A somewhat worried friend of mine had already started imagining the usual post-election celebrations, except that this time around he imagined people waving water and electricity meters rather than cash registers. Had the Leader of the Opposition not failed in his quest to garner the necessary support for his no-confidence motion, my friend would have put his fears to the test sooner rather than later.

Last Thursday’s motion of no-confidence in the government had, to say the least, dubious motivations, as the government has no economic or policy crisis. In addition, the motivations were not presented with the motion itself and parliament had no option but to wait for the winding up by the Leader of the Opposition in the hope of getting a grasp of the real motivation behind the motion. There was no list of speakers from the Opposition but the leader himself. There were no alternatives presented to Government’s policies, only a repetition of the same armchair criticism that was defeated in vote after vote during the budget discussions. No wonder that many believe this was all about the Leader of the Opposition’s haste to take his party back to power.

Despite the crisis going on around us, we have kept our country moving steadily on through good governance and responsibility. We have weathered the international financial crisis by maintaining financial and economic stability while continuing to attract foreign investment, creating new jobs and strengthening social welfare. This strategy also caters for keeping the tax burden down, fighting inflation, continuing to develop health services, improve pensions and social benefits, and investing in better education.

We feel that the Government’s vision and initiatives have been paying dividends, as we believe that economic policy and social policy are inextricably linked, more so in times of crisis. While other countries are struggling badly and continue to introduce a number of austerity measures that are causing strikes, demonstrations, redundancies and problems in the standard of living, we have established a number of records in different sectors that have yielded impressive returns that boost our economy.

The government was never afraid of introducing reforms that were absolutely necessary, even if some of the measures were not all that popular. Nevertheless, government has succeeded in registering impressive achievements where it mattered most.

The latest NSO employment figures show that in August 149,751 people were gainfully employed and 6,465 were out of work. Last year, 3,112 new jobs were created. Malta is among the top five European countries with the lowest unemployment figures.

The number of tourists who came to Malta during 2011, at 1.4 million, was an all-time record, and an increase of 74,700 (5.6 per cent) on the previous year. The visitors’ spending during their stay, which totalled 11.6 million bed nights, boosted the economy by €1.2 billion, which is an increase of 9.9 per cent on 2010.

Great strides were registered in the financial services sector which, apart from the input made towards the economy, also helped to increase employment of a certain standard.

We have 11,341 students at university, while MCAST can boast of more than 6,000 full-time students and more than 4,000 part-time. The present government is committed to assist students and their families and feels more than justified in spending more than €23 million on stipends alone. It recognises education as one of the main pillars of its programme and it is no wonder that every school day costs roughly €1.4 million – or €41,000 an hour. A new state-of-the art school has been constructed every year for quite a number of years now.

Mistakes we have made, but this is the track record of the Government that faced the Opposition’s unsuccessful no-confidence motion during a challenging period both nationally and internationally. And, being the fourth year of the legislature, we are now seeing many projects coming to fruition.

The forthcoming general election, whenever the Prime Minister decides to call it, will surely put the popularity of the party in government to test but the verdict will also have a direct consequence on the direction the country takes and on the results it achieves. It will have a direct consequence on our standard of living. Will people celebrate with water and electricity meters in their hands?