Human nature, being what it is, makes it compulsory to look for evidence to justify one’s belief. If someone is convinced that the world will end next year, he or she will find ‘evidence’ to sustain his or her views. In politics, this need takes a life of its own. Political movers try hard to take credit and at the same time highlight shortcomings in their adversaries.
The problem faced by the Leader of the Opposition is that it is becoming impossible for him to make a convincing point when it comes to the economy, when it comes to social liberty, when it comes to public finances, when it comes to employment. The list is of course longer. His mantra that if Labour is elected it would spell economic disaster has been thrown into the garbage bin of history. He has little other choice but to look at intangible facts to persist in his quest.
Thus, he is resorting to the creation of alternative facts. In the last few weeks, we had two such instances. First, he starts by creating doubt on the level of unemployment when faced with official figures showing that unemployment has gone down to less than 3,000. He seems to imply that this is due to an increase in the number of people employed by the public sector. Little did he bother to check the facts which show that the public payroll increased by 2,570 from 41,919 in 2013, to 44,489 in August 2016 while private sector employment has increased by 21,000 since 2013.
This was followed by a statement issued by the PN that bordered on the surreal. It claimed that the government is losing control on public finances, stating that debt has been increasing. This statement simply ignored the basic element that it is debt ratios that count and not levels. If levels of debt were the measure with which to measure the quality of public finance management, then the PN would do well to seek cover, given that it is responsible for over 80 per cent of the accumulated debt, amounting to over €5 billion.
The reports issued by the IMF, Fitch, and the European Commission in the month of February, confirm that the message the Leader of the Opposition is trying hard to convey is simply a sad joke. All three reports praise the government for its policy achievements. One small statement in the Fitch report speaks about government guarantees, about which a lot of noise had been made earlier, stating that they are on the downside. Fitch also pointed to Enemalta, noting the strong turn-around of this company which until the last election was a drag on the economy and was endangering the growth potential of the whole country. What a difference in just four years!
If we turn to Gozo, the facts speak for themselves. During this legislature, unemployment in Gozo has decreased by a third, and is currently at a record low. During the previous Nationalist administration, unemployment in Gozo was on the rise. Between 2013 and 2015, a total of 1,351 Gozitans became gainfully employed, 1,090 of them in Gozo itself and the huge majority in the private sector. During 2012, the last full year of a PN-led government, the GDP of Gozo increased by 1.1 per cent. The Gozitan GDP, during 2015, experienced a nine-fold growth of 9.6 per cent, a far cry from the economic stagnation during the PN tenure.
This government is reversing the negative trend bequeathed by successive PN governments; a quarter of a century in which Gozo attracted absolutely no foreign direct investment.
The positive measures being taken by this Administration is a continuous one. The latest that was announced for Gozo was the new Financial Services Gozo Foundation: a collaboration between the Ministry for Gozo, the Ministry for Finance and the private sector. It will further promote Gozo as a destination to set up businesses in the financial services sector, another niche which would bring quality jobs to Gozo.
While the Leader of the Opposition is busy trying, unsuccessfully, to back his claims with ‘evidence’, we are bringing tangible positive results that are backed up by statistics, which are acknowledged and praised by international organizations.
Dr Refalo is Minister for Gozo