It has been said countless times. Malta is always late in entering recession and it is always late out of recession.

This newspaper’s editorial line has always been that Malta would not really begin to feel the crunch until Q3 of 2009. And that is exactly what happened. Tourism results and the general slowdown only began to yield concrete figures in late August and September. They were not pretty and people began to realise the extent of our economic woes. But we must always remember that these figures are retro-active.

Going back to the issue of Malta getting out of recession, it is clear that while other countries (and companies) have begun to show signs of recovery, Malta is still right at the very start of the period where it needs to seriously push the implementation of its exit strategy.

The government has begun to do this and while a lot of groundwork has gone on behind the scenes, this week we saw a concrete announcement of a new company setting up in Malta to offer high-tech aircraft maintenance. It will create 250 jobs directly, but it will also have a good knock on effect in terms of construction contracts and continued development of this growing sector.

But was the general public ready to acknowledge this for what it was? In this newspaper’s opinion, the simple fact that Malta attracted the investment in the current economic climate is a triumph in itself. But again, what did the people think?

To quote the title of this editorial, they are not sick of being sick and fed up yet. What do we mean, the reader might ask. It’s simple.

Recession, while being a tangible downturn of economic fortune, also has an intangible effect. That of consumer confidence and consumer attitude. When a recession first kicks in, the natural reaction by the general public is of shock and immediate worries and tightening of the purse strings. As time goes by, this turns into acceptance and eventually anger. Of course, anger is going to be directed at the government – whether justified or not. And this is where there is so much to do. The people are still angry and they want to remain angry for some more time.

The support which Opposition leader Joseph Muscat received of his budget speech confirms this. Dr Muscat chose to focus on issues which the PL knows the people are worried about and angry about. These include water and electricity prices, cost of living, inflation, waste and corruption. Some of these issues are real and others are perceived. But what is most definitely real is the sentiment of the general public. They are not yet ready to move out of recession (might we call it depression), and this is why Dr Muscat gained support.

The government, rightly, has put its own popularity in the back seat in an effort to stimulate the economy. In the long run, everyone will benefit if the tide begins to turn, but the people want an immediate fix to the issues we have just mentioned. It’s a case of my back pocket and my back yard.

In reality, Joe Muscat is right in what he says – the people have their concerns and they do not feel that the government is doing enough to address them.

On the other hand, the government’s immediate priority is getting the wheels going again. But to do that, it needs the support of the people, the workers and industry. It will take a lot of coaxing and more results such as the one achieved the other day are needed before everyone will be back on board. It will take a while, but we will get there. When the general public decides it is time to do so.