The government is holding out in the hope that consensus can be reached to implement solutions and remedies to help the country at a time of economic difficulty.
Such an attitude is in itself positive, but the time is nigh for the government to start pressing ahead. Malta’s economy is stagnant, we are not seeing much growth, and foreign direct investment has not really been up to much. In short, something needs to be done, and quickly too.
The government is still trying to garner support other than that from the employers for the removal of the weekend public holidays leave in lieu entitlement, but it seems that the issue has reached a point where no agreement can be reached with any of the trade unions. The latter, of course, are still in time to come up with proposals in the national interest.
But where does the government go from here? Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and parliamentary secretary Tonio Fenech have said that government was prepared to take unpopular decisions if they were in the national interest.
The public holidays decision is, by and large, unpopular, but it is no secret that something must be done and it must be done now before it is too late.
Malta is lagging behind its European counterparts, but we are still at a stage where we can recover and regain our place among the rest of the pack. We use the term “pack” because we are literally in a rat race, not only with the rest of Europe, but with the rest of the world.
If we get our house in order and things are allowed to settle down, we will find that we will have at least a base from which to set off. But if the issue continues to linger without any decision taken, we will be left so far behind that it will be hard to catch up.
The country’s deficit does not make the challenge any easier. Government ministers have rightly pointed out that the deficit needs to be tackled in tandem with stimulating competitiveness and productivity and attracting foreign direct investment.
While this holds true, the government must make sure that it finds the right balance. Increasing productivity will help, but without more competitiveness and more investment there is a risk that the country will not move forward as much as we would like it to.
The truth of the matter is that we have reached a point where we cannot simply hang on and hope for the best any more, an attitude that has silently prevailed under the surface of our country’s very existence.
If we were to look at things honestly, we would all admit that we have had it too easy in the past, that governments have spent far too much and that many issues have been left unattended. This was largely at a time when the Nationalist government was concentrating on the EU accession issue. Now that this is over, we must move on.
Unfortunately, we Maltese have a habit of ignoring things until it is too late. We must use more foresight, we must read and anticipate and we must learn to address situations that give rise to concern.
But most importantly, we all need to work hard. If we do not stop moaning about our circumstances, they will only get worse.
The measures the government plans to push through are not at all popular, but they are intended as part of a plan to put the country back on its feet.
We understand that trade unions may have other ideas and are not happy about the situation. But unless someone comes up with concrete proposals that will give better results than the ones that the government is projecting in view of its decisions, we will all suffer.
The meeting unions will have today in a bid to draw up common counter-proposals that will be discussed at MCESD level on Thursday is therefore extremely important.