The recent round of local council elections was the last hurdle before the political parties approach the last lap. The next general election is clearly in sight.

Ministerial speeches will now come with a flourish of rhetoric and will, no doubt, be adorned with the flash and glitz of costume jewellery. They may conceivable also come along with some goodies.

Will the audience be in the mood?

Or will the audience be conditioned by the adversities sustained by the Maltese economy in recent years? Will the hard-pressed Maltese taxpayers have reason to look at the future with hope, or will they rather be inclined to feel that they have been short-changed since the last general election?

My feeling is that a significant (and growing) segment of the electorate, which had looked at the incumbent administration with the best will in the world for the past several years, will be asking what the government has to show in self-justification.

No amount of conjuring with Chinese mirrors will provide convincing answers. Nor will the promise of good things to come in the distant future do the trick.

Enduring pain

The electorate feels the enduring pain of the taxman’s bite, and is painfully aware that the government’s voracity has played havoc with the economy and its ability to recoup. There is no certainty more convincing than the fact that this has eroded the average earner’s spending power and clogged up the market. In turn, this led to a bout of stagnation and to a lack of confidence.

Inertia

Meanwhile, the government’s inertia has led to paralysis in various sectors, including those in need of special attention in order to conform to accession-related EU requirements.

I recall a report commissioned by the EU-directorate general for the environment in 2001, which declared that Malta was “seriously lagging behind in the environment sector”. It still is – as regards gas emissions and hunting in particular, but also with regard to urban waste water treatment, and the whole area of environment management.

This lackadaisical performance is seen by many as a manifestation of incompetence, seeing that the government has fallen short in areas where its declared policy called for total commitment.

If this much is conceded, it would call for no great stretch of the imagination to realise why the Gonzi administration was struck by immobility and impotence when it came to upgrade the public transport service and a number of roads that still qualify for Third World status. These two areas are equally vital to Maltese commuters and for the essential development of our tourist sector (and, therefore, the Maltese economy).

One could point at other areas of public disillusionment, including the rising criminality, court delays and overall administrative inefficiency. In matters relating to the environment, things have got well beyond disillusionment. Civil society has come into its own; it has raised its voice and taken to the streets in Marsascala, Sliema, Birzebbuga, St Julian’s and Hondoq ir-Rummien.

Final outcome

The final outcome is the same. It reflects disenchantment with the overall performance of the administration in the span of the last three years.

The bottom line – reduced to factual outturn and devoid of political meandering – will be reflected at the ballot box come the next general election.

Every reader savouring the above will, of course, have his own rightful personal opinion. I will not challenge it.

The point of the foregoing is not to argue. After all, each opinion is as good as the other. My point is to marshal the facts and bring out reality, however unpleasant, on parade.

However much opinions may differ, the overriding desiderata ought to be identical: namely to change direction, to stimulate forward movement, to go for growth, to get rid of the dead wood.

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