Friday, 29th August 2008
The pricey blow
Storms in tea cups are not a rarity during hot summer months. This summer is not an exception. Apart from quite a number of fatal accidents and the now customary arrival of more illegal immigrants, the media has not been short of intriguing stories.
The Labour Party's internal earthquake; the Nationalist Party's hush-hush reorganisation; the divorce debate; the shipyards' saga; the proposal to extend voting rights to 16-year-olds; the resignation of the director of the Corradino Correctional Facility; the environmentalists' claims against further development such as the proposal set forth by the St John's Cathedral Foundation, the block of apartments in Lija and the building of a new private hospital; and the IMF report on Malta have all been "news value" during the past two months or so.
Most issues were certainly "self-inflicted" in the sense that they were created purposely to divert the public's attention from the real world we are living in.
Others resulted from scoops by journalists who were under pressure to get interesting stories to fill up their newspapers. Whereas other factual issues took their natural course and had to be reported anyway!
Ironically we all know what is happening within the Labour Party but we know very little, if any, about the goings on at the PN. The Prime Minister has been the least mentioned public figure in the media since the last general election.
Could it be because deeds are more important than words? After such an intense electoral campaign with the Prime Minister's name being the main target of all propaganda, in favour or against, it is somehow confusing now how he has managed to keep such a low profile to the extent of nearly shadowing the leader of the party in opposition.
Maybe he needed a rest after his stressful electoral campaigning or it could be that it's all part of a political strategy aimed at softening the political impetus during the parliamentary summer recess! Mind you, he will surely make a comeback by the time he delivers his next budget speech.
His input is more than desired. We are envisaging serious problems - economical, financial and social - and, therefore, there is no other politician who can deliver bad news in such a polite and nice manner. His laptop has not been switched off for a moment. There are too many figures to play with and too many explanations to be made in his rhetorical budget speech.
The question of the current rate of inflation is a case in point. It seems that our rate of inflation is getting higher than the EU average although the government is positive that we are experiencing the same impact as that of other EU member states.
The National Statistics Office declared that the rate of inflation stood at 5.6 per cent. It must be a serious problem indeed and government should give it top priority.
The government might be right to attribute the impact of inflation to that imported as a result of the food and fuel price hikes which contributed significantly to the adverse effects experienced in the global economy.
But the government knows well enough that there are other contributory components within its control that need to be addressed immediately.
We cannot afford the current rapid rate of increase in prices. A reduction in the disposable income would surely hinder the economic growth. No doubt, our commercial activities have already started experiencing a slow-down.
On paper the government is seen to have taken appropriate initiatives to safeguard the interests of consumers and to ensure fair trading across the board but, in reality the situation is quite different.
Government investigations into the price of medicines and the price verification exercise conducted by the Consumer and Competition Division throughout thousands of outlets are commendable but no remedial action has been taken so far. Most of our regulatory bodies have been suffering from an allergy to effective enforcement and have become immune to abuse. Meanwhile the consumer keeps on knocking on closed doors.
No wonder the trade unions are requesting an immediate revision of the computation of the present retail price index and are insisting on the immediate granting of a cost-of-living adjustment by means of wage increase. Alternattiva Demokratika went a step further and is now proposing an upward revision in the minimum wage. Not a bad idea although employers would resist such proposals on the premise that their implementation would generate irreparable harm competitiveness. But that is why the government should intervene before it is too late.
Inflation and price control are top priority now. The government should lead by example if we really want to combat this serious problem. Dr Gonzi's holidays are over as much as Joseph Muscat's honeymoon is now forgotten.
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