Caught up in the frenzy of a campaign for a perceived imminent election, the Malta Labour Party is unwisely counting its chickens before they are hatched.

All their energy is being directed towards a negative campaign that has become too stale and predictable to be taken seriously by a level-headed electorate. I believe that they would fare much better if they advised the youths of Cottonera and the surrounding area to prepare themselves to take full advantage of the lucrative jobs that are going to be created in IT and elsewhere, as the SmartCity (Malta) project begins to unfold.

As things are, their adversity to every government initiative will come back to haunt them when, thanks to the Nationalist Party, the south is transformed into a prosperous and up-market desirable area in which to live.

The opposition has failed to give the country credible alternatives to those that the government is already pursuing. Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi is not courting popularity. Instead, he is persevering with the task in hand of consolidating our recent achievements. Popularity will come naturally when people realise that our government has navigated a safe course through the turbulent waters of world instability.

We have coped with rocketing energy prices and intense competition in the tourism sector, and have even managed to create jobs to replace those that were lost in the manufacturing sector. In the meantime, the Malta Labour Party cannot restrain its glee. It thinks that people are stupid enough not to realise that the hike in energy prices was an external calamity over which we had no

control.

It seems that the MLP has now changed its tactics for their current electoral campaign. Last time, it thought that promises of a two-month income-tax holiday, plus other incentives to pensioners, students and the unemployed, would clinch the election for it. It did not.

This time, it is a pronounced campaign of doom and gloom that the good Prophet Jeremiah would have had trouble to match.

The Malta Labour Party’s efforts remind me of the order Churchill gave to sink the Bismarck at all costs. In this case, it is all out to kill the feel-good factor, regardless of the damage that the economy sustains by its actions.

The MLP is understandably perturbed because it knows that during the remaining year-and-a-half before another election is due, many of the ambitious projects the government has undertaken will come to fruition, despite their constant throwing of spanners in the works.

They know that an unprecedented number of new roads, which are being constructed to an unprecedented high standard, will be completed. Mater Dei hospital will be open and fully operational, raising the quality and range of amenities offered to the Maltese public to world class standards. A number of new and refurbished schools will be completed and more homes for the elderly will have been opened, in addition to the extensive upgrading of St Vincent de Paul. The MLP’s false portrayal of an incompetent government will be increasingly considered a manifest lie. The procrastination on the subject of pension reforms is typical of the MLP’s inability to grapple seriously with the problems created by demographic imbalances.

Opposition Leader Alfred Sant must be the only Western leader who is failing to recognise, or perhaps a better word would be “acknowledge”, the unsustainability of pensions in the near future. Yet he continues with his opposition to pension reforms, instead of contributing constructively to the solution of this issue, which, if neglected, will have a devastating effect on future pensioners. The MLP also needs to watch against blatant inconsistencies if its credibility is not to sink to a new low in the run up to another election.

After months of sustained attacks on Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech for a slight dip in the tourist arrivals figures, Dr Tony Abela (One media presenter) is now anticipating a substantial increase in the number of tourists with dread. He is now claiming that our infrastructure cannot cope with an increase in the

number of tourists and that Air Malta cannot cope with the competition from low-cost airlines.

So fewer tourists is disastrous for our economy and an increase is even more worrying. Perhaps Dr Abela will advise the shadow tourism minister to ensure that only rich, free-spending tourists come to Malta. This is a contradiction in itself, coming from someone who purports to support the virtues of egalitarian socialism.

Negative criticism for perceived political advantage is making the MLP a laughing stock. One would have thought that the least the party could do is to make up its mind. Does the MLP seriously want an increase in the number of tourists or not?

Before facing another election, voters will need to have an assurance of where the MLP stands with regard to EU membership. It has said that it will bow to the people’s verdict and accept the election and referendum results. To what extent can we trust it to keep this promise, when we keep hearing its continued criticism of Malta’s EU membership?

Will it declare that, if given another term in office, it will not repeat its gross “miscalculation” of energy tariffs that left many people witless and speechless the last time?

Will it once again attempt to introduce an iniquitous door tax that will be based on the number of doors a property has?

Dr Sant even went as far as to declare that a Labour administration will never allow local governments to impose their own taxes. He refrained from saying that he was introducing a property tax himself.

And what about the

infamous sewage charge that Dr Sant tried to introduce last time, falsely blaming it on a commitment entered into with the EU by the Fenech Adami government? Now, 10 years later, and having no sewage tax, people have no doubt about who was misleading them in 1996. Yet, they strain to compare the trouble that a Socialist Hungarian government is going through because of false pre-election promises with a Nationalist government.

The Malta Labour Party cannot continue refusing to acknowledge the astonishing strides in our standard of living since the PN, led by Dr Eddie Fenech Adami, ended the 16 years of misery.

We no longer see the bowsers pumping water of questionable quality to roof-top tanks.

The massive importation of electronic and electrical goods that were previously prohibited, such as colour televisions, computers, cordless telephones and air conditioners, etc., the electricity supply, thanks to the PN government’s foresight in investing in a new power station, and reverse osmosis plants, which we now take for granted, make the experience of a Labour government, and the depravities it inflicted, seem like a bad dream.

David Agius is a Nationalist MP for the seventh and 11th electoral districts