After launching its political manifesto, the Nationalist Party has followed up with the approval of its election programme, which includes its proposals for the next five years. These proposals, which were drafted after consultation with different sectors of society, are built on fundamental principles, studied with a great sense of responsibility and a strong belief that any measures – including those that concern the main pillars of work, health and education – are practical and doable. In the meantime, Labour has still not published its programme and has instead provided us with snippets, gimmicks and fantasies. Labour’s populism is now at its best.

Cheap tricks and cheap imitations

Labour’s purpose seems to have ended with the 1979 closing of the British naval base. Since then, no amount of soul -searching has been able to alleviate the party’s problems of purpose and identity. It had two options: either to keep its socialist roots or else attempt to emulate the Nationalist Party. Its resistance to liberal reforms over the years – including the liberalisation of the market, the devolution of power, broadcasting pluralism and Malta’s membership of the EU – has led it to defeat after defeat. As a consequence, it has traded the large buckles and leather jackets for dark executive suits and blue ties.

The result has been a cheap imitation of the original brand. The new Labour, including Muscat’s version, is not Labour but definitely not Nationalist. It lacks substance. It is devoid of substance. It has rendered itself a party without a soul, simply following opinion polls in an attempt to quench its thirst for power. So the more it talks about change, the more it manages to convince us of how things will remain the same. It insists that, if it elected, it will build on the positive of the present government. It has even gone so far as promising to keep the framework of the Nationalist government, albeit having voted against it a few weeks ago: anything to put people’s mind at rest that it is not the same old socialist party. But is it actually capable of leaving the country’s finances as sound as they are?

The lust for Mintoffian economics

Karmenu Vella, a former Minister under Mintoff, KMB and Sant, and Muscat’s election programme writer, recently said that our economy is second class and solemnly stated that Mintoffian economics had provided Malta and the Maltese with a better situation than they have today. Like other Labourites, Mr Vella seems to still secretly yearn for the glory era of record unemployment, cheap labour, Deserta Chocolates and second-hand Escorts.

Direction Spain

Labour’s ‘star candidate’ and aspiring finance minister Edward Scicluna went one further. He seems to consider Spain’s situation better than ours. It seems that 53 per cent jobless in the Iberian Peninsula, with no signs of an immediate economic recovery, is of no concern. Still, Scicluna’s Labour Party seems to think that Spain is also in a better situation than our ‘second class’ economy

Direction Cyprus

Muscat himself has suggested that Malta should change direction and follow the Cypriot economic and financial model while, ironically, a few days ago former Cyprus President Vassiliou himself asked the Cypriots to look at and consider the systems put in place in Malta. Muscat’s advice follows his other advice for Malta to remain out of the European Union. Fortunately enough for Malta, the Prime Minister and the Nationalist Party in government had a better sense of judgement. Why should we risk a bailout and loose the country’s financial independence with all the implications that carries? Had our PM taken the advice of people like Muscat, Scicluna and Vella, we would have found ourselves crashing into a brick wall. Their definition of first class, Serie A and the right direction are not appealing at all.

It’s not just a tablet

During the past five years, the Nationalist Party has introduced the smart learning strategy to make learning simpler and more fun. The new Nationalist proposal announced last Friday, which will cost €23.7 million over four years, is a logical progression – building on what we have achieved so far in education. It is aimed at encouraging primary and secondary students to engage in a new learning experience and extend and continuously update their already high digital literacy.

The PN’s election programme proposes giving a tablet computer to all students from year 3 upwards and to all teachers and learning support assistants in all state, church and private schools. But the tablet proposal is not just about the tablet machine. It is more about the content. It is more about new methods of learning. It is a vision and a strategy of how we want to transform our students’ learning experience, to instil in them a creative mind, to create more job opportunities for our young people and to advance as a nation.

So it is not just a modern gadget that looks nice on a billboard. Owning a valuable tool is not automatically tantamount to knowing how to put that tool to good use.

Building on the past and present milestones to achieve another quality leap

During the last legislature, the Nationalist administration has registered a number of records. Suffice it to say that it created 20,000 new jobs, so that now we have 153,000 people in full-time employment, which is the highest ever. We have had the highest number of tourist arrivals, 20,000 young men and women graduating from university and 19,000 students following tertiary education and receiving stipends – an investment in our future amounting to €23 million a year. We have built a new school every year – an investment of €33 million, and 2,000 scholarships have been awarded in the last six years. Over the next five years we are proposing further investment to create more and better jobs, further tax reductions, a voucher system for parents sending their children to child-care facilities, sick leave for parents when their children get sick, more investment in health, an increase in stipends and other proposals that will enhance our quality of live.

We do not need a change in direction in order to achieve this leap in quality. We just need to keep on track.