“The Prime Minister himself tries to play with words with regard to whether people are at risk of poverty or in poverty. In my opinion, the line is very thin and, with all the hardships that his administration is putting on the families, soon they will struggle even more to make ends meet”
Amid all this uncertainty and mixed opinions on whether the developed world is out of or still in the midst of a recession, a good number of Maltese citizens are having nightmares especially when they receive the water and electricity bills or have to buy a gas cylinder. During the period of an international recession, the government led by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, against all odds, raised the energy tariffs for families and the business community, when both the families and businesses, or rather most of them, were struggling to keep it going.
It is a known fact, though it is not admitted by the current administration, that the public finances are in dire straits. So what the government is trying to do is eliminate all subsidies and therefore people have to pay the whole price.
Apart from the fact that just before the last general elections the Prime Minister himself used to boast about subsidies and their importance, now after the election he is doing the opposite. In pure economic terms this might be the way forward only if we ignore the political statements uttered by the PN and if we ignore the social aspect; which for me is fundamental. Our wages are not increasing in tandem with the cost of living, most of which is due to the government raising its prices. This mismatch is creating hardship to a good number of families.
I encountered some desperate families who do not know what they are going to do when they receive one bill after another and do not have the money to pay it. Others are still waiting for the vouchers, to at least reduce the burden when settling these bills. Others complain that they did not receive the children’s allowance, which for them is crucial to keep going, especially if they are dependent on social services. A single mother told me that she was informed by the department concerned that since the government does not have money she had to wait until October to receive her cheque. And throughout all this, these families continue to receive higher bills from a government who is not concerned about really helping those in need.
The Prime Minister, in his Sunday sermon, preaches that the government is helping those families in need by giving vouchers and more children’s allowance, when in actual fact these are not being received on time.
The current administration should focus more on how to help and improve the standard of living of these families rather than using them for publicity’s sake. This administration, after many years in power, is totally responsible for poverty and the rise of this phenomenon in our country. The Prime Minister himself tries to play with words with regard to whether people are at risk of poverty or in poverty.
In my opinion, the line is very thin and, with all the hardships that his administration is putting on the families, soon they will struggle even more to make ends meet.
In a Eurobarometer study for the European Commission it transpires that 41 per cent of Maltese people are struggling to cope with the cost of living while 13 per cent are not in a position to pay their bills. So what is the government doing to try to reduce these numbers? The government is more concerned about public finances rather than the families. Mind you, of course, it is very important to do so after so many years of neglect of the public funds, but he is doing this at the worst time possible when, until now, experts do not know if we are out of the recession or just at the beginning of another one.
If things continue as they are, our country will experience a social recession, if I may use this terminology, which then would be very difficult to come out of.
Transparency in public administration is also crucial. A number of projects put forward by the Nationalist Party in government raise many questions and suspects. The list is a long one and for sure it is not in the national interest to continue like this. Even so, the government should work to exorcise the nightmares that most citizens are experiencing due to the government-induced costs and burdens.
Carmelo Abela
Labour Main Spokesperson for Industry and Foreign Investment
Email: [email protected]