It’s been a long haul since 1987, when a Nationalist administration, hungry for power after long years in Opposition, and led by Dr. Eddie Fenech Adami, took over the Government, determ-ined to navigate towards membership of the European Union .

The declared, far-off, plan was to liberalise the economy and to seek Malta’s fortune in the burgeoning European

single market. The legal and bureaucratic terrain had to be prepared to facilitate the transition. This was to involve upgrading the civil service and setting up the necessary structures so that when conditions matured, Malta would graduate to European status, in terms of political as well as economic advancement.

Alas, it was not to be. Looking back, from the perspective of the long years that have since passed, the experiment was flawed.

Malta made the grade in terms of membership, but its unpreparedness has not made it possible to reap the rewards that were anticipated.

Intoxication

The Fenech Adami admini-stration was politically intoxi-cated and went hell-bent for leather towards its political target, without adjusting the local environment in time for the transition.

On the one hand, an inebriated government embarked on a spending spree in order to create a feel-good atmosphere. A money-no-problem programme, sustained by public borrowing, has burdened Malta well beyond the point of embarrassment. It has, in fact, become a source of pain and will continue to demand more austerity in the years ahead.

On the other hand, our bureaucratic and legal framework is still lagging behind European norms, and we are constantly being urged to catch up with EU standards, and warned when we fail to abide by EU directives.

Frustration

All of this frustrates forward movement, and distracts the government from concentrating on the supreme need to sharpen our competitivity and cope with the winds of globalisation.

Fenech Adami’s successors have fallen between two stools. They inherited a stagnating economy and a mountain of debt. Their ship is manned by a crew that is inadequately trained and unprepared to face the gathering storm. The economy is weak and is in no position to take more shocks.

We now realise that the Fenech Adami administration was far more dissolute than it was wise. It frittered away valuable resources in a manner that was capricious and unproductive, like the investment in the Taranto Port project and the purchase of RJ20s, and the Mater Dei white elephant and the Gozo ferry terminals, both of which are taking an eternity to complete and will be burdensome to maintain.

Aimlessness

The tourist sector has never been properly nursed. The government and the Tourist Authority have spent heavily and aimlessly to brand the Malta market without seriously bothering to polish the product, let alone enhance it.

They engaged countless consultants, local and foreign, to produce a heap of studies and reports, often to set them aside. They legislated to a degree in order to conserve the environment – but they were never serious when it came to enforcement. As a result, Malta very often features woefully at the bottom of EU league tables. If it is not an outright shame, this performance has proved to be as embarrassing as it has been costly.

Inertia

As a result of inertia or incompetence, or both, the government failed to focus on the challenge that called for the topmost priority, namely that of enhancing and stimulating productivity at all costs, and attracting foreign investment.

Fenech Adami’s successors have had to pay a price for all this folly. They have been forced, willy-nilly, to launch a massive convergence programme that has to be sustained by massive taxation and a mixed bag of austerity measures that have yet to work their way, further to squeeze a sorely-tried, tax-paying electorate. And they are set to sell what is left of the family jewels to expiate the sins of the fathers.

Whether the electorate can take more of this, before the economy recoups to some degree, is highly questionable. It is a question likely to be answered by the electorate at the first available opportunity.

Urgency

What is definitely not questionable is Malta’s urgent need to start afresh and go back to the point of departure when Malta embarked on the road to independence. In other words, we need a government all set to assume full control and expand our productive and earning capacity, so that the livelihood and quality of life of the people can be maintained and sustained.

As from that time, the government proceeded first to set up its own national institutions, like the Central Bank and the Malta Development Corporation. Soon afterwards, it began to take control of the focal points of the economy, eg telecommunications, the airport, etc., and proceeded to take initiatives to enhance Malta earning power, eg Air Malta, the Freeport, the banking system.

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As a result, new sources of earnings evolved and our national

economic infrastructure gradually took shape. More import-antly, this gave meaning to Malta’s aspirations to act autonomously.

These are now being haphazardly sold off – which means that these sources of potential income are being disposed of, some on give-away terms that boggle the mind. Even worse, the economic infrastructure is not just being dismantled – important parts of it are falling under foreign control. Malta is losing control of its sinews. This amounts to a depreciation of Malta’s independent status. It is a process that must be reversed if the people of these Islands are to be the authentic masters in their own home.

Malta must, at all costs, sustain and enhance its independent vocation in the interests of its own survival. It needs leadership with resolve and an ability to inspire confidence in all its people – one that focuses on the common good, and that measures progress by results, rather than by propaganda targets.

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