Much has happened on the local and international economic front since the start of this legislature three years ago; much is in the process of happening.
So it is worth taking a look at what has been achieved; worth recalling that only a few months after this government was elected with a parliamentary majority so slender it allowed two or three cowboys in the governing party to embark upon what was nothing but political blackmail, the world came up against an economic earthquake that shook the world and had countries far larger and stronger than Malta visibly wobbling.
These continue to remain mired in debt, their people hit by stringent austerity measures, from income freezes to tax increases todeductions in pensions and other benefits.
We are part of that world and criticise this government as many are persuaded to do, criticise it for all manner of deficiencies as the opposition delights in doing, the simple fact remains that this 100 square miles of geographical space not only survived the crisis that rendered other countries supine. It has thrived where it matters most, in the number of employed. Here, the Employment and Training Corporation can take a curtain call or two.
Malta has the lowest rate of unemployment in Europe because of an investment policy which saved thousands of jobs in manufacturing companies that found themselves in difficulty. These have since made a comeback – Toly and Trelleborg come to mind – and are expanding their operations in Malta. This policy allowed us to remain competitive in a turbulent, economic environment; it has also managed, so far, to lower the deficit which, it is being claimed, will be brought down to below three per cent this year.
But it was not only an appalling economic front that demanded wise and courageous interventions aimed at helping wealth creation when so many other countries were, still are, facing bankruptcy or adopting stringent measures to keep afloat. Even as I process this piece, Portugal is being offered a €78 billion bail-out under conditions that will cause intense pain before any gain will be experienced.
For avoiding this sort of intervention, the government deserves much credit. Still, Sod’s Law being what it is, no sooner had its initiatives to keep the economy on an even keel borne fruit, than along came the so-called Arab Spring to create hope for tens of millions of oppressed people in the Middle East and North Africa with all that this entailed – not least the crisis in Libya, from whose shores thousands of refugees fled across the water to Europe via Pantelleria and Malta.
This, too, created problems for the island, problems that a stressed, yet calm, Prime Minister, handled in a statesmanlike fashion that won him kudos abroad, as well they should, and criticism from the Leader of the Opposition, as well we expected.
And take several bows
Despite everything that militated against the government’s resolve to forge ahead and not allow itself to be sidetracked from its primary mission – investing in the creation of jobs, in health care (€378 million budgeted for this year) and education (€340 million), €858 million in pensions and welfare services and €440 million in capital investment – the success achievedso far in each of these aims is measurable.
It has shown up in local statistics and is confirmed by Eurostat; most significantly, in the management of the country’s deficit which stood at 3.4 per cent in 2010, nearly three percentage points lower than the EU average.
And despite the nerve required to stay on course and to weather storms that forced so many other countries to the ropes, there was also the energy to initiate projects that will, before this legislature is over, bring to these islands a new look and to our walk as we glance at this, a new spring.
Take the Valletta regeneration plan; what bliss to see that horrendous entrance smashed to smithereens; what a sense of expectation as the Piano projects inside the city take shape; ditto for the plan to turn the outside of the city into civilised space, free it from its bus terminus image and make the approach toValletta signally impressive and aesthetic.
Take the transformation of the public transport system that comes into being at the beginning of July – Arriva has arrived. Take the removal of the dockyard as a massive loss-making albatross wrapped around the taxpayers’ neck for five decades. It was the end of an era that had seen scores of millions of euros poured into a bottomless pit, from which the country received no return.
Take the massive investment going into major arterial roads in Malta and Gozo without necessarily forgetting the poor maintenance on some others.
Take the successful tourism sector. Last Thursday it was reported that April passenger movements at Malta International Airport reached 300,000 for the first time. Curiously, the report remarked that when making the comparison with April 2010 – this year’s April figures showed an increase of 25 per cent – one must bear in mind that last year’s figures were affected by the volcanic ash disruption.
Anyone would think that the first four months of 2011, with the uprisings in North Africa, were all hunky-dory. Yet despite the uncertainty these created and the fear of travelling one would have expected as British, French and American warplanes established a no-fly zone for Gaddafi’s air force, now pretty well extinct, the first four months in 2011 showed an increase of just over 19 per cent over the same period last year.
Take the confidence of the private sector, its large and small enterprises, the Farsons Group of Companies, Valletta Cruise Terminal and the Island Hotel and Leisure Group, to name but three in the former category; and while you are at it, take the hundreds of SMEs that account for something like 98 per cent of the total number of companies operating in Malta and are beneficiaries, should they choose to be, of two government schemes – Microcredit and Microinvest. Almost 700 of these have so chosen.
And by no means finally, take the paving of the historic centre of Vittoriosa as well as the ‘rehabilitation’ of ceramic-decorated facades and aluminium windows and balconies; the Qui si Sana promenade plus garden, the Adventure Park at Ta’ Qali, restoration works on six kilometres of bastions around Mdina, Vittoriosa and Valletta.
This and much else is a record of which we can feel justifiably proud. But take note. My attention was drawn to a write-up by someone whose name escapes me, in which I was referred to as “so bigoted in (my) views on divorce, and much else in domestic and international affairs”; I feel I should warn you to treat all of the above as an expression of bigotry.
Same person, whose namecontinues to escape me, also thought the editor of this newspaper “should long ago have rumbled that (I) am a fully qualified graduate of the Sarah Palin school of politics, and reined (me) in accordingly”.
Of such is the kingdom of the bewildered who express themselves in favour of freedom of expression except, it seems, when that freedom fails to reflect their opinions; which itself, come to think of it, smacks of bigotry and intolerance.
Obama discovers exceptionalism
Osama bin Laden is dead; not only because we were so informed by Barack Obama. The story has been confirmed by Al-Qaeda itself.
Does this herald a new chapter in terrorism or, once its head has been killed, its demise? Neither one nor the other, I suspect.
The new man will surely want to choreograph some dramatic episode to establish his leadership with what remains of the organisation; and will want to do this as swiftly as possible for maximum impact. If successful, it will show that Al-Qaeda is alive and kicking.
History seems to be against such an outcome. We are back to the days of the Bader-Meinhoff gang and the Japanese Red Army Faction until these groups were broken by the democratic process and the revulsion they had provoked.
In the case of Al-Qaeda and in the contemporary context, a process undreamed of is at work. From Syria to Tunisia, the Arab world is in turmoil; many of its leaders are being heroically opposed by subjects demanding freedom from dictatorships.
In the uprisings we have been witnessing we have come face to face with a reality that must tend to weaken the attraction of Al-Qaeda for the Arab masses. These are doing it their way and unless the path they have selected is hijacked by leaders inimical to democracy, in which case their plight will be as bad, or worse, as it was at the beginning of 2011, their way has no place for an organisationno longer relevant to theiraspirations.
The next 30 days will show us whether Al-Qaeda has lost its bearings without bin Laden atits head, however tenuous his hold over the group was already tending to become.
For the time being, Obama can revel, understandably, in the impressive operation conducted by the Navy Seals and his decision to launch it. Had it been unsuccessful, theUS will have been there, before. Remember Jimmy Carter’s Iranian debacle?
But more significant has been Obama’s return to the idea of American exceptionalism, an idea his presidency has, to date, refuted.
His left-wing, liberal friends must be quite shocked.