I write in support of Professor Edward Scicluna’s plea that economists should be left to do an honest job, which is to analyse and comment on the economy and related matters, without the fear of witch hunting and labelling. Professor Scicluna was reacting to comments made by the President of the Malta Employers Association last Wednesday.

At present, the Maltese economy is passing through a bad patch. This is a fact of life verifiable by reference to official statistics. Yet, some politicians, supported by self-serving business interests, project a different image in a display of undeviating lack of candour.

They have a way of giving the impression of action, which turns out, on closer inspection, to be only activity. They surpass themselves in the frequency, irrelevance and impertinence of their obiter dicta.

The iron laws of economics prevail. They can be temporarily hidden from view by political camouflage. To ignore them is to court trouble because nature is red in tooth and nail.

Economists with the courage of their convictions are expected to be true to themselves and to their country by calling a spade a spade – not merely in the service of democracy but, more pertinently, to alert public opinion in circumstances of clear and present economic danger.

J.G. Vassallo

St Julian’s