From Mr M. Seychell

There have been several occasions when I did not agree with Ms Caruana Galizia’s Opinion pieces, but I definitely do agree with the one she wrote about the brain drain in the health sector (TMIS, 3 December).

Both our culture and our mentality have to change, starting from the top downwards. Today, a doctor employed with the government practically earns the same salary as a clerk. This is the socialist mentally that was introduced in the 1970s and unfortunately Dr Gonzi’s government is moving exactly in the same direction.

The current government turned its party to the extreme left ideology when Dr Gonzi was appointed leader. Today, the PN administration is creating the same mess as Italy’s President Romano Prodi, the only difference being that in Italy there is an opposition, while in Malta it’s as if there isn’t.

Left wing ideologies have always viewed people who are more successful in life than others with a very critical eye; they see profit as a sin and perceive personal achievement as a racist act. Hard working professionals and employers today are portrayed as doing something immoral, simply because they achieve more than others in life and therefore earn more money.

Minister Dolores Cristina and Dr Gonzi before her, managed to create a monster of the welfare system. Today it pays you more to stay at home rather then go to work for a minimum wage. This mentality they created, that everybody has to be on the same level, is exactly the Marxist ideology. To be fair they succeeded in their mission, which is why they will probably lose the next election, and also why there is a brain drain in the Nationalist Party as well. Equal rights and opportunities should be given to all, but those who manage to do better should be given an incentive to succeed even further and not vice versa, like what is happening today.

So unfortunately the brain drain will continue in most of our important sectors. The island will return again to being an unskilled country, education levels will go down, and foreign cheap labour will fill the empty spaces created by the Maltese,who would have opted for better wages and working conditions abroad.

The only hope for Malta is a new political party, a party that would undoubtedly shake up the MLP and the PN. Hopefully this new party will not see achievement as a sin, and will let people who want and are capable of earning money do so, without taxing them to high heaven.

Malcolm Seychell

BIRKIRKARA