Malta seems to be undergoing its own climate change and the rising heat is affecting the cool with which economic affairs should be conducted, at least in a consultative forum like the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development (MCESD). The council was set up in an attempt to bring the social partners together in one room where government representatives could hear their individual and collective views.

A worthwhile objective, though the way the various participants went about it was not always the best option. I recall my own brief direct experience of the council when I was the Minister in charge of Finance and Economic Policy in the first part of the short life of the 1996-98 Labour government.

Early on after the 1996 election, it was suggested to me that I should attend the first meeting of the MCESD under the new regime. I did so to take the opportunity to explain the economic policy which the new government would be following, something I wanted to make as non-disruptive as could be. For that purpose, I kept many of the heads of parastatal bodies in place, and also emphasised the continued promotion of Malta as a financial centre, a policy that attracted rare bi-partisan approval, mainly through the efforts of John Dalli, the outgoing Finance Minister, and myself as his then opposition shadow.

The council members listened courteously. They murmured their relief that the Prime Minister, Alfred Sant, and I intended to steer a unifying economic course. It was my second intervention that made me come unstuck with the council. Replying to sharp nudges of hope that I would be attending council meetings regularly, I dispelled the expectation. I said that the social partners should be free to carry out their discussions, and seek to hammer out a common stand, without a heavy political presence. The government would be represented, but not politically.

That did not go down well. Various members later sought me out to emphasise that, without a political presence, the MCESD would not function well. Thirteen years out of the cabinet and 12 out of politics, my reading of the council has not changed. I am conscious that some of the organisations present on the MCESD misread their role. They think the council is where decisions are taken.

That is not, and should not be, the case. Decisions are taken by the government of the day which, unlike the council, is accountable to the people. But, a wise government, in arriving at its decisions, would take due note of the expectations of the social partners, who together represent a very broad cross-section of the economy and civil society.

So, what of the climate change? In the not-too-distant-past, the MCESD would not infrequently show divided opinions reflecting the stances and expectations of the union representatives and those of the representatives of the corporate and self-employed side. Then there were instances when union representatives would be divided among themselves. Such is the workings of the democrat right to independent opinions.

Then came a period when, largely through the diplomacy and ability of the MCESD chairman Sonny Portelli and advising economist Gordon Cordina, the social partners miraculously agreed to adopt a common pre-Budget stand on a defined area of recommended policy.

The miracle did not last, but it showed that the impossible dream was not so impossible, after all. Good guidance from the top combined with sensible leadership from the centre could yield effective results. Once achieved, always possible, I say. Perhaps consensus, albeit limited, can be achieved again by the social partners’ representatives on the MCESD. But sadly, not for the time being.

We have just entered a period where it is not trade union and capitalist representatives who are in disagreement. It is the broadly capitalist side that has fallen out. The trigger of the rift, sad to say, was the government. The Malta Employers’ Association representatives feel that the government favoured the GRTU when it came to nominating employers’ representatives to a consultative body in Brussels.

The MEA walked out of the council, and promises to stay out until the slight – graphically likened to urinating on the MEA founder’s grave – is set right. The issue seems odd. The GRTU have limited employment. The MEA has much larger employing members. It is strange that the government lost its way on this one. I would not go so far as to agree with the MEA’s implied suggestion that the government favoured Vince Farrugia of the GRTU because he discarded his past political loyalties and stood as a Nationalist nominee in the MEP elections, only to suffer abject humiliation at the hands of Nationalist voters. Yet I do not have any doubt that the government got it wrong.

The result is that the MCESD has effectively lost the participation of the Malta Employers’ Association. Ironically, it subsequently suffered further debilitation – Mr Farrugia marched out of it on a side issue concerning consumer rights.

I do not feel that walk-outs, by whoever, serve a purpose. Fights ought to take place in the ring, not outside it. Nevertheless it has become clear that the structure and raison d’être of the MCESD have to be revisited.