‘Public, not politicians, must spearhead future social changes’ – Muscat

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat urged the public to take the lead when implementing future social changes, arguing that Malta is entering a new era whereby politicians must rely on, rather than try and shape, public opinion.

Addressing a political event in Luqa, Muscat said that the public no longer needs politicians to guide them when discussing and proposing potential changes.

“The public will instead take change into their own hands, and the politicians who don’t respond will fast become irrelevant,” he said. “Labour was the first party in Malta to realize that the old concept of a party has ended and that we must shift towards the concept of a movement. We must now be the first to understand that the modus operandi through which the public depends on politicians to guide their views on social change has also ended.”

The Prime Minister didn’t refer to what sort of social changes could be in the pipeline, but said that “the initiative of one single person can now trigger the hugest of social changes”.

In his speech, Muscat steered away from criticising the Nationalist Opposition, instead focusing on civil liberties introduced by his government – notably civil unions, gender identity legislation and the recent criminalisation of so-called ‘gay conversion therapy’.

He argued that social change has become so normal in Malta that the gay conversion Bill had passed in Parliament without generating political controversy or even making the headlines of local newspapers.

However, it was then featured significantly on major international papers, such as the Guardian and the New York Times.

“European governments, such as in Italy, are falling from power because they are either detached from the public or because they aren’t getting their message across to the public,” he said. “We must speak about the changes we have implemented more forcefully.”

Muscat said that his political leadership had left the international press and associations scratching their heads as to how such a previously backwards country (ta’ wara l-muntanji) that only introduced divorce in 2011 is now leading the way in Europe with regards legislation on LGBT rights.

“When I campaigned for leadership of the Labour Party back in 2008, I could see the shock and terror in people’s eyes when I came out in favour of divorce…my friends had warned me that that stance would see me lose the leadership contest,” Muscat recounted. “When Malta introduced divorce in 2011, the way the international press reported it had a mocking sort of tone, as though we were an isolated and abandoned country that had finally seen the light.”

He argued that Labour’s stance in favour of civil liberties was a natural progression of the party’s founding members original call for universal suffrage. “That seed of thought that everyone should be allowed to vote has now blossomed into the concept that the government has no right to interfere in people’s personal lives.”

Earlier, civil liberties minister Helena Dalli hailed the Labour government as “the paladin of human rights”, noting that it recently became the first European country to ban so-called “gay-conversion therapy” - which she described as “torture”.

She added that she will soon propose Bills to establish an independent commission on human rights that will fall under the jurisdiction of Parliament.

“The PN likes to pose as the paladin of human rights, but when it comes down to the facts it is clear that it this government which is such a paladin.”  

‘Only people who got rich off corruption feeling change’ – PN

 The Nationalist Party dismissed Muscat’s speech, claiming that the only people who are feeling the positive changes under the Labour government are “those who have fattened their pockets with commissions from direct orders and corrupt contracts”.

In a statement, it reeled off a string of scandals that took place under Muscat’s stewardship – including the Panama Papers, the medical visas scandal, the Café Premier and Gaffarena cases, and the latest controversy surrounding the former canvasser of education minister Evarist Bartolo.

“Injustice is being done to people working in precarious jobs, while people are wasting several hours stuck in traffic,” the PN said. “The public is only after one sort of change – for justice and democracy to reign in the country.”