The recent revelation that government was forging ahead with its plans to raise the remuneration paid to Ministers and Members of Parliament took a completely new twist last week. In an unprecedented move, government backbenchers revealed that Ministers have in fact been receiving their increased honoraria since the beginning of the legislature while Members of Parliament had to wait for two and a half years to get their increase.

Some of the Parliamentarians actually expressed their disbelief that government could be so detached from reality and to the current economic situation, insensitive to the concerns of the people and forge ahead with its plans and worse of all defend the hefty increases.

Government’s insensitivity has to be put in context with regards to the recent increases of fuel and gas prices. To defend the latest increases in fuel and gas, government argued that the higher prices are a result of the international economy and nothing much can be done since the country lacks natural resources and as a consequence has to import its energy supplies. This becomes worse when noticing that the European Central Bank last week said that it sees evidence of “short-term upward pressure” in eurozone European Member States, mainly owing to energy prices, and inflation could temporarily increase further.

As a matter of fact, the Confederation of Maltese Trade Unions (CMTU) called on government to “act more responsibly”, while the Chamber for Small and Medium enterprises, the GRTU, described government as the “transmission belt” of higher prices. Both the CMTU and the GRTU made these statements in the wake of the latest energy increases and these statements very much describe the sentiment of the nation. Perhaps one of the most unpopular decisions was to pass on the increase in energy prices onto households and businesses and thus increasing significantly the bills for consumers and the operating costs for businesses. Somehow, the country has accepted the fact that finances are in dire straits and that was the only solution other than being burdened with more taxes.

The prime minister has argued that whoever thinks that the timing was not right is wrong as he had decided to increase the wages paid, particularly Ministers with a €600 increase per week, immediately after the 2008 general election. But then again, as we have tried to highlight again and again, shortly after the election, with much pomp, an IMF report on Malta was the subject of a government press conference where the country was told that the economy was growing sustainably. Also, the report warned the government not to increase the salaries of those in the public sector as this could destabilise growth, decrease competitiveness and productivity. Two weights, two measures and the mere fact that this took place makes the PM’s words hollow. This was a very clear instance of telling the people one thing, doing the complete opposite and now, trying and justify it.

This was a decision that could have been rescinded. This could have been an opportunity for Ministers to lead by example the country which they have been asking to make sacrifices as the price of commodities increase. Thus, government should have acted more responsibly before forging ahead with the increases paid to Ministers and, now, Members of Parliament.