The state of public finance being what it is, public opinion has more than enough minutiae on its plate. Much of this is relatively irrelevant to the average man in the street, who is concerned with the full picture.

Parliament has the power of the purse and has to keep an eye on the Executive. It has therefore to scrutinize expenditure and, in so doing, it has to examine each ministerial vote with a fine toothcomb. This process is a democratic imperative.

Useful and essential though this is, it is, at this moment in time, a distraction from the trauma that seized the taxpaying electorate, which is reeling under an unbearable tax burden.

These strong feelings and undercurrents cannot be concealed. These are likely to become even stronger.

This is the time for reckoning – for the tax paying electorate to do the sums and for the political parties to assess their status in the estimation of the electorate.

The government party has to evaluate whether its tax policy is up to the mark in terms of strategy and delivery. This is principally a leadership concern and has to do with the continued support of public opinion.

The Opposition may capitalize from a swing in public opinion and try to assert itself.

Electoral concerns

Although parties are needed to mobilize public opinion, it is the electorate that wields voting power. The electorate does so as it looks through the prism of its interests.

This being so, it is at once idle and irrelevant to sit in judgment on the different segments of the sovereign electorate, who think they have been short-changed and are vocally expressing their reaction.

To say now that the electorate is motivated by selfishness is politically counterproductive.

Seasoned politicians on the government side with a modicum of common sense must accept reality and realise that, in politics, there is no gratitude.

It’s no cause for wonder that, having felt the harsh impact of the tax burden, taxpayers have given more importance to its assessment than to the record and declared intentions of Dr Lawrence Gonzi.

MPs on the government bench should concentrate their minds to identify what irked the electorate, why the government failed to realise the concerns of those who have been particularly hard hit, and what is to be done in the circumstances.

I have personally highlighted again and again in the local media the growing concern of public opinion as the government persisted, year after year, in spending beyond its means, as though there was no tomorrow. The persistent structural deficit and the mountainous debt, which has accumulated as a result, were strong warnings enough No one seemed to care. A situation developed that drew the attention of the EU and called for early warning.

Stunning shock

From that moment onwards, the situation became too ugly to behold.

Dr Gonzi was in a fix in that he had to be seen to bite the bullet. Biting the bullet meant that he had to repair the damage sustained under the Fenech Adami administration, of which he formed part. He was in a fix, because he could not admit his responsibility.

The average elector is no fool. The greenest of greenhorns was taken aback when Dr Gonzi played the part of an economic wizard, who had come to deliver Malta from its predicament!

The shock was even more stunning when it was realized that the government proposed to continue spending beyond its means during the subsequent financial years!

That Malta’s public finances are in a mess is beyond dispute, and so is the need for austerity in the circumstances. The minimum that was expected was for the government to lead by example. It was expected, moreover, to show more regard for social justice.

This is what has made the tax-paying electorate seethe with resentment.

There could be no justification for ignoring the golden rule that “politics is the art of the possible”.

Forced march

An army commander who allows his tanks to move far ahead of the support troops risks the successful outcome of the battle. In like manner, a government that imposes a forced march on the electorate, risks mutiny at worst and, at best, the real possibility of stragglers incapable of keeping pace with the main fighting force

Once a significant section of public opinion starts bristling with resentment, a policy that relies on the inevitability of gradualness is, at all times, safer than one capable of upsetting the applecart.

A policy of calculated caution is now even more strongly to be recommended, because it is increasingly clear that the floating vote is making its presence felt in no uncertain terms.

Floating voters are, at once, people who rely on their enlightened judgment tempered by their interests, and who find the middle ground of politics congenial to their best interests. They relish moderation and their interests get higher priority than luck in the order of their value judgments.

One would hope that the party in government will conduct its post-mortem in conditions of transparency and that there will be some analysis of the track record of the principal players that led Malta to its present predicament.

It may well consider that its immediate problem is not so much to change course and adopt new ways to govern, although that, too, is of the essence. It may be far more useful and practical at this stage to introduce new blood, which will rejuvenate its image and activate its leadership

[email protected]