Editorial

It looks as if the second month of the year is ushering in unusually busy and difficult days both for the government as well as for the trade unions and employers in industry and tourism. Politically, the temperature has risen a bit with calls for the resignation of the Finance Minister and of the chairman of the Malta Resources Authority, which has been brought into the thick of the ever-worsening conflict between the government and 11 trade unions contesting the water and energy rates.

The Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin, now back into the fight over the energy rates, has said that the Infrastructure Minister ought to resign, too, if the energy rates are found to have been wrongly done. All this, and much more, make for a political recipe that the island can very well do without at a time when so much energy ought to be spent not on in-fighting but on combating the impact of the recession. But, as it usually happens, the forces that count most opt to take the opposite course.

In speech of a duration that brings back to mind those that had been usually given by Dom Mintoff in the heyday of his socialist government, Labour leader Joseph Muscat lambasted the government over a number of issues. Did he have a good reason to call for the Finance Minister's resignation? Dr Muscat wants Tonio Fenech to step down because only 24 hours after he had gone on record saying that the government had not been aware of any plans by STMicroelectronics in Malta to lay off workers, it was announced that the firm in fact intended discharging a substantial number of employees.

This (that the government had been unaware of the planned discharges) did, indeed, sound strange, as this newspaper had also remarked when it commented on the announcement last week. However, it may very well have been the case that the government, while aware of the firm's intentions, had not been told of the actual plans until they were finally announced by the parent company.

What jarred a bit in this context were the Finance Minister's words of caution to the media not to jeopardise the future of the workers' jobs by generating greater uncertainty. Well, the international media did go overboard in reporting the financial crisis over the past months, as many analysts have well observed. But it is a bit rich for anyone to imply that the media in Malta had not been careful enough in its reportage of the case when STMicroelectronics kept its workforce in suspense for over two years. A firm, multinational or not, may have its reason, or reasons, for not publicising its plans in advance. This is understandable, but in the case of the ST plant here, shifting attention to the media for any undesirable consequences is out of place.

Dr Muscat is bound to lose some of the sheen he has garnered since he took over as leader of Labour Party over his outburst at the party's general conference. When he threw out of the window the possibility of reaching agreement over pairing, he also made many seriously doubt the political sincerity of his wish to help usher in new, more mature, political times in the country. And another thing; there is nothing original in the recipe he has drawn up for the country's success. No wonder the government accused him of not being aware of what is going on.