In the second half of the 1990s, as Malta was coming to grips with Mount Maghtab and the problems associated with the increasing amount of waste being dumped there, environmentalists came up with the 3Rs – reduce, reuse, recycle. The Maghtab debate has since been put aside and more urgent matters now dictate the agenda.

Today, the prime concern for this small island is the state of the economy, the competitiveness of our industry and the livelihood of the people. Since Malta’s EU accession negotiations began, the country has been forced to come to terms with the reality of Malta’s economy: a high fiscal deficit and a burgeoning public debt, lower export levels, particularly in manufacturing, and the worldwide shift from high volume, low yield industries to low volume, high yield services. The signs were as clear then as they are now: Malta has to change its mentality, its processes, its vision for the future. Change or die – the message cannot be simpler.

That is the same message that Investments and IT Minister Austin Gatt wanted to get across when addressing Parliament’s Social Affairs Committee late last month. Unless the manufacturing sector changed, it would not be able to sustain itself.

Writing in The Malta Independent that same week, Dr Gatt explained what he had in mind in six points. First, industry had to forget trying to salvage the unsalvageable but concentrate on creating new jobs in new economic areas. Subsidising inefficient operations, he wrote, was a thing of the past and “there cannot be any sacred cows, whether it is the Drydocks or taxi drivers, whether it is Sea Malta or the bus drivers, whether it is Cargo Handling or the port workers!”

Dr Gatt wrote that the country had to control change or “we will be taken over by change. Like it or not, globalisation is here to stay.” The fourth point he raised is that the social partners and constituted bodies had to forget sectarian interests and have the courage to say “No” to their members or voters if they refused to face up to unpleasant realities. Fifth, Malta can achieve this and much more. Finally, Dr Gatt wrote, “we can have an exceedingly effective knowledge economy, but being small and limited in resources we have to make strategic choices.”

Wise words from a minister who understands that rhetoric will get him, and the country, nowhere. The social partners reacted positively to Dr Gatt’s suggestions, agreeing with him on all points. What Dr Gatt wrote was nothing new. A recent article in The Economist made the same arguments – change your industry or die.

Where, then, does that leave us?

As did the environmentalists in the 1990s, we suggest using the three Cs – Caution, Consensus and Change. This is the key to Malta’s problems, but only by meeting each one will the country succeed.

First, TMID believes the government has to be cautious in its every move: decisions have to be taken but such decisions must be made in the country’s interest, at our own pace and not to meet a timetable set by Brussels.

Second, without consensus nothing will happen. The social pact failed to materialise because the social partners and constituted bodies were unable to agree on what, ultimately, is of benefit to the whole country. If there is consensus, everything is possible.

Third, change. Yes, the country must have the courage to change the way it works, the way it lays the foundations for the future, the way it perceives the future. The country as a whole must change. Too many of our MPs, irrespective of party membership, are used to the status quo. Too many of our leaders in society are protective of what they still believe to be sacrosanct. The people have to be educated to accept change, to acknowledge the need for change and to play a leading role in this transition from “old” to “new”.

Success does not come about overnight. The process will be tough, and sacrifices will have to be made. But if the country wants to survive, it must change. Caution, Consensus, Change: three Cs to survive.