Prudence can be very dear in political terms and this year’s budget could prove to be very pricey indeed for the government even though that same prudence could, in the long run, save the country from a nasty fate indeed.

Last week, this newspaper argued that Budget 2012 must absolutely provide a buffer against the economic turmoil expected over the coming year. And that is what it did.

Our sister daily newspaper on Tuesday described it as a ‘shock absorber budget’, which is exactly what it is. It was designed to allow Malta to roll with the punches in what is expected to be a new heavyweight bout of fresh economic turmoil in 2012.

This time around it is not the financial institutions that are drowning but, rather, the tide that has now turned against governments themselves. While practically any government’s sovereign debt was once a sure-fire bet, that has now changed and if a country’s credibility sinks, so does its economy, capital projects and, in fact, one of the only things to grow in such a climate are unemployment lines.

Just ask Greece or Italy how fast a meltdown can actually occur, and how it always catches a country seemingly unawares. Malta, however, is clearly walking a fine line indeed − flirting as it is with excessive deficit and debt. And, for fear of being caught with its trousers down, it is tightening its belt.

As the Prime Minister has taken the habit of remarking recently, Malta must not suffer the humiliation sampled recently by Greece or Italy, Portugal or Ireland. Of course, he is spot on but there is a whole lot more at risk than national face here. Should Malta be forced to endure the full brunt of the crises as others have done, its small, open and vulnerable economy would not stand a snowball’s chance in a very hot place.

But however well-advised such budgetary prudence has been, it could cost the government dearly at the end of the day. And the Opposition will, of course, try to make that price as dear as possible when its leader replies to the budget tomorrow evening.

A budget that has not stuffed the electorate’s stockings provides rich pickings for any Opposition, and tomorrow’s budget reply will be a real test for the Opposition leader. But it will not be a test on how he can best take the government to task by hauling it over the hot coals on any number of issues ranging from a failure to fully live up to the tax cut pledged in the last general election, to utility rates.

But this is no time for such populist goodies and political indulgences, the time has come, as we said last week, to batten down the fiscal hatches − to prepare ourselves for the worst and hope for the best.

Such measures are simply too expensive at a point in time when the government is attempting to build as thick a cash cushion as possible, to which it will need to resort to should matters take a turn for the worse next year. Stimulus packages could very well be needed, and factories could need bailouts, as had been the case in Malta in the wake of the 2008 financial collapse.

These are just some of the considerations the Opposition leader would do well to bear in mind while drafting tomorrow evening’s speech. Congratulations on a job well done are obviously not expected, not by any stretch of the imagination, but a sense of balance and constructive criticism would serve the party much better in the long run.

After all, the country could find its very future to be hanging by a thread tomorrow should today’s very shaky geo-economics go haywire in tiny Malta’s respect, and this is clearly no time to resort to petty partisan politics.

This is instead a time to find strength in unity, and while the Opposition’s budget reply will no doubt be critical, it is hoped any such criticism is aimed not at the supposedly ghastly honoraria issue or the controversy over electricity prices, but rather on how the government could do still more to protect the public coffers and the public themselves from the prospect of very hard times ahead.

Making the government pay for its prudence comes at a cheap price, but could also cost an Opposition that shoots from the hip very dearly in the long run.