Projectiles astray

At the current stage of political discussion, or controversy if you like, I cannot help but feel that much of the vituperation indulged in by the government side is indeed missing the real point.

This is hardly about whether it is necessary to tackle the opposition head on as much as about whether what Labour is articulating truly reflects what a big majority of the people are saying and thinking. Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi's strategy is to try and convince enough opinion makers that his administration is forging ahead.

To do so, he and his acolytes must rebut by hook or by crook all that the opposition does or says. Once they succeed in such a goal, a critical mass of citizens could come round to the view that all is for the best under this PN administration.

Even if this is considered as good tactics by some it is surely bad policy.

For what it does is, once again, to try and sweep under the carpet the real issues which must be tackled head on if we can, as a nation, really devise forward-looking solutions.

The time is long over when it was possible to delude a majority of people that fine weather is just round the corner.

Many citizens now understand that the fudge spread around problems by the Gonzi/Fenech Adami administrations has led to an economic and social impasse. They do not want this to happen again. If they are enticed with carefully crafted claims that painless solutions are achievable, they will not automatically fall for such proposals.

So, for as long as they refrain from giving a true picture of what the situation looks like, fail to describe satisfactorily why we have gotten to where we are and do not project a comprehensible strategy by which to deal with the serious challenges we face, the Prime Minister and his ministers cannot win the argument.

Not only that, but contradictions will continue to pile up. Like the recent spectacle by which, for weeks, Dr Gonzi pumped up his version of how economic performance was improving, only to have his growth projections for this year and next roundly contradicted by the EU Commission.

The debacle was followed by a survey of businessmen that reported a strong downturn as of last summer, in business confidence and expectations for the future.

Or like having a pro-government economist proclaiming we need annual growth rates of four to five per cent to catch up with other European states at the same time that, whether sponsored by Castille or by Brussels, growth projections are well below these figures. Meanwhile, a pro-government entrepreneur proclaims publicly that the budget 2006 lacked the vision to introduce measures that could promote growth through new ventures.

Over recent months and years we have experienced a plethora of conferences, fora, talks and breakfast meetings where all the desirable statements were made by representatives of the government and civil society. Lots of papers, reports, studies and surveys were published and mostly forgotten soon afterwards. On all these activities, no doubt, hefty sums of money were expended.

However, as of now, we still lack a meaningful plan for growth that focuses on the outstanding priorities and takes them head on. Government ministers bewail bureaucracy, then look on in apparent helplessness as it spreads.

The need to enhance competitiveness is extolled even as a budget, which effectively will be raising taxes and, therefore, costs, is ushered in under the untruthful banner that it is a no-taxes budget.

Port reform is touted as a major step in the reduction of transport costs to Malta, even as it is suddenly acknowledged that this same "reform" will actually be increasing costs. Privatisation of Sea Malta is portrayed as a big move forward to modernisation, even as it is admitted that the three weekly cargo sailings to Italy will post-privatisation be reduced to two.

Helicopter services to Gozo are reintroduced in the full knowledge that, with the passenger rates being charged, the service will soon bomb.

A venture capital fund to lever new ventures in technologically demanding sectors, announced some three years ago and re-announced last year with the 2005 budget, still awaits its launch.

It goes on and on. People know that the rot must stop. Probably this can only happen with a radical change at the top. Even if not, this country urgently needs an action plan. True, we do have lots of government reports that masquerade as a plan, with lots of vague recommendations and bureaucratic target dates that are never kept. But that is not the plan we need.

We need a no-frills, action roadmap that targets the essential priorities for change to happen and new opportunities to be encouraged. We need such a plan to indicate in clear and simple terms how to marshal the necessary resources to create the essential change. The plan need not lay out measures about which we have not yet heard.

But it definitely needs to prioritise those measures that need to be implemented in the short to medium term and, where necessary, it should be prepared to junk existing long established policy guidelines that are inhibiting growth and investment.

Can Dr Gonzi and his administration come up with such a plan? I very much doubt it. The premises from which they start have up to now prevented them from taking any such effective action.

The baggage they carry from the past is too heavy and embarrassing. Which is why they prefer to indulge instead in vituperation against Labour and myself.

A counterproductive strategy, if ever there was one. Dr Gonzi and his ministers resemble an army which is relying exclusively on antiquated artillery, without realising how the projectiles it is firing are all going astray.