Editorial

When a driver using the global positioning system takes a wrong turning, the guide's voice comes over loud and clear: "Recalculating". In no time, the driver is put on the right track again. Generally speaking, the government has been moving ahead on the right track but there have been moments when it made erratic movements.

Summer is not exactly the right time to go into very sensitive issues but this summer is proving to be quite an exception, with at least three burning issues threatening to disturb the summer bliss. They are the privatisation of the shipyards, the sharp rise in the water and energy surcharge and, now, the dispute over the privatisation of the hearse service, which has put public transport operators on high alert.

In the matter of the water and energy tariffs, the government could not wriggle out of the problem brought about by the soaring price of crude oil.

In the case of the shipyards, time is pressing hard since the government would no longer be allowed to continue subsidising the yards when the restructuring programme ends at the end of the year. So, in the face of the yards' failure to become financially viable, the government had to act in double quick time, though some may well argue that it had not in fact acted wisely enough.

Could the matter over the privatisation of the hearse service been tackled differently? Maybe, but the point is that the country needs to free itself of shackles that have generally worked against the consumer. However, not every privatisation has worked well or in the best interest of the consumer. The sharp deterioration of the postal service since its privatisation is a case in point.

One of the biggest problems to development is resistance to change. Of the challenges the government needs to tackle with vigour, this is perhaps one of the greatest and most delicate. People are likely to fight tooth and nail any measures aimed at divesting them of privileges they may have enjoyed for years.

Any government, Nationalist or Labour, would be politically naive if it does not foresee strong opposition to any plans to remove monopolies, restrictive trade practices, outdated work practices and subsidies. The island has had enough experience of this already and, although progress has been made in some areas, there are still far too many brick walls. Knocking them down will not be easy but down they must come if the country is to move ahead.

Monopoly operators, and many workers in state enterprises, hospitals or quangos sticking to outdated work practices, still believe they have a right to continue enjoying privileges at the expense of others. Ridding Malta of such constraints to development is a struggle that takes more than mere political declarations.

Commuters deserve a far better public transport service than that we have at present. And is it not a scandal that the main hospital is so under-utilised when it has been built at so huge expense?

Public opinion is strongly in favour of the government in its determination to start tackling these problems. Maybe the government would need to prepare the way for changes more openly, wisely and carefully to avoid having to be told to "recalculate".