Editorial

As the Labour Party (PL) leader pats himself on the back for the "political and moral victory" which, he says, his party has won against the government in the issue over the VAT charged on car registration, even before the party has actually taken the case to court, Malta is up against other, far more serious problems than the one Joseph Muscat is so valiantly fighting for.

Yes, the Labour leader has not forgotten the recession but, with the European Parliament elections just round the corner, he appears to be far more interested in scoring political goals than in ensuring that his party does not deflect national attention from matters that really count at such a difficult period.

The way Dr Muscat is taking political advantage from the fight over the issue appears to have greatly annoyed Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi as was well reflected in the tone of his political speech last Sunday. With the pictures of the long queue of people waiting outside the PL's headquarters to sign up for the court case obviously firmly well in mind, he blurted out that in other countries people were queuing up to find jobs. His point, of course, was that it was a matter of priorities and not that the people's voice should be ignored. This should be amply evident to Dr Muscat too. Alas, in his almost desperate quest for votes he has adopted a please-everybody-at-the-same-time attitude and this will certainly come back to haunt him.

Unfortunately for Dr Muscat, the country is not heading towards a general election. In fact, only a year has passed since the last one and the issue over VAT on car registration would most probably have not arisen at all had the country been approaching a general election. The Nationalists would have seen to that in time! True, Dr Muscat's predecessor might have won the 1996 election on the strength of the promise the party had made to remove VAT, which, in fact, it did only to replace it with its own concoction, one that had eventually to be replaced again with VAT.

But times are changing fast and an electorate is now highly unlikely to vote in office again a party merely on the basis of just one promise alone. So, Dr Muscat's undertaking, four years in advance, that his party would refund the tax charged if the courts were to decide in favour of the government in the VAT case, may be taken with a pinch of salt. For who can guarantee that the party would not come out with a new tax to make up for the loss it would make through the refund? Still, in the run-up to the European Parliament elections, Dr Muscat and his party will be milking every ounce they could get in its favour from the issue.

Labour would obviously also find fault with the way the government is tackling the situation in the wake of the economic downturn but its own programme is far from inspiring and, in any case, many of its suggestions have already been taken up.

The government may well be faulted on many matters since it was re-elected by a whisker a year ago but, in truth, it is dong very well in its work to help out firms hit by the recession. Its formula of taking those hit one by one, offering tailor-made deals, appears to be working well.

Making political capital out of an issue that hits a swathe of people, as the PL is doing now, is well and good in the short term but, in the long term, ensuring the livelihood of the people is even better.