With Parliament reconvened, political life returns to its normal pace. Our political agenda for this year will be extremely active and demanding, whether or not the general election is held in 2007.

The political machine, driving both the Nationalist Party and the government, seems to be geared towards an early election and this machine is creating, through its own spin, a picture very far from what the situation in Malta actually is. The so-called corrections to figures published by the National Statistics Office is a case in point and should be confronted not only academically, as the issue demands, but also assertively and with all the political commitment necessary.

This behaviour is not new. The economy, however, is what it is and this is due to the Nationalist mismanagement over the last 20 years. No excuse will shift this blame.

Labour, on the other hand, continues to build its strategy on working with one and all on the future political, economic and cultural changes that need to be made to help us build a nation with an economy that will sustain welfare. In line with this, last Saturday the Labour Party launched another two vision documents that prove the progressive direction a future Labour administration will be taking.

National ICT strategies and policies have rarely been a political issue in Malta, and there has been a common and mutual understanding that advances in ICT are important in order to achieve a competitive advantage and improve citizens’ quality of life. However, one has to look beyond local boundaries and make every effort to improve Malta’s position within the European ICT long-term indicators, as published by the European Statistical Office (Eurostat). It is encouraging to see Malta progressing from 16th up to second place, with respect to ‘e-government on-line availability of basic public services’, but now Malta also has to take remedial action to address the other indicators, which are revealing that:

• Malta is currently one of the lowest placed of EU countries in Expenditure on R&D as a percentage of GDP, and in Preparing Tertiary Graduates in Science and Technology;

• Malta is ranked below average among EU countries for Employment in Know-ledge-Intensive Service Sectors and in the Percentage of households who have internet access.

In this sector, what is state-of-the-art today may be obsolete tomorrow, and here it is absolutely essential to recognise that communication technologies and information systems are rapidly changing. This makes it very important that, whatever investment in ICT is thought of and planned, there will have to be continuity, in order to ensure that this remains at an advanced technological level.

The other vision document launched last Saturday was the one concerning the public service.

Modern society needs a dynamic and effective public service – a public service that is primarily geared to effectively seeing to the needs of the citizens. Malta, with its membership of the European Union, now faces an increased need for a fully professional and prepared public service, to better channel the policies and initiatives that are issued by the union. Resulting benefits from our membership in the union also depends greatly on, among other things, the performance of the Maltese public service.

There is an increasing need to coordinate and introduce policies and the public service is obliged to see that this is successfully implemented. Here, Labour is committed to motivate public service employees in order for them to regain their pride in their contribution to the development and progress of this nation.

Contrary to what the Nationalist Party is saying, today the public service is burdened with serious problems, due to various mistaken policies and a lack of management. Here again, the Nationalist administration lacks vision and direction. It lacks the knowledge of what is expected of an efficient public service and has created a management environment where “anything goes”. Labour demands full transparency and accountability, and will implement effective policies in order to achieve this state of management and performance.

Here again these documents show the commitment and seriousness of what Labour intends to deliver when returned to government – when it will be not merely an alternative government, but a better government.

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Dr Michael Falzon is the MLP deputy leader for Party Affairs