There is a strong feeling in the country that the two major parties have now overstepped the mark in their election promises. This is not doing any good to the political class, in whom, according to surveys, mistrust has grown in recent years.
Both are seen to be doing exactly opposite of what they have been preaching. They say they are being realistic and that they have made sure they can finance their proposals over the term of the legislature. But many voters are becoming increasingly weary of their frenetic urge to outsmart each other with promises that raise serious doubts as to how much they are viable.
A promise to give tablet computers to schoolchildren, when the idea has clearly not been well thought out, is the ultimate in vote-catching tactics. The parties may have worked out their sums but most remain unconvinced that the country can afford to do this at a time when it is struggling to bring down the deficit and the national debt. The deficit has been reduced to below the three per cent threshold established under European Union rules but the challenge is to cut it even further and to keep it there, or, even, to strike a balance.
Political parties are basing their programmes on assumptions but, as experience has often shown, these can go haywire any time. Malta does not live in isolation and any upheaval in markets of direct interest to the island can easily disrupt their programmes.
One can, of course, expect political parties to throw caution to the wind at election time but if they promise the earth in the race to win the election, as they are doing now, it is the country that will have to pay the price for their miscalculation.
The country is already seriously saddled by policies, shared by the two main parties, that are seen to be unsustainable. The welfare system, for example, seriously needs to be looked into to ensure its sustainability, not just for the present but for future generations.
The country is dragging its feet on pension reform and there is absolutely no way of persuading the two main parties that the health service and the stipend system, for instance, badly need to be overhauled. They are largely alone in believing that the country can sustain these services for a long time.
Expert advice by foreign organisations monitoring the economy, such as the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and credit rating agencies, as well as local experts have consistently advocated the tweaking of these services to ensure that they are sustainable. But neither the PN nor the PL is prepared to listen to such advice. They have not done this over time and it would be illusionary to expect them to do so on the eve of a general election.
Like the experts, this newspaper is not suggesting a wholesale removal of stipends or the dismantling of the free health service. What is needed is a new, realistic approach that would not drain public finance to the extent that the systems in place are doing today.
It would seem that the two big parties’ priorities are not the best the country ought to have in the effort to put its finances on a sound financial basis. Unfortunately, however, no reasonable debate on this can be expected to be held in the run-up to the election.