As the prospects of the next general election loom larger on Malta’s political horizon, the electoral pulse begins to beat faster at the prospect of a confrontation between politicians and the sovereign electorate.
Government and Opposition politicians will begin to inspect the political landscape from the opposite end of the telescope, and the spin doctors will come into their own.
Confrontation is part of the democratic process, but it has to be distilled for reality to emerge.
While the party machines and their spin doctors do their best to build up their support, the more enlightened voters navigate by their own criteria. Their experience and their perceptions are their guiding stars.
Results matter
Since the last general election, the Maltese electorate has been flayed by stiff and rising taxation, and the economy lost its rhythm because of overspending, bureaucratic procrastination, and polarisation.
The impact was manifest with several business and families being set back.
On its part, the government tried its best to make up for lost ground by restructuring and by doing its best to attract new investment. It has recouped some of the lost ground by attracting new initiatives, particularly in the financial and services sector. But the number of citizens approaching, or falling below the poverty line, has not diminished.
It has not achieved its own self-set targets to reverse the sinking fortunes of the tourist industry. The cost of living is still eroding purchasing power. The health service has deteriorated steadily. The rape of the environment has proceeded apace notwithstanding street protests by concerned NGOs.
No wonder the government’s performance has been less and less convincing.
Study in contrasts
The government’s electoral stance is to look steadily ahead, oblivious of the present and the past.
It speaks of “targets”. Prime Minister Gonzi admits that the government plans are “ambitious”, but he insists they are “achievable”. Smart City will be fully operational in 15 years’ time. Big investments are earmarked for the education sector. The Mater Dei Hospital – Malta’s biggest white elephant – will finally be operational by the end of 2007. Malta will become a European regional IT hub. And so on.
The spin revolves on hope.
Behind this façade is the stubborn reality that the government continues to be seized by inertia and plagued by incompetence. It is driven by tired hands that lead an aimless bureaucracy.
The government has fallen between the stool of hope and the stool of competent performance. The evidence is plentiful.
The government claims that Mater Dei Hospital will be the very best in Europe. It is the hospital that has taken the longest time to build in world history, and it has not yet come into service.
The Gozo Ferry terminal is yet another specimen of poor planning and an unfulfilled target. So are the Chambray and the White Rocks projects.
The much-touted re-branding exercises for the Malta Tourist Authority and the Public Broadcasting Service each amounted to a veritable tour de farce
The government has not yet managed to produce the final result of the Population Census held in November 2005.
It is increasingly falling foul of the European Union due to its tardiness, even failure, to comply with the rules of the club, which is now threatening to open infringement procedures in the European Court.
Malta has been a member of the Council of Europe since April 1965. Yet it has only ratified 75 out of the 200 Council of Europe Conventions as of last March.
These harsh realities cannot be obliterated from the radar screen of the electorate.
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