The past week or so, our newspapers were dominated by a few incidents that must be condemned by any law abiding citizen. The first kind of attacks was on private property belonging to journalists. Whatever your point of view in life is, counter acting in this way is not acceptable.
The second is the question of the euro. Not having any big issues to talk about, and after the poor showing both on the printed media and in public, Labour said that Malta was going to pay out millions of liri when euro comes to be.
The above news, ventilated and spread out in the good old doom and gloom manner, created a stir. However, having heard out a very informative Michael C. Bonello, governor of the Central Bank, in two Public Accounts Committee meetings held recently, the whole bubble burst.
My fellow MPs, on both sides of parliament, were quite astounded to find out that Malta could benefit from such a move, although, probably, over a 10-year period this would even out. What a let down to Labour who saw a possible election bone of contention go up in smoke. What worries me, though, is the information given and written by Labour experts that is misleading or utterly false. Is this how Labour expects to conduct a future government? Is this what a floating voter is looking for?
Such articles are damaging everywhere, and more if considered by investors who look at Malta in the long-term.
A third talking point are the wardens who run around giving tickets to anybody who may park his or her car but a few centimetres on a yellow line. Or the CCTV camera around churches or positioned on the Regional Road, where even a bicycle can be caught over-speeding. This is when wardens can surely do a better job by looking at garbage being taken out on weekends or after collection hours, cranes with no permits, dogs that are let to relieve themselves on the rocks, and other misdemeanours that are certainly more annoying. If the system is top heavy on costs, then an exercise on restructuring this segment and the system would be welcome.
A further positive sign from the government and its social conscience is evident. Families will be considered for assistance on the water and electricity surcharge, based on their particular and diverse circumstances. Society is moving and dynamic, does not rest still, and so this step taken by the government is one in the right direction. One party says it’s studying ways and means of what to do, draws up reports and documents, while the party in government thinks and implements policies from which people benefit.
What a stark difference in styles, methods of work and visions. The people will vote for a moving government, not for a party that after so many years in opposition can only come up with position papers which, when one delves into them, are a list of points that most probably have been or are being implemented by this Nationalist government.
The oil crisis seems to have come to stay, if not worsen. Each and every speech by Iran’s leaders pushes the price of oil up. Any small incident raises the price, that all the world must pay. That includes Malta. It’s unfortunate, but we have to deal with it in the best interests of Malta and for all the Maltese. It may change the way we think and do things.
Lastly, I attended a breakfast meeting on Product Malta, where the Malta Tourism Authority chairman gave an extensive overview of the work done and MTA’s programme. Hopefully, this will bear fruit to get us all out of the static tourist numbers that Malta is attracting year in, year out. However, the MTA is resolute to safeguard the tour operator, and I agree on this. However it wants to create a direct booking website that goes against the raison d’etre and existence of the very tour operator. A re-think on this one will surely not go amiss.
Robert Arrigo is a Nationalist MP