We need to know how now

The shadow minister for government investments and gender equality, Helena Dalli, has alleged that “the PN has this fixation with wanting to know the policies of a party which can only be implemented in 20 months’ time or so” (October 3). May I assure the author that the Nationalist Party is not the only entity wanting to know the policies of a government-in-waiting. The Times had this to say: “Labour constantly accuses the government of being incompetent and that much of the island’s economic ills are due to its bad planning or to the wrong way it is tackling problems. But it has distinctly failed to show its competence by presenting its own workable alternatives” (October 18).

The author wrote that Labour will not give any details because: “conditions are bound to change, thus making policies Labour may be considering today irrelevant in the scenario of two years from now”. So is the electorate really expected to vote for a party without policies and vision? Is the author suggesting that the PN government should not plan beyond a couple of months, say? Simply incredible!

The joke is that when her much-loved leader was elected to head the party he alleged that “he had mapped out a15-year project for the party and the country”. So if, according to the shadow minister Labour’s policies are irrelevant in two years’ time, imagine how irrelevant her leader’s 15-year project is! What hogwash!

Recently, Dr Dalli’s beloved Labour leader told us: “The party would be proposing a constitutional convention with the ‘ambitious target of giving birth to a Second Republic’” (October 5). When a political leader makes such revolutionary declarations, the least thing he could do is illuminate us why he feels he needs to initiate a Second Republic à la Napoleon sporting the official motto Liberté, égalité, fraternité. Can he also elaborate why, as a progressive leader, he wishes to regress so? Anyway, what is wrong with Labour’s First Republic, born on December 13, 1974?

In fits and starts, without telling us how, Labour has suggested that it will solve all our problems. It will transform this island into a little nirvana and all the people will be really happy. Imagine the scenario: Overnight we will all become filthy rich. We will not receive any more painful utility bills to settle. We will pay less VAT and fewer taxes. All administration fees will be reduced drastically and the government will subsidise everything we need: our water, electricity, petrol, gas, bread, even fees charged by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority! Education and health services will remain free for all. And that’s a Labour promise!

Our power station will run without fuel and we will have wind farms all over the island and the surrounding sea. Pollution will be eradicated and immigrants will stop fleeing to our shores.

There will be no school-leavers and illiteracy will be non-existent. Our students will have two universities to choose from and their stipends will be increased. Obviously, each and every village will offer health services and there will be no waiting lists at Mater Dei Hospital. Free child day-care centres will sprout all over Malta and every mother will join the labour force. There will be no crime, pensions will be doubled and pension age will be dropped down back to 60.

When the Budget comes along we will all receive a juicy weekly bonus just in case we need it for the rise of the “low” cost of living! Our unemployment rate and our deficit will go down to zero per cent. We will have no inflation. Our national debt will also go down to zero per cent.

All this must be true because Labour promised.

Back to Malta under a PN government in the real spinning world. All of us who live on this earth are very concerned, what with the international financial disaster, the eurozone crisis, countries and banks going bust, the soaring cereal and fuel prices. We are all feeling the pinch and the going might even get tougher. We are not happy bunnies and we are all dreading a double-dip recession, if not a great depression, which is looming on the horizon.

Keeping mum on what magical treatment Labour will be whipping up to cure all our ailments, it insists on lambasting the government at every turn. But, thankfully, in spite of Labour’s cynicism and lack of cooperation Malta is weathering the storm well.

Our deficit, nearing the two per cent, is now under control and our exportation in the first six months of this year increased by 54 per cent. In the second quarter of this year Malta registered the fastest growth rate in the eurozone; the latter’s average was 0.2 per cent and Malta’s was 2.8 per cent. We also have the fifth lowest unemployment rate. The average for the EU and the eurozone is 10 per cent with Spain spiralling up to over 20 per cent. Malta’s rate lies at 6.5 per cent. Malta’s national debt level is 68 per cent whereas the EU average stands at 85 per cent (October 7).

“The point then is that all these factors would have to be taken into consideration in criticism as, otherwise, the motive for such criticism becomes suspect” (The Times editorial, August 30). I could not put it any better myself.