bi-party conference and the traditional May Day parade should be mutually exclusive. In fact they complement each other very well. In the proposed conference, Labour would be searching for a vision of its rightful place in a world which is becoming a global village, rendering labour unions and national governments less relevant than they used to be.
The May Day parade on the other hand, is a demonstration of pride for past achievements. Labour remembers the time, less than a zillion years ago, when voting was the privilege of the land-owning elite class, when women had no right to vote, when workers were not protected by any legislation regarding conditions of work and minimum wages and when social security was notable by its absence.
Even though experiencing two-and-half decades out of government, Labour has good reason to celebrate every first of May. At the very least, they celebrate the fact that they forced the PN, which was traditionally a party of the blue blood, to become a party of the mainstream and constrained to adopt left-of-centre policies in order to gain and retain government. Without such acute conversion and adoption of social democratic doctrine, the PN would not have endured in government as much as they did. Workers have ample reasons to celebrate the victory of their policies over those of traditional unbridled capitalism so dear to PN till 30 years ago.
Whatever the Prime Minister thinks, Labour should continue to celebrate the traditional May Day parade even if we all become millionaires. We should never forget where we came from, nor forget to pay homage to those that suffered on the road to getting here.
Equally smug is the government decision to appoint Louis Galea as Speaker of the House ad interim, but permanently if Labour don’t accept the two conditions the government made for giving Labour the facility to choose the Speaker.
The condition for such a facility to be linked to a pairing agreement is understandable. I am confident that with goodwill from both sides, a package could be put together which includes both the pairing agreement and Labour’s right to choose the Speaker of the House. What is offensive is the government’s insistence that Labour’s choice must be restricted among the crop of its MPs. If Labour were to agree to this condition, they would effectively be doubling the government’s majority in the House and in a sense, would be acting spiteful towards the electorate that wanted to give the PN the slimmest of majorities in the House.
But the significance of this condition for the Speaker to be chosen from among Labour MPs goes much further than that once Louis Galea, no longer an MP, has now been chosen by the government. What the Prime Minister is basically telling Labour is that he still considers Labourites as children of a lesser god and that in this country there are rules for the PN and different rules for Labour. So it is acceptable for the government to appoint a Speaker of its choice from outside the House but it is not acceptable for Labour to do the same if they are offered the right to select the Speaker.
This sets a very poor backdrop for negotiating a pairing arrangement once the new Labour leader is elected. Without such pairing arrangement, government’s parliamentary life will get so complicated that it could very well be forced to reduce the importance of parliamentary debates in the promulgation of legislation.
This does not augur well at all for democracy.
Add to this the haughtiness in keeping the electorate in the dark completely on the JPO affair and you have all the hallmarks of conceit and arrogance even before the legislature actually starts tomorrow.
And with the JPO affair I don’t mean the criminal or police investigations. I mean the clear breach of governance in having a political candidate in the government’s ranks saying bare-faced untruths about what he knew or did not know about this matter during the election campaign.
The thing I expect most from the next Labour leader is to ensure that Labourites are no longer treated as children of a lesser god.
It is happening all too frequently these days that I meet people who in all honesty, without the slightest intention to offend, tell me how they marvel that a person of my sort... (flattering adjective) could be a Labourite.
There is an ingrained perception among the PN that you have to be stupid to be Labourite.
Treating Labourites as an inferior tribe has unfortunately infiltrated the PN’s DNA and this can only be corrected by making Labour electable again.
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