There is never a dull moment in Maltese politics. Most of it is pure theatre. The economy is in distress, labouring as it does under the unbearable weight of a structural deficit and a mountain of debt. Yet, the political class and the social partners are locked in controversy, sniping at each other, referring to what took place yesterday, in order to avoid facing the tough problems that must be faced today and tomorrow.
Ever since l987, the ruling administration has been running the show as if there was no tomorrow. Its track record is one of unrestrained, indiscriminate spending, well beyond its means. Fenech Adami coined the slogan “money no problem” and lived up to it, flying in the face of his own monetary authorities and the IMF.
He had the enthusiastic support of his trusted underlings, who have since been having a whale of a time on the gravy train.
Day of reckoning
Fenech Adami and his team navigated by the distant star of the European Union, but there was no diligent attempt towards convergence with EU norms and directives The Maltese ship of state flew, very often, without instruments. And all the while, the Maltese electorate was assured that the economy was sound (l-ekonomija kienet fis-sod) and, once Malta joined the EU, a mini-boom would follow, ushering Malta into a “New Spring”.
As predicted, the day of reckoning arrived on cue.
The Nationalist administration, now led by Dr Lawrence Gonzi, was caught unawares by the events of history.
No sooner had Malta’s accession to the European Union been effected, that the EU cracked the whip and demanded a Convergence Programme and the theatrical programme promptly switched from comedy to tragedy.
The electorate was lashed by a storm of Wagnerian proportions, with taxes contributions, tariffs and surcharges resembling the thunder, and eco-taxes and massive price increases the earthquakes.
The hurricane struck in the worst of circumstances. The economy had been stagnating for some time.
Factories and some hotels had closed down and unemployment peaked. Purchasing power contracted and the consumer market lost momentum.
Even more sinister was the fact that the economic meteorological forecasters were giving notice that worse was to come. The government wanted to see a reform of the pensions system. Other, more sadist, reformers were clamouring for the “restructuring” of the social benefit framework and the introduction of means testing, while others still, demanded an overhaul of the education sector and the student stipend system.
The Byzantine and the Baroque
Maltese politics are a cross between the Byzantine and the Baroque. True to form, the Gonzi government did not consider it politically expedient to assume responsibility for the excesses of the Fenech Adami years (when Gonzi was, after all, Fenech Adami’s right hand man). Neither did it want to associate the sudden wave of austerity with EU discipline. There was, therefore, an attempt to bring the social partners together with a view to drawing up a “social pact” – in which case, the medicine administered by way of economic discipline would have been voluntarily self-imposed with common consent. The trade unions did not bite – and the government had to go it alone after a bout of agitated controversy.
Needless to say, the workers took to the streets and were joined by pensioners, self-employed businessmen, and consumers. Which, if anything, made things worse and intensified the controversy, taking us all back to square one.
Contradictions
Here is a government which is aggressively imposing stiff austerity measures while it continues to overspend, from Cirkewwa to the Mater Dei Project, from Dar Malta in Brussels to its many local quangos and, moreover, brazenly asks Parliamentary authority to borrow another Lml50 million – to bring the national debt bill close to Lml.5 billion.
Instead of leading by example, by capping, if not restraining, its expenditure, and instead of assuming, at least, a degree of responsibility for its past stewardship, the government is proposing massive burdens, largely to be borne by the middle and working classes. It opted for stiff increases in the cost of bread, paraffin and public transport rather than for a tax on ostentatious spending or on luxury property.
Having failed to overcome investment fatigue, it did not focus, as a matter of priority, on a programme to stimulate growth and productivity
When it is criticised for its inertia and lack of initiative, it turns on the Opposition with guns blazing, recalling the uneasy events of the Mintoff years.
When its sins of omission and commission are recalled, it demonises the Opposition Leader, Alfred Sant, and his record as former Prime Minister.
When the Opposition points its fingers at the government’s apathy and near-paralysis, Ministers behave like the cat that spins to catch its tail and ask what the Opposition’s alternative policy is.
Dr Gonzi’s government has a mountain to climb. Instead of facing up to its responsibility, it keeps looking over its shoulder,
Need of urgent remedies
At this stage, it is too late in the day to lament about the government’s past shortcomings.
Malta’s immediate and urgent need is to seek and implement businesslike remedies that will extricate Malta from its present predicament.
The foremost objective is to bolster the ability to compete and for the economy to earn its keep.
Hot air and theatrics will not do. They will aggravate the situation beyond the point of no return. It is scandalous that, notwithstanding the Niagara of rhetoric, the government has not yet come round to drawing up a strategic plan to maximise the best use of our available resources.
Time is running out fast and urgency is of the essence.
Arthur Miller once said that the structure of a play is always the story of how the birds come home roost. In the prevailing circumstances, it would be risky for any politician to flippantly assume the role of a Messiah of the new age, because if he does not deliver, his crucifixion is inevitable.
[email protected]