The breakthrough we needed

Reading Labour Party newspapers or hearing MLP news broadcasts one is likely to believe that Malta is hell-bound. On the other hand, reading Nationalist Party newspapers or hearing PN news broadcasts one tends to understand that Malta is not really affected by so many problems. Diehards of both parties believe what the party news machine feeds them, ensuring that political polarisation keeps peaking.

A consistently widening band of people is not relying on any party news. A considerable number is flirting with Alternattiva Demokratika, a larger number is ignoring all politics and politicians and a few are finding refuge in Church activities hoping to find greater satisfaction sharing in such programmes and helping other people.

The problem with AD is that it does not have a clear policy; that it can only hope to be the deciding factor in a major party's ability to be in government and that the majority of people are still against the divorce measure of which AD is the protagonist among political parties. In fact, the underlying consideration of many people is that AD is far from seriously deserving to be considered as a major factor in politics. It is still believed to be a minuscule political force.

As a result, the political front is not an asset to economic development and growth. If anything, it tends to present a bleak future as the prevalent situation is more likely to create uncertainty. Investment cannot flourish in this scenario; job opportunities, except government ones, will be hard to come by and the tendency will be that a period where a wait-and-see attitude will have to be adopted will follow. If this diagnosis is correct, economic results will decline even further.

The lack of an agreement among the social partners has aggravated the situation. It showed a misunderstanding of the national well-being, a lack of appreciation of the precarious economic situation and a greater reliance on vested interests. If the national economy will stagnate all social partners will suffer as a result, with workers having to shoulder the greatest burden as the present job opportunities will keep on dwindling. In its short-term view, the opposition may believe that such a situation will be beneficial to it.

Surely, there must be a solution to this delicate economic dilemma. Apparently, institutions and institutional agents have failed our country's economic progress. These last years, Malta's economic performance has been bad and there is nothing in the foreseeable future that may cause it to change course. Cosmetic changes have been made over prolonged periods but a comprehensive plan of how the economy could flourish was hardly ever attempted.

Furthermore, it is useless to keep on investigating past trends, endeavouring to discover correlations and recommending remedial actions based either on books or those adopted by industrialised and advanced countries when Malta, by no stretch of imagination, can be compared to them. Emulation is the worst source of policy measures one can resort to. Generally, it illustrates ignorance both of the prevalent situation and how to change its course. It only helps a person to impress others.

Perhaps it is about time that politics and politicians should take less prominence in the news. Independent journalists and broadcasters should provide more space to people who are investing, who have been a success in industry, manufacturing and exporting and to those who are creating new outlets and generating more jobs even if on a small scale. All these people should be made publicly known in order to be appreciated, encouraged to continue with their efforts and even helped to put their economic dreams into effect.

Another route that may help Malta's predicament is the harnessing of new ideas. One hears and reads about many innovative ideas. Mostly they are ignored. Larger countries, with many resources, set up an ideas bank to investigate what can be done about them. Independent journalists and broadcasters are in a position to help evolve new practical ideas that can contribute to the national economy and ease present worries. They can be the breakthrough we need.