Had Samuel Beckett been alive and living in Malta today, he would surely be tempted to write a sequel to his famous tragicomedy Waiting For Godot. But perhaps this time round he would name his play Waiting for Smart City.

The Prime Minister’s reaction to his party’s poor showing in the local elections betrays the arrogance which for so long has characterised this administration. He says that he is not unduly worried by the message the electorate sent through its vote, and prefers to concentrate on pushing forward the Smart City project.

In our frequent contacts with the electorate, we are often exposed to the harsh reality of what is really worrying our families. The here-and-now issues troubling our families are various and include the continuously escalating cost of living, the increasingly unbearable burden of the surcharge on water and electricity bills, the prohibitive cost of medicine, the declining health services, the low standards achieved by our educational system, and the lack of employment opportunities for our youngsters and middle aged unemployed.

It is a shame that all the Prime Minister can do is urge us to wait for Smart City with the “thousands” of jobs it will create in 14 years’ time. Even here Dr Gonzi should be more honest with the Maltese people.

While projects like Smart City will always be welcome, their potential to create employment opportunities become real if we start to address some fundamental problems that have been undermining our competitiveness for several years. I am referring in particular to the gross underachievement in our educational sector.

This administration has been in power for most of the last 20 years, and yet we have the EU’s worst record for producing under qualified young people who are now finding it so difficult to find suitable employment. A future Labour government will not tolerate this situation and will work with our educators, industry and our families to correct this basic flaw in our educational infrastructure.

We also need to ease the burdens afflicting our families including the surcharge on utility bills, which is draining so much of the spending power of ordinary people who work so hard to make a living. We will finance this cost through a determined effort to eliminate waste and extravagance in public expenditure

A future Labour government will ensure that there are no more Dar Malta style projects. Neither will there be projects which overshoot their budgets by a 100 per cent or even more, as has happened in the building of the Mater Dei hospital and the construction of new roads.

The interest of Maltese families will be the compass that will show us the way when defining policies. Before defining and implementing public policies, we will consistently ask ourselves “Will what we are planning help our families?” If the answer is positive, we will go ahead and promote the necessary changes to bring about economic growth and well being for our people.

The recent local elections have again confirmed the majority’s desire for change. Waiting for Godot, or Smart City, will hardly ease their anguish on how the quality of their lives is steadily deteriorating as a result of the mismanagement of the country by the Nationalist administration.

Despite Dr Gonzi’s mantra that there is no alternative to his government, our people constantly reject this fatalistic attitude and look forward to seeing a Labour government take charge, and bring about the change our country so badly needs.

Dr Mangion is deputy leader of the Opposition.