The workers' guardian

The celebrations of Worker's Day will reach their climax over the weekend. Consistent with its policy of spreading doom and gloom, the Labour Party and its ever faithful partner are inflating the warts hoping to bring to a crescendo their wailing chorus that only a change in government will usher workers into the promised land. As if the workers have not tasted the sour outcomes of an Alfred Sant administration!

In its effort to paint the picture blacker than black, KullHadd, the MLP's Sunday paper, dedicated a full page to the labour situation in Malta. They quoted from Nationalist electoral advertisements claiming that only a Nationalist government is able to create work and asked where the jobs are. One of the arguments purporting to justify the claimed bad situation was that unemployment had reached the highest level in these last 10 months, presumably referring to the recently-published February figures. As if not everybody is aware that unemployment peaks in the winter months! Naturally they did not inform their readers that the February 2006 figure was down as measured against February 2005. Seen objectively, the February unemployment figures confirm that the economy is vibrant enough to absorb such massive shocks as the loss of 850 jobs due to the closure of the Denim factory.

The paper concentrated on the manufacturing sector bemoaning the loss of jobs in this area. Naturally they were careful not to point out that this loss was more than made up for in the services sector.

The fact is that the Labour front is still looking backwards and has not come to terms with the new economy. Labour-intensive industries are finding it hard if not impossible to compete in the west and it's the height of folly to try to build on the conditions of yesteryear. This is equivalent to behaving like the Luddites who sought the salvation of their employment by destroying the products of the industrial revolution: the newly-fangled machines. But do we really have to go two centuries back? Just over a score of years back a Labour government decreed that no one could import a computer unless one made a declaration that no jobs would be lost as a result.

The paper also emphasised the fact that part-time employment is on the increase. They could have had a point if at the same time full-time employment was decreasing. But employment figures for August 2005 show that the number of full-time employees had risen by 715 on August 2004 while unemployment had gone down by 776. So the large increase in part-time employment should be seen as an added bonus. Besides, many who have young children to raise find part-time employment just suited to their circumstances. In fact, the economy over a year created a total increase of 3,164 part-time jobs.

The Nationalist claim quoted above is based on facts. Perhaps it bears reminding Dom Mintoff's lament that he wished he was able to create work as much as he was able to obtain foreign funds. But we need not go back to the dark ages when labour corps under military conditions were the order of the day, when employers, including the government, were forbidden from employing women if the vacated job was previously done by a man, when, in desperation, over 8,000 people were employed in government departments and parastatal bodies on the eve of the 1987 election. We must not forget that at the time the General Workers' Union was statutorily part and parcel of the MLP.

Nor do we have to go back to Mr Mintoff's era. It suffices to contrast Dr Sant's and Lawrence Gonzi's achievements at the end of the first 678 days in government. After all, in two years' time the people will have to decide who of the two is best suited to govern. Before we examine the facts graphically produced underneath, we should remember that Dr Gonzi has still two years in harness. I quote these figures because it is these that Dr Sant has for a long time repeatedly mentioned as proof of the present government's ineffectiveness.

One has to underline that there was no oil crisis in 1996 and 1997, that unlike now our major trading partners were passing through an economic boom, that the effects of globalisation had not fully hit the Western economies. So Dr Sant's woes were largely created by his inept administration, by its lack of vision, by his freezing Malta's EU application, by his utter attack on VAT, thus depleting the government coffers, by talking the economy down in his attempt to blacken the previous Nationalist administration.

On the other hand, Dr Gonzi spelt out his government's thrust from the very beginning, setting out the three Es - education, the environment and the economy - as the three pillars on which his government based its priorities. Notwithstanding carping criticism and the threatening oil price he did not falter for one moment. Results are proving him right.

One final point which disproves Labour's contention that we are the same old tired lot, bereft of any new ideas. The MLP has been slow to recognise the significance of the importance of ICT in an island like ours with Maltese women and men as our single resource. In fact, until recently they did not even have a spokesman on ICT. On the other hand it seems that Malta is the only country which has a ministry responsible for IT. This is further proof that the Nationalist Party, whether as led yesterday by Eddie Fenech Adami or today by Dr Gonzi, is the only political party that has consistently recognised the signs of the time, has focused on our strengths and produced policies to maximise them.

That is why, though we do not claim to be the workers' party, more and more workers, realising that their interests are being sacrificed by their union on the altar of the MLP, are identifying our party as the sole guardian of their interests.

Dr Deguara is Minister of Health.