After years of indolence, incompetent management and encroaching corruption, the present Nationalist administration is facing the imminent electoral test with ever decreasing self-confidence. The battle cries of the last election no longer rally the faithful, who are increasingly disillusioned with the poor
performance of the Gonzi team which, after all, is practically the same team that has
managed this country for the past 20 years.
They have now resorted to recruiting some journalists who pose as independent professionals but who in reality have only one priority: saving their own skin from the consequences of the people’s imminent judgement. To make their case more convincing, they are prepared to cook the books and invent numbers intended to scare people in believing that what Labour is promising is not feasible.
Labour reiterates that our people need a boost of encouragement to lift them from the blues brought about by years of Nationalist mismanagement. We need to put more money in people’s pockets. We need to reward industriousness, encourage success, improve the quality of life of our people and, at the same time, promote economic growth.
Discouraging our people will get us nowhere. Labour has not only projected the costs of the measures that it has promised, but has prepared the administrative tools that are needed to promote a successful implementation of these measures. We have our experts who work closely with us and whose only intention is to make sure that we motivate our workforce to achieve better results than we have experienced in the last few years.
It is a shameful that the Nationalist Government seems to have given up its right and duty to use the power given to it by law to control abuse of the social service, profiteering by institutions that operate in a dominant position and excessive pricing of imported goods. Our membership of the European Union should have strengthened consumers’ rights, but the reality is that our families have never been exposed to such high cost of living pressures, partly as a result of the lack of political will to use regulatory measures to curb abuse.
A Labour government will address this serious situation as soon as it is elected. The measures promised by Labour are intended to motivate workers to work more, earn more, improve productivity and pay reasonable taxes. We also want to cater for those families where there is no one working and they have to depend on other income, like social benefits or pensions. That is why it makes sense to cut the surcharge on water and electricity bills by 50 per cent.
This government refuses to admit the failure of its economic policies and then resorts to scaremongering to discredit the well-planned measures promised by Labour. During the Gonzi administration, Malta has had the lowest economic growth of all EU countries, especially those who joined the EU with us.
We have also experienced deterioration in our classification in the competitiveness tables. But perhaps worst of all, we remain the EU country with the worst educational record in the academic achievements of our young people.
Those of us who have lived in Malta for the past few decades will not be fooled by the sanctimonious declarations of fiscal propriety by a Nationalist administration that in the past had derided a Labour government’s attempt to boost income by labelling national insurance contribution adjustments as “il-bolla saret balla”. Neither will we forget the previous Prime Minister’s declaration that “money is no problem” or that “il-finanzi ta’ pajjizna qeghdin fis-sod”, only to burden our families with even more taxes just after the last election.
Yes, this country is yearning for change after 20 years of indolence and mismanagement. Labour will provide this change and will achieve success with its commitment to reward industriousness.
Dr Mangion is deputy
leader of the Opposition
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