Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1456293
14 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 2 MARCH 2022 NEWS OPINION Open letter to all genuine Labour supporters DEAR genuine Labour Party supporter, I felt that I had to reach out and talk to you. I know there are many genuine members of the Labour Party who want our coun- try to progress, who want the wealth to be shared among all, to have a country run great transparency, where everyone knows and can participate in the decisions and in the leadership of the country, with- out hiding any money anywhere. Without a shadow of doubt, that is the aim of every genuine Labour supporter. I also know that today, these same supporters are sorry there was some- one in the party who betrayed them. Labour voters also know that there were people who used them. They know that there are many things which they do not agree with. I understand that genuine Labour members cannot accept the fact that people's money is given carelessly to foreigners by the government and they do not know why. We know that around €70 million were paid to Stew- ard Health Care, which is supposed to be running some of the country's main hospitals. The question is, why is this happen- ing? We also see parts of our country being given away to foreigners, when the genuine Labour supporter knows that Mintoff did not allow our country to be occupied by foreigners who dic- tated to us how to run our country, as is being done now. I also understand that you may feel that there are certain people in the La- bour party who are dipping their fin- gers in the national coffers, as if this was theirs, only for them to distribute this money to foreigners and insiders of the Labour party, while the peo- ple have tio be satisfied with €1.75 in weekly cost-of-living increase. I think that you, as a genuine Labour member, cannot accept that there are criminals at the heart of your party. They have more power than you and others like you who have entrusted them with your vote. I can understand the pain of seeing the party, which was once called 'the Workers' Party', sell itself to these criminals. I also understand how you feel when there are those who you have trusted with your confidence to run the country but who are now lining their pockets with public money. As you al- ready know the leader of the Labour party was paid €28,000 a month and this was taken from the people's pock- ets, because as was said, he worked even on Sunday! And I can understand how you feel as a genuine Labour member, when you see two of the party's deputy leaders kicked out of Parliament or the party following a number of rumours they could not even defend. One of them now refuses to answer for his actions. And I can only imagine how you must feel seeing current La- bour MPs defening him to this day. I know you are humiliated that the worker's party you support and fight for turns its back on the worker, be- cause the leaders now think only of their own pockets and those of their close friends and peers. As a true Labour supporter, you must be disgusted with the cases of money laundering and corruption that are coming to light. And you must have al- so been repulsed at the death of a jour- nalist who was intent on revealing this wrongdoing. Your leaders try to gloss over all of this, as if it were nothing, because they think they have the will of the people behind them. I do understand you. And now, once again, they want you to trust them again. But how can you be sure that they will not continue to use your support for their own personal benefit alone? The leader of the Labour Party has told us that he will bring continuity. Continu- ity of what? Money laundering? Pro- tecting criminals? Wasting the public's money? Hidden decisions that will af- fect all people? Yes ... this is all thanks to voting Labour; yes with your vote. You might be thinking about the con- seqeunces of voting for them again; you are most likely starting to woner how they will be using your trust for their own benefit again. What about the grey listing, and how this will affect the future of our coun- try, the future of our children? I see how you must not be finding it easy to give them your trust again, especially when it is so obvious how they blind- ly make use of the country's resources without taking into consideration the ramifications of their actions. After all they used and discarded all La- bour supporters, including genuine ones, including you, after you voted for them. And I also understand you when it comes to thinking and wondering if you want to be a part of this bleak fu- ture that the Labour leaders who stole your party, are creating. So dear friend, as a genuine Labour member, think about how you can real- ly help this country get back on track to stop this scourge. I am not here to tell you what to do. As a genuine Labour Party member you are smart enough to understand what the next step shoul be if we are to stop these things from happenning again, so that the people and the whole country move forward. Think, respond and act now. Ivan Bartolo Ivan Bartolo is a Member of Parliament for the Nationalist Party