Morality in public affairs

The Labour Party has long been ruing that the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta had come at the nick of time to take the people's attention off what they call today's harsh realities. How ironic that it is being held at the very time when Labour needs it so that the people's attention will be diverted from the mostly self-inflicted severe licking Labour and its leader has suffered in recent weeks.

In fact, for the past two weeks the Labour leadership, ranks, fellow travellers and apologists have been trying their utmost to assemble the bits and pieces and prop up their leader at least to a semblance of credibility. The loss of credibility reached the lowest nadir ever with Alfred Sant's dumbfounding declaration that he would mess about with EU rules to achieve his aims. The imprint left in one's mind is so much the greater because he used the Maltese word which conveys nothing but intense negative, derogatory and depreciatory imagery. It is the very antithesis of the seriousness in public affairs so often advocated by the Prime Minister.

The damage was continued in Parliament, first when Dr Sant put up another weak performance and then by the hammering he suffered at the hands of Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi. And all this under the glare of large television audiences! Dr Sant tried to soften his gaffe stating that there is nothing wrong in making EU rules work in our favour as other countries do, quoting Greece as an example. In fact, the EU had not accepted this country's statistics. Since, as the saying goes, it never rains but pours the week was hardly out when Hungary was threatened with the loss of contributions under the Cohesion Fund unless it gave priority to deficit cuts.

But the incident is serious for far more important reasons. It betrays Dr Sant's Machiavellian tenet that the need justifies the means. He had done it before. Don't we all remember how he put his political future at stake promising to do away with VAT once and for all before the 1996 election? The ruse worked in the short term! He won the election. But he just substituted VAT with a hybrid but unworkable home concoction. That was not exactly what those who dragged the hated cash registers in the celebratory carcades had been given to expect.

His solemn promise had the effect of running down revenues from VAT, thereby boosting the deficit to unprecedented peaks. What is even more serious, his promise had encouraged tax evasion. It had given a mortal blow to fiscal morality. So much so that the then Finance Minister, Lino Spiteri, tried to make amends by creating a fiscal morality unit, if my memory is not playing tricks on me. Alas to no avail! The deficit in the second year was far worse than in the first.

How different is the Prime Minister's urging of seriousness in all we do. It is not weakness to play according to the rules. It's the seriousness we need. Seriousness is even more important for such a small country depending so much on outside factors. It is essential that we are trusted and win international respect. It is often claimed that many voted for EU precisely because EU institutions would bring a measure of discipline to our public affairs.

Remember the 8,000 employed in the public sector just before the 1987 election? It's in these very days that we have learnt that the Labour secretary general was one of them. That was Labour's way! Nothing was bad enough if it brought in the votes.

On the other hand, Dr Gonzi, despite pressures, refuses to squander the taxpayers' money to recruit any civil servants if the government could do without them. Restructuring must go on in public entities as well. Seriousness in all spheres!

Or contrast Dr Sant's talking down of the economy by his government's alarmist statements with Dr Gonzi's urging one and all to reach up for excellence, encouraging all that we can make it, while successfully tackling the government's deficit.

Dr Sant had initially carefully nurtured such an image of seriousness. The image he is projecting now is the very opposite. Will a new Labour government's trademark be the fiddling and messing about which may give a momentary image of superseding immediate problems but would create even greater ones?

Labour are more than conscious of the self-inflicted damage of their leader. They have tried everything in the past fortnight to restore a modicum of credibility. They have mounted personal attacks on the Prime Minister and falsely accused him of personal attacks on Dr Sant. They have tried to engineer stories of dissent in our midst, at the very time when Dr Gonzi by his performance strengthened his leadership of the party and the government as never before. They have held up the chimera of an early election. They used their media as well as the much-maligned English language press. They are even banking on the Greens to regain power through the back door, openly calling on Nationalist supporters to vote for Alternattiva next time.

One is left with the impression that they know they are attempting an impossible task. One columnist even pleaded with Dr Gonzi that it is unfair of him to liken his achievements with those of Dr Sant's short 22 months. They have not realised that Dr Gonzi's government is at present two months younger!

Some apologists who treasure their image of independence have simply given up. It has suddenly sunk in that Dr Sant is now beyond redemption. What is more is that they are realising that there is nobody in the parliamentary group or in the top structures of the party that could match the Prime Minister.

As usual, the General Workers' Union tried to come to the party's rescue. It has only made matters worse. Its pinpricks will not cause Dr Gonzi any loss of sleep but it has provided us with the bonus of reminding the people that nothing has changed since the 1980s when the union in the Cabinet gave its blessing to the then autocratic cruel misdeeds and supported the government against the unprivileged unions and workers.

Dr Deguara is Minister of Health.