A people betrayed

Undoubtedly, on Wednesday, when Government presents its budget for 2005 we will hear about the efforts that are being made and the results being achieved to improve our quality of life and to heal our public finances. An increasing number of people in Malta and Gozo are fed up with this kind of talk. After all, last year during the referendum and general election campaigns, the Nationalist Party promised them huge funds from the European Union. They were told that the country's finances were in very good shape, that economic prosperity, a new way of doing politics, new civil rights, a better quality of life, a new everlasting spring... were all round the corner... provided that the majority voted again for another five years of Nationalist government.

An increasing number of people who voted for this now feel cheated and betrayed. The huge funds from the EU have failed to materialise. Taxes and prices of public utilities have gone up, hurting thousands of families and pensioners and making it more difficult for businesses to operate in a viable and sustainable way. People are losing jobs and no fresh investment is coming in to create new ones.

This is not what the people were promised at the opening of the tenth Parliament in May 2003. On that day the Nationalist Party in government presented its programme heralding new times for our country: "This is indeed the dawn of a new spring." The commitment was taken to "...change all that we have allowed to deteriorate, stagnate or to go wrong through lethargy, carelessness or lack of thought."

This government described its programme as "intended to benefit all people without exception; not only in the sense that it rejects and steers clear of political division and partisan differences, but also that it promotes an ever more inclusive society."

Government defined its "cherished goal: the ideal of true democracy, where equality of all citizens means that none fall by the wayside in the march towards progress; indeed the ideal of truly Christian, brotherly democracy, where all actively participate in the life of the country and play their part in solidarity with everyone else."

Instead of a new spring we found the old public deficit. A European Commission report published a few months ago concluded that "the excess of the general government deficit over the three per cent of GDP reference value does not result, in the sense of the Stability and Growth Pact, from an unusual event outside the control of the Maltese authorities, neither is it the result of a severe economic downturn."

In simple and blunt language, the European Commission said that government created this deficit and must take steps to reduce it. The Nationalist Government did not attack the European Commission and called it "liars", "idiots", "imbeciles", "stupid", "false prophets" and a string of other insults that Labour politicians were subjected to by Nationalist politicians over 10 years ago when they started pointing to the unsustainable deficit and public debt that were being created by the reckless policies of the PN government.

We need real changes

In the summer of 1996 the Nationalist Party opted for an early election not to let the truth about the public deficit come out. When the new Labour government exposed the terrible situation public finances were in, the Nationalists promptly dismissed the claims and said that the Labour Party was lying. In a few months the Nationalists started blaming the Labour Party for the deficit.

Since 1998 they have been hiding the deficit problem. Just before the last general election, Dr Eddie Fenech Adami was boasting on April 6, 2003, that "In the 1999 budget, a plan of action was launched to reduce the deficit to 3% of GDP. This plan is being implemented and the targets are being met earlier than predicted." A year later the deficit had shot to over 9% of GDP.

During the months of the referendum and general election campaigns last year, the Nationalist government did not publish any statistics about the state of public finances, as it wanted to conceal the fact they were growing. Meanwhile it mounted huge billboards saying the public finances were on a sound footing and its leaders claimed in their speeches that the deficit was being contained and reduced when the opposite was happening.

This is the first budget to be presented by the PN government led by Dr Lawrence Gonzi. During his campaign to succeed Dr Fenech Adami as Nationalist Party leader, Dr Gonzi identified the problems we are facing now: unemployment, lack of energy by government to tackle the lack of investment, high taxation and a fairer and efficient government.

Whenever Labour politicians mention these problems they are accused of being negative and painting a bleak picture by Dr Gonzi himself when a few months ago, in his leadership campaign, he confirmed that these problems do exist. In fact he based most of his leadership campaign on trying to persuade PN councillors that he would address and solve these problems!

Months have passed and the government led by Dr Gonzi has still not started delivering. This does not bode well for a country that has tough challenges to face: regenerating the economy, creating jobs and wealth, and instilling fresh life into public structures and services to equip Malta and Gozo to survive and thrive in the 21st century.

Wide-ranging problems: debilitating structural deficit and public debt, environmental degradation, lack of fresh investment, de-industrialisation, loss of economic competitiveness, a stagnant tourism industry, decaying public institutions, a corrosive culture of cronyism ... have been allowed to pile up, their solution put away for another year.

It is becoming clear to more people that we cannot face these tough challenges with "more of the same" mindsets that the Gonzi cabinet is immersed in. We need real changes.

evaristbartolo@hotmail.com