It is the beginning of the end. And this end could hopefully lead to a new beginning. This is what the title is suggesting since one could read it from the beginning and from the end and it always remains ‘smart trams’.

In Malta we have heard much ‘smart’ talk while it seems that the idea of trams has been ditched, at least for the time being. In the meantime however we know how our leaders have fixed nails to the national coffins by the introduction of outdated costly projects with no real gain for the public at large. We are all experiencing snake like structures creeping like trams along our country up to the entrance of our capital, costing hundreds of millions of still valuable euros.

One could start with the planned power station and continue with the SmartCity project for which the taxpayer has already forked out millions to create ancillary infrastructure. So far we have heard of only one small company that is interested in setting up shop in this fairy tale city. By the time the project is to be completed the idea of having a base on a remote island for IT businesses would be more outdated than it is today.

But this track record of throwing away good money after mammoth projects goes further. Smart meters are being installed without reaping any benefits for consumer and for Enemalta itself with its €557 million of accumulated debts. On the contrary these smart digital readers have to be apparently financed by the consumer at one go in the first year, in many cases prior to their installation. This explains why the whole population is up in arms against the newly established billing company.

This brings us to another invisible snake called consultancies. Never have so many millions been paid in consultancies as in these last ten years. The result is a real mess with no sound coherent planning in sight. The only beneficiaries are the consultants themselves while the gap between the rich and the poor is widening by the day. Who consulted for instance on the utilities of the new hospital so that Mater Dei has to pay over €5 million a year for utilities alone while the CCU of the same hospital suffers from chronic overcrowding?

While the old transport system has siphoned lots of good money without giving a decent service, Malta is about to repeat the same mistake by handing out the new contract to one sole company. In order to accommodate this company our politicians are engaging in a suffocating fight against our capital city which has immensely benefitted from the free P & R centre in Floriana in these last years. With the introduction of a parking fee for this centre people will start avoiding Valletta at a time when its entrance is already battered with an unnecessary building called Parliament.

Malta needs solid national finances to survive the current unprecedented financial crisis on the side of healthy economies at a time when the present administration is about to rephrase the famous palindrome into ‘smart was I ere I saw trams’. It is no coincidence that this is happening at this juncture when key ministers are about to throw in the towel. This could paradoxically translate into a new beginning where our leaders regain the courage to start afresh with enough teamwork and stamina to go ahead with small sustainable projects that fit into the overall picture.

What we need is a new beginning, leaders that know where we have to arrive at and enough teamwork and stamina to go ahead with small sustainable projects that fit into the overall picture. We need solid national finances to survive the present and the not so distant future financial turmoil.

The present government is about to rephrase the famous palindrome into ‘smart was I ere I saw trams’. It is perhaps more than a coincidence that this is happening at a time when key ministers of miniature Napoleonic dimensions are about to throw in the towel.

Agnes Debono

Kercem