The tones used by the PN and PL leaders during Sunday’s political activities were definitely more akin to an election campaign than the usual weekly discussions – or monologues.
Both Lawrence Gonzi and Joseph Muscat have begun to speak in terms of what they will be doing if elected to govern, rather than what is going on at present.
The PN’s strategy machine has decided that the best way forward is to compare Muscat’s Labour to old Labour – the MLP which will never be able to shed its history. In fact, Dr Gonzi took a remark made by Joseph Muscat about the minimum wage and used it to bring back the past. Muscat had said that the PL’s priority was to reduce water and electricity tariffs, rather than increase wages. The PN immediately pounced on the statement and the PM said that this was akin to the MLP’s decision to freeze wages in the 1981-1987 administration.
The PL immediately clarified and said that the PL will not impose a wage freeze, but would continue with compensation under COLA and other structures. The truth is that much changes in politics and politicians often forget what they have used as ‘ammunition’ in the past. It was not so long ago that the PN government quoted an International Monetary Fund report on Malta which reasoned that the country was competing, but that “increasing wages would impact on competitiveness and sustainability”. So, it seems that Muscat and Gonzi said the same thing.
On the other hand, Joseph Muscat said that the PL would reduce water and electricity tariffs. We ask, for the umpteenth time, how it plans on doing so. Yes, we have heard about the gas plan, but in order to do that, we need a gas pipeline, as the government correctly states. And also, millions would be needed to upgrade the energy generation plants in order to do so. Where will the money for that come from? We wholeheartedly agree that utility bills are a huge burden, but there needs to be a hard and fast plan to reduce them, and not impose other taxes to generate other revenue to make up for the shortfall in cash.
But both leaders also made a lot of sense in other things that they brought up. The PM said that the Nationalist Party should be judged on its past and its achievements. There is no doubt that since 1987 (bar the Sant stint), the PN hauled Malta out of the backwaters of Europe and into the new millennium. Investment has poured in, services have dramatically increased and improved and Malta has evolved into a developed and competitive economy within the European Union.
Some raised eyebrows when Muscat said he, as Prime Minister, would lobby for a reform of the Common Agricultural Policy – which accounts for half of the EU’s budget. He is right. Thanks to CAP, Europe spends more on cows than it does on graduates. He is also right in saying that Malta takes hardly any benefits from the system and that a prospective government should push Europe for other concessions or other forms of funding to make up for it.
Election fever is taking hold and people should really start to listen, and make informed choices. Rather than listen to the rhetoric, voters should analyse the plans and proposals put forward by both parties and make an educated choice. That way, we would finally get a government that we – the people – truly deserve.