As a party, we enter the year 2008 with strong courage, aware that all the work we have done in the past will, god-willing, during this year materialise into reality. All this will be possible following a Labour victory aimed at giving Malta what it deserves: a clean, forward-looking government. This is, in fact, strengthening our will further, not only to work in order to advance the nation as a whole, creating more wealth in general; but further, to ensure that its benefits will reach everyone, from top to bottom.
As part of the leadership of the party, we have also had, in the last days, to fill in for the absence of leader Alfred Sant. An absence which I augur will be short-lived, in that it is expected that Dr Sant will not only be leading the Labour Party in the forthcoming electoral campaign, but also through his becoming the next Prime Minister, subsequently leading a new, better Malta.
Turning to the “talk of the town”, the euro is now part and parcel of our everyday life, just as the lira was. In this regard, contrary to what our adversaries have been trying to insinuate, Labour is not against the introduction of the euro. We never were. Labour accepts willingly the euro, as a consequence of our joining the EU, and that this is nothing more than part of the process of moving Malta forward. On the other hand, and in the people’s general interests, we believe that not enough has been done to assure that the changeover will not mean an automatic increase in the cost of living. Nor does the common citizen appear to have been adequately informed.
The Nationalists have here been spinning on “price management”, and even tried to go further up the road and asked the business community to halt price increases on essential goods for six months, up to March this year. In itself, if this actually happens, then it is a benefit. But is this truly happening?
If it is happening, why then are we witnessing these price increases in basically everything, from food and medicine to clothes and services galore? If this is happening now, what then will we be expecting after March? Are we going to witness an explosion in prices that will further raise inflation and make life more difficult, especially for those that are already unable to meet everyday costs?
Another issue which has been raised during these last days is that of education. Last week the Education Minister announced that the national curriculum is now to be updated. High time indeed, for as Labour’s spokesperson for education Carmelo Abela was prompt to state, this was being done at least two years late. What the minister launched as a “review” should have started in 2005. Now, however, the minister expects praise because two years late, the process for the renewing of the curriculum is just starting; if it ever materialises, that is.
Unfortunately, indeed, the priority that education should have taken by the Nationalists did not come to be. Education is, in fact, one of the major failures of Nationalist administrations and as EU statistics indicate, we are still at the bottom of the comparative list of achievements within the EU. On the other hand, and on the contrary, Labour clearly sees education as a primary remedy to most of our economic and cultural ills, and will endeavor to give our children what is rightfully theirs; a decent and meaning education to all.
Labour’s tasks in government will not be simple. The promise of a better life for everyone is not an easy task. However, with determination and with proper plans, as set out in the documents which we have drawn up in “A New Beginning”, we will strive to give a better quality of life to all and sundry. A new Labour government will also take immediate measures to increasing the purchasing power of the Maltese and Gozitan families. It will make overtime non-taxable, give a one-time e11,647 grant to first-time buyers and cap their mortgage interest rates at 4.5 per cent per annum. A new Labour government will also give back to all the categories of Maltese workers, the public holidays which fall on a weekend which were denied to them by the Gonzi government. These are but a few of the many measures which we will take once in government.
These are not empty, but sincere promises and realities that Labour will deliver. For indeed, Labour will not only be an alternative government, but a better one.
[email protected]
Dr Michael Falzon is the MLP Deputy Leader for Party Affairs