The electoral fever is beginning to rise at a time when the promise of a “new spring” is turning sour.

The Nationalist administration has relied for many years on the “feel-good” factor and managed to make hay while the sun was shining.

PN “strategists” seem to have enjoyed the ride, obviously thinking that the “feel-good” factor is an inexhaustible commodity produced by clever propaganda. This delusion blinded the same strategists to the point that they thought they could sell the last budget to public opinion simply by coining the motto Biex Int Tghix Ahjar. (a budget designed to ensure that you are better off!!) This ploy manifestly pushed the PN’s fantasy to the point of unreality. When the EU statistical office is telling the world that tax increases in Malta in recent years were among the heaviest in the EU, and still rising – when Malta has the highest rate of inactive people in the EU, and when more austerity measures are being urged, both by the EU and the International Monetary Fund, the “feel-good” factor has all but evaporated.

Betrayed electorate

It has not only vanished – it has been replaced by a widespread feeling of embittered resentment. Any democratic electorate is bound to react when it feels it has been betrayed.

There was a time when the Labour Party opposition marshaled pockets of electors with a grudge and placed its accent on issues of real or imagined mal-administration and corruption which, by implication, are negative in nature.

It is no longer so. The electorate wants a change. The past 17 “money no problem” years made a shambles of our public finances and yielded an economy in distress. The electorate knows that the economy cannot take more massive shocks and that the only way out for the government to emerge out of its predicament is to focus on resuscitating the economy by all possible means.

Malta needs an inclusive, dynamic administration, sustained by outward-looking local enterprise, and capable of tapping goodwill and cooperation of all the social partners without distinction.

As things stand at this point in time, it appears that the political “ding dong” will be more of the same. There will perhaps be more reliance on the power of the media and on house calls by politicians to win the hearts and minds of floating voters. But the main difference between the forthcoming context and the next election is that thousands of electors have already “floated”, having become older and wiser by sheer experience.

The central issue – survival

In this context, the next time round, the central issue is one of survival – changing the “coxswain”, getting rid of unwanted baggage, trimming the sails, and heading for calm waters. Once there, this will be no time to lose.

Malta needs an environment where everyone will have an incentive to earn and save, and where there will be a national commitment by all earners in solidarity with the infirm, the old and the needy.

Such a breakthrough would be feasible if, in future, Malta relies on the propulsion of free enterprise for success, with the state acting as regulator.

The electorate seems to have swung round to the view that Malta needs a new pair of hands on the tiller. With hindsight, it is becoming increasingly evident to many that Malta would have suffered less in the recent years if it were governed by a cabinet consisting of boy scouts! They would have been better prepared, and less “amateurish”, than some fumbling ministers.

Ugly alternative

Recent opinion surveys suggest that the public mood is swinging fast. Public opinion is solidifying. The callous increases of water and electricity surcharges and petrol prices will give even more momentum to the process.

It was at once thoughtless and patently inept to impose such stiff and sudden burdens on sorely tried consumers, before going through the motions of economising and pruning government expenditure and extravagant perks.

The consequences of the government’s inadequacy were immediate. They will be long-lasting.

As a result, the Maltese economy is in for the long haul.

The electorate first must make good use of its survival kit and embark without delay on a confidence-building programme.

The alternative is ugly to behold.

With Prime Minister Gonzi calling for more sacrifices, and the EU insisting on the implementation of a Convergence Programme, and the added prospects of more austerity, involving a reform of the pensions, health and social services regime, the “feel good “ factor will be a dead duck for some time to come…

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