A wave of disillusionment seems to have overwhelmed the Maltese scene as the launch of Dr Gonzi’s first budget started to bite, to the accompaniment of a rash of sudden price increases that never got a mention during the recent budget debate.

There is every indication that, for the foreseeable future, there will be more of the same under the whiplash of the Convergence Programme, drawn up at the bidding of the European Union. There is a growing conviction that the ruling administration is insensitive to the plight of a segment of the electorate that hovers on the margins of poverty.

Only last week, the public mood was captured by an editorial in The Times with the lament that, true enough “there has been some mismanagement on the part of the government, and people are unlikely to forget some of the empty declarations made by the party in government before the last general election. Just as they are unlikely to forget too some of the very bad decisions taken such as, for instance, the purchase of a building in Brussels that is far bigger than what is needed for the island’s representation there.”

The unspoken charge is one of electoral deception and administrative incompetence.

Rallying cry

Only a couple of days earlier, columnist Marisa Micallef, whose political colour leaves no-one in doubt, had complained openly about indiscriminate government measures that “hit everyone”.

She quoted the Maltese expression “mal-hazin jehel it tajjeb”(the good are punished with the bad) and went on to declare that this sums up the mood of the man in the street these days.

“I hope this does not become the rallying cry for the MLP. It is the way a lot of Nationalists are feeling right now,” she added.

“The most reasonable of people are saying this,” she claimed. “We elect governments to be sensitive to these issues,” she insisted with obvious feeling.

Summing up, Marisa pointed out that “some, but very few, have converted to AD, the rest remain with a wait-and-see approach. They are not so totally sickened that they would make Alfred Sant PM, but they are uncomfortably close to this point”. Coming from her, this is saying something!

We have just had a situation where a government in panic suddenly raised the price of kerosene, allegedly because unscrupulous bus drivers were mixing it with diesel fuel, and polluting the environment in the process. Instead of controlling law-breakers, the government jacked up the price of paraffin, which rose beyond the reach of low-income families while bus drivers were rewarded with a massive rise in bus fares.

Similarly, in an attempt to check property speculation, the same government applied the same heavy-handed procedure by treating speculators and people who own two properties and want to dispose of one which they inherit the same.

A rapacious government has abruptly “extended eco-taxation to several new products, triggering chaos and confusion as retailers and manufacturers were stunned by the magnitude of the tax”. (The Times, 5 January.) It did so without consulting the industrial sector in advance. In the plastic sector, a local firm, which has been in operation for 24 years, lost its competitivity in one fell swoop.

Rudderless government

All of this creates the firm impression of a government that has lost its bearings. Instead of meaningfully consulting the social partners, it prefers to proceed, rudderless, at any cost, with little or no regard for equity or social justice, and much less for social solidarity, where the less well-to-do and marginalised families are rapidly being left behind.

Columnist Franz Camilleri raised his voice last week (4 January) to ask: What about solidarity?

He had this to say: “It was a slogan in one of the Nationalist Party electoral campaigns, but was it ever translated into a political system that allows and encourages us to take account of our common interests with others, that promotes cooperation, that helps us to see how our lives and interests intertwine with those of one another?”

It is no wonder that a sense of indignation and resentment is congealing and coming to the surface as the average citizen feels short-changed and let down – and left to his or her own devices.

Questions

What keeps the powers-that-be from setting the example by exerting self-discipline themselves and introducing austerity measures of significance at top level?

Why can’t the government introduce tax measures that focus on ostentatious expenditure, before thinking of raising the price of kerosene for poor families?

Why hasn’t the government brought all the interested parties together to draw up, in a climate of consensus, a plan to stimulate investment and to generate employment, instead of assigning this task to more and more quangos?

These and similar questions need urgent answers. More to the point, they call for ACTION.

This is no time for more procrastination and inertia, skilfully camouflaged by bombast.

The Maltese electorate has by now realised that the emperor has no clothes on. It is time for it to say so, in a voice loud and clear.

[email protected]