The firestorm created over just a few minutes yesterday, when news about the imminent Standard & Poors downgrade broke, with politicians tripping over each other to be the first to comment, and with them then doing nothing except point fingers at anybody else (except themselves) was unseemly. Like fighting at a funeral.

With the country facing a crucial election in a month’s time, there is a tsunami of hype and an overdose of vituperation when clarity of thought, dispassionate analysis and a clear-eyed vision about the way forward.

On the one hand, the S&P document (which we reproduce in this issue) puts paid to so much boasting we are continually hearing about how Malta was the only country to emerge unscathed from the crisis.

The document does pay due homage to Malta’s resilience but it also highlights the risks. In a nutshell, the local economy is fragile and it carries risks that have long been there and have not been consistently tackled.

Such as the dire situation of Enemalta’s financial position.

Such as the overhand of the government’s high debt burden, high private-sector indebtedness, and so on. Not forgetting social security.

On the other hand, the very first words of the S&P document point to the non-approval of the Budget. For this the country blames Franco Debono, who voted against for reasons of what the entire country sees as pure personal and partisan vindictiveness and also the entire Opposition which, as every Opposition usually does, voted against the Budget even when it clearly foresaw the consequences of such action. And only now are we being told the Opposition, if returned to government, will present the same Budget minus taxation on minimum wage earners.

No, we are not the best performers in Europe. A look at the table we reproduce today shows Malta still languishing around the bottom half of the EU, along with the likes of Bulgaria and Romania. Other countries that entered the EU with us in 2004, like Slovenia and the Czech Republic, have fared much better.

We can widen this consideration in the light of many other statistics and tables that are published by many different authorities and bodies: Malta has a long way to go if its aspiration to do good in the EU is in any way to be attained. Whether it’s a question of female participation in the work force, or young people continuing with tertiary education, whether it’s a question of productivity or GDP growth, we have a long and hard struggle ahead of us.

The country has been allowed to become an Oxford Street on the days of the Sales, with offers flowing and sloshing around with no one estimating what each and every offer will cost and, it would seem, with no one having any idea who will end up paying for it. This Oriental Bazaar, this Gadarene rush of irresponsible promises must stop. The S&P downgrade must sober us all from this euphoria and these promises.

Meanwhile, the electorate must carefully evaluate what the parties are promising, and, more importantly, how credible they sound as to their deliverables. Again, going by what is written in the S&P document, the sanest advice to the electorate is to distrust those who promise a land flowing with milk and honey and to carefully look at those who promise blood and tears in this long and hard uphill struggle.

The S&P downgrade may in the end be a game-changer, in that it sifts the boys from the men. We must admit that, for many reasons, we as a people have not really improved our lot since joining the EU, despite there now being almost universal approval of this step. In some areas, on the contrary, we have floated downwards while other new member states have climbed up ahead of us.

Growth will further elude us if all we can think of is to unleash a huge consumerist bonanza though having somehow cut energy prices. The S&P document was very clear on this too: Enemalta is in a bad state. One wonders if S&P believes that by doubling Enemalta with a PPP concept the country’s finances will become any better.

A consumer bonanza will be a heady brew on which we will all get drunk – and its effects will only last as long as the inebriation lasts. Then, the headaches will begin. The only way to growth is through improving our competitiveness, through producing higher-quality goods and services, through cutting down on government-induced costs, through increasing the number of people working, and so on.

We are seriously afraid that this election campaign is becoming a campaign with no real discussion of the serious issues the country is facing, an unseemly scramble for power with no holds barred and the power prize going to just one half of the country to the total exclusion of the other half.