After an interminable round of talks between the social partners, the proposal to draw up a “social pact” on the lines drawn up by the government proved to be unattainable.
It has to be said that these terms, cobbled together after intensive rounds of negotiations, had positive aspects that could yet yield some eventual results in their own way.
Nevertheless, it was not possible to achieve a meeting of minds, and the government has decided to proceed with its original proposals announced in the budget speech.
The resentment provoked by the budget speech persists. Its origin springs from the fact that the Gonzi administration first imposed its budget dictates and then proceeded to prevaricate – initially, by unilaterally revising some of its draconian measures, and then by holding a succession of marathon talks with the social partners, in the course of which it made further concessions.
Having given away so much, it could not bring itself to walk the last mile – which brought matters back to where the trouble started.
The former British Labour Prime Minister, Clement Attlee once remarked that democracy means government by discussion but it is only effective if you can stop people talking. Gonzi has not come up to Attlee’s standards!
Essence of republican
government
Dr Gonzi has not brought round ALL the members of the MCESD confraternity to his way of thinking. I would say that a good number of other trade unions outside the MCESD, and several thousands of pensioners and consumers will be even more vociferous than the GWU in their objections.
It has been said that the essence of a republican government is not command, it is consent. For the government to press on regardless with its original budget proposals, after the breakdown of talks, defies this logic and is bound to solidify resistance.
The Maltese economy is in no state to court this risk.
Yet, there are entrenched political and other hidden, vested interests willing to take this risk. These privileged elements have much to lose if the government is dislodged. They will therefore bring all their resources to bear in the interests of their survival.
For them, nothing would be more effective than the activation of the chemistry of political polarization. For these hidden faces, the most useful will be the weapon of “divide-and-rule”.
So, once again, we are back to Square One.
Time and tide wait for no man – and the Gonzi administration must now slog on without solid national support in this globalised world of tough unforgiving competition.
How far it can go has yet to be seen. The more horses it changes in mid-stream, the more time and energy it loses. The more it tries to buy time in the interest of expediency, the less it is likely to achieve timely results.
Day of reckoning
The day of reckoning is bound to come, sooner or later. At that moment, the weakest would have the same opportunity to speak as the strongest, and there will be no parliamentary majority to swing the argument. What is more, at election time the electorate will care little for what has been. It will be haunted by visions of what will be. And the performance of the present administration, all the way from l998 to date, will be haunting enough.
The spokesmen and henchmen of the ruling administration know this. They no longer defend their record and performance. They try to undermine the credibility of their critics – be it the Labour Opposition, Alternattiva Demokratika or whatever.
They say that Alfred Sant
is a loser, that Alternattiva Demokratika is a loose cannon with no firepower. They hope there will be ample time for the electorate to come round and change its mood. They insist, in particular, the Opposition has offered no alternatives to remedy controversial issues – current or otherwise.
Rules of democracy
The rules of democracy do not oblige critics to solve the problems of any government in office. An Opposition stands or falls by its success in first offering, and then sustaining, alternative policies. This does not mean that an Opposition should draw up a detailed alternative policy, and offer it on a silver plate to the government in office. It means that the Opposition has to persuade the electorate, when the time is ripe, that in given areas, it could go about the business of government and sort out problems,with the prospect of better results.
There is no need for a detailed manifesto if a political party is intent on promoting the first principles of social justice when it expects people with higher incomes to bear tax burdens commensurate with their relative well being.
What need is there for elaborate detail if a political party undertakes to pursue aggressive methods to root out corruption, if it intends to do so by appointing independent investigators with judicial experience?
Do electors need explanations in black-and-white to elaborate proposals leading to reform in the top-management levels of the bureaucracy, which precipitated the afflictions of Maltese public finance?
Is it not enough for Opposition spokesmen to give notice, as they have done, that they propose to democratise and regularise the system of public appointments to quangos, to ambassadorial posts and board membership of public corporations, putting an end, once and for all, to clientelism and to blatant abuse of power?
Come the next election – and it will come possibly sooner rather than later – the electorate would not be content with an Opposition committed to remedying the injustices perpetrated by the government in office, and its sins of omissions. The electorate would want the country to move forward in new directions, in a spirit of resolve and in light of experience.
The first sensible question to ask is: Can the electorate trust the very same politicians who brought Malta to its present predicament?
The second sensible question is: Granted that, in the words of John Dryden “the most may err as grossly as the few”, is there not a great deal of accumulated wisdom in the words of Alexis de Tocqueville who said: “When the people rule, they must be rendered happy, or they will overturn the State,”?
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