In any discussion of government, the words “overload” and “stress” go together. They represent an ever-present danger to stable and good government.
Only recently, the national Office of Statistics revealed that the shortfall between recurrent revenue and total expenditure, in the first seven months of this year, exceeded the relative figure for the previous year, and this in spite of the fact that it realised an excess in revenue of Lm25.2 million over the same time in 2006. Central Government debt outstanding at the end of July amounted to Lm1,428 million – an increase of Lm70 million over July 2006.
The government continues to overspend and, with an election in the offing, it is not going to pull the brakes.
The emerging picture suggests that the government’s plight has assumed a degree of permanence, notwithstanding the fact that ministers have pressed every button. None of them, or their spin doctors, know which button, if any of them, will yield the desired results.
Evidence of stress
The engine has stalled. If one takes away the hype, the engine could not gather sufficient speed.
Of course, power brings as much frustration as satisfaction, particularly where growth is of the essence.
It is not a case of successive governments facing an enduring problem, and being judged by their success or failure in the duel. In Churchill’s memorable words: “The compass has been damaged. The charts are out of date.”
In such a situation, a prime minister in office is more like a climber on a rock face unable to go up or down, than a general ordering his troops, wherever he wishes, around the landscape.
This is where the stress is most evident.
Dr Gonzi’s honeymoon days in office have receded by a long stretch. He has been in the saddle for more than three years. Yet the cost of government continues to edge up. Although some new investment has been attracted to Malta, that which is in operation is not trickling down to fertilise the economy, and the rest is some long way from materialising in productive terms. Meanwhile, disposable income is fast being eroded by taxation and inflation.
Weaknesses
Adverse conditions in some of our main markets do not make the prevailing situation in Malta any easier. If anything, they make it all the more necessary for us to restructure in order to compete. But, if the spirit is willing, the flesh is decidedly weak.
Maltese bureaucracy is ill prepared and often ill disposed, to make any big leap forward.
Successive reports from Brussels bear this out with disconcerting monotony. These reports are reinforced by many pronouncements from the Office of the Auditor-General.
At the political level, there has been a dearth of “managerial” material. In the public forum, perceptions are gloomy, and disenchantment has gained the upper hand after so many broken promises.
Scant success is a barricade against forward movement. The situation is evocative of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. “The waters rise. The apprentice rushes around with the bucket. And nobody knows when, or whether, the magician will come home.”
The medical health sector has deteriorated; the state of many roads still approximates to Third World standards. Pollution defies control; public transport continues to leave much to be desired. Taxation erodes the tender sinews of more families, as they approach the poverty line, and puts the entire business sector under strain.
Quality time
One would have thought that on taking over as Prime Minister, Dr Gonzi would have fully seized the intolerably heavy burden confronting him. He didn’t. Instead, he blithely assumed the added burden of the Finance Ministry.
Add to this the increasing number of expeditions Dr Gonzi has had to make overseas since Malta’s EU accession, and you will understand under what stress he has to work, and what quality time he could afford to organise Malta’s economic break-through from its present predicament.
Politics as a profession could be immensely risky, tending to appeal to those who live on a diet of adrenalin.
A well-known psychologist, Professor Norman Dixon (Our own Worst Enemy – Cape 1987), considered that this genus has an inclination to think that rules apply to others rather than to them.
Like anyone else, politicians are fallible human beings, and their propensity to make light of difficult problems should preoccupy thinking citizens, whose main concern is the nation’s survival.
After all, this would take priority over the political fate of the powerful.
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