The Malta Labour Party has sent its report on the National Statistics Office to various foreign embassies, said Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi at an activity in Gzira yesterday.
Dr Gonzi said that the MLP not only embarked on a ferocious personal attack on Godwin Cordina, which led to his resignation from the post of director general of the National Statistics Office, but continued to send the report it had compiled to various embassies.
“This was done to damage Malta’s standing while it is doing well in reaching the criteria laid out to adopt the euro as national currency next year. This is proof that the MLP wants to put spokes in the wheels of this process,” said Dr Gonzi.
The meeting, themed “Commit-ment in your locality”, was also addressed by Education Minister Louis Galea and Infrastructure Minister Ninu Zammit.
Dr Gonzi said that the MLP does not want to divulge the names of those who compiled the report.
He asked whether the person who compiled it might be an employee within some organisation and that instead of carrying out his duties to serve the country, decided to take a week off so as to work on the said report.
“We are ready to take all criticism on board, as long as it is not hidden or masked and is not made in the form of personal attacks or in a manner that can be adverse for the country as a whole,” he said.
He appealed for the people of Malta to look at the true scenario and understand that the MLP still practices eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth politics of old.
Dr Gonzi also spoke about the improvement in the economy and the ever increasing amounts of direct foreign investment in Malta. He said that when Alfred Sant was Prime Minister in 1998, the country only managed to attract a measly Lm19m in investment in that year.
In contrast, he pointed out, a PN government had last year managed to rake in some Lm500m in direct foreign investment.
Continuing to make comparisons, he reminded those present that Alfred Sant had frozen Malta’s European Union membership bid while the PN had secured some E855m in funding in the 2007-2013 budgetary period.
Moreover, he said that Dr Sant’s government had caused the deficit to grow to unprecedented levels, while the PN government had brought it down to under three per cent of Gross Domestic Product.
He said that such results were only possible through serious and responsible administration, even when the world as a whole was reeling due to the effects of ever increasing prices being demanded for oil.
Dr Sant, said Dr Gonzi,
cannot make people forget that his government’s policies brought the country to its knees. “But today, people have more money in their pockets. Not only that, but local council purses are also fuller than they used to be as well as their having better staff levels than before,” said Dr Gonzi.
The Prime Minister reminded those present that the government’s priorities were education, the economy and the environment. “It was a PN government that invested heavily, and is still doing so, in education. In 10 to 15 years’ time, Malta must become the communications hub in the Mediterranean. The SmartCity project will also help facilitate this,” he said.
In conclusion, Dr Gonzi congratulated Olivia Lewis on winning the Malta Song for Europe and said that when she represents Malta at the Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Helsinki in May, the whole country will be rooting for her.