Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, Of New Things, is a defining document of the Catholic Church’s social teachings where the concept of the ‘living wage’ was raised to ensure a decent price for labour and a decent living for families.
We don’t need any sudden upheavals or a party in government that is happy to take us on ‘trial runs’- Caroline Galea
Fast forward 121 years and the leader of the Labour Party in Malta announces that his ‘new’ and ‘innovative’ vision for the future of this country is the introduction of a ‘living wage’.
This naturally led to a number of pertinent questions such as how this living wage would be calculated, whether it would be based on a basket of necessities and how these would be chosen. Unfortunately, Joseph Muscat’s suggestion was not supported by concrete proposals and failure to substantiate his arguments led to the PL forsaking this idea to assuage the outcry that ensued.
Muscat faced piling pressure to divulge what the PL’s policies and proposals were. With an election round the corner, he could hardly keep repeating his mantra of “we will reveal all at the end” and so staved off criticism of a lack of concrete proposals by declaring that a ‘new’ Labour government would put a freeze on the minimum wage.
In Labour’s opinion, the future of a sound economy is freezing wages. The very idea is chillingly disturbing and tellingly revealing of how unprepared Labour is to lead the country. Putting things on the freeze was a typical Mintoffian strategy in the 1980s which Muscat is regrettablytrying to emulate.
Maybe Muscat needs reminding what happens to a country when wages are put on freeze and the country literally goes into shock. Or maybe he is waiting to find out for himself how this would pan out.
As a ‘new’ leader for Labour, Muscat promised us an earthquake within the party. We waited with bated breath to see the aftermath of these seismic movements. I trust that now that his party ambitions have been satisfied, he will not traumatise an entire country with absurd proposals that will see Malta trembling and heaving and utterly confused.
We don’t need any sudden upheavals or a party in government that is happy to take us on ’trial runs’. The country simply cannot afford any form of miscalculations if we are to continue embracing the good fortune of living in a country where sensible and responsible decisions have meant that the recession and financial crisis were mere migraines rather than widespread cancers!
In his October 3 contribution to this newspaper, MEP Simon Busuttil describes why Labour risks a bailout, explaining his predictions of an economic fallout should Labour decide to remain faithful to its electoral promises.
Busuttil predicts that to do good on its pledges, Labour risks seeking a bailout in as little as two years from election to government. Why? Because Muscat has not done his sums properly and will literally be unable to sustain his promises to the electorate without inflicting irreparable damage to the economy.
Should Labour win the next election, Muscat will be faced with the almighty of dilemmas – deliver on electoral promises and risk economic failure, which would lead us to asking for a bailout within months or walk the way of the Nationalist Administration of handling finances in a strictly controlled responsible manner and risk the wrath of his voters.
Hardly an easy choice but one he will have to make seeing as he has now undertaken to insure his political future with promises of the land of milk and honey where people pay less and earn more... always, of course, on a capped minimum wage.
With an election knocking on our doors, the penultimate issue should not be energy bills, student stipends or assisted procreation... all cardinal issues but, just like other issues, themes we will be unable to discuss should our country hit rock bottom.
We just cannot get it wrong this time! We are still recovering from the aftershocks of the economic convulsions, which have hit European and other shores and one false step could send us spiralling down into an abyss of economic hardships the likes of which we have not witnessed in our country for quite some time now. Are you ready to risk that?
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