Boom or bust

This week the Prime Minister will make an important announcement. He will declare the exact date for the holding of the referendum. Now is the time for the people to decide on Malta's membership of the European Union.

Following the debate that led to Parliament authorising Government to hold this referendum, the Prime Minister wrote to the Opposition Leader, proposing that they issue a declaration together appealing to one and all to express himself or herself in the referendum.

The proposal, which indicated that the referendum will be held in March, provided also for agreement on the date by which general elections would be called, irrespective of the referendum result. In our democracy, the Prime Minister enjoys the unique prerogative of deciding on his own when to dissolve Parliament and call general elections. This is his most telling right.

Nonetheless, in the national interest the Prime Minister was inviting the Opposition Leader to come to an agreement on the latest date for the general elections. This is an unprecedented move in our constitutional history. The Prime Minister offered the Opposition Leader to share with him his own prerogative. He did so as a true statesman in the national interest.

In return, the Prime Minister has not sought from the Opposition any change of policy on the EU. If it remains against membership, so be it, that's its own prerogative! Nor has the Prime Minister asked the Opposition to declare in any way how it would deal with the ensuing result. The Prime Minister limited himself to asking the Opposition to join forces with him to appeal to the electorate to participate in the referendum.

Now is the time for the people to weigh all arguments, as objectively as possible, and make a decision in the national interest. Now is the time for the people to express themselves - to tell us whether they are for or against Malta's membership of the EU in its next enlargement, on May 1, 2004.

The response from the Opposition Leader, to my mind, makes it clear that Labour has no intention of asking the people to participate in a referendum which the present government has a precise electoral mandate to call after successfully concluding negotiations to secure Malta's membership of the EU. That only shows that it does not consider its job as one of persuading the people one way or the other, but considers its job as not bothering to listen to the people at all.

Moreover, the Labour Party feels uncomfortable about the people having access to objective information about the EU. Since the party does not care about what the people want, it cares even less about the people being given the facts. This is evident from the kind of campaign the party has been conducting so far.

Its first billboard kicked off with too many fundamental errors to escape attention. It was too cluttered and hardly served to communicate a clear message (but then no one can communicate a message that does not exist). That apart, the persons responsible for it made two major blunders.

The first was to place on a political poster the person of the President of Malta who should be respected by one and all as being super partes - above any partisan political debate. Of course he hails, and proudly so, from working actively within one political party. So did the former Presidents who had worked actively within the Labour Party. But then no-one has ever dreamt, before this billboard was set up, to rope into a partisan debate, and so blatantly, their personal images.

The Labour Party has no respect for our country's institutions. Can any one expect better from a party that has no respect for what the people will be declaring in the upcoming referendum on Malta's place within the EU?

The other major blunder was that billboard tried to give the impression that Malta will only be receiving Lm1.5 million a year - ah, but there is the famous catch - in smaller print, you find the expression flus kontanti! In other words, Labour's first billboard, to launch their anti-EU campaign, contradicts itself within its own space, within its own wording.

Now, before this billboard was set up, it was pointed out to the Labour Party that even arithmetically, their calculations were simply wrong. They mistook euros for Maltese liri, subtracted items twice and took into account figures that should not have entered into their calculation. But then Labour does not care about accuracy, since it does care about the truth - at all.

As I followed the session of our Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee which was addressed by EU Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen last Friday, I was struck by an expression he used. Mr Verheugen observed that one cannot compare EU membership to a card that is inserted in a cash machine merely to draw money!

Nor does the EU help member states merely to bridge their budget deficits. The Union works to provide substantial financing to projects that are identified as being required in the interests of the member states. In the process these member states attain comparable standards of excellence, achieving European cohesion. One does not need to be a genius to realise that all money saved on any project that in any case would have had to be carried out can be immediately re-channelled into all the other requirements of the country.

Mr Verheugen appealed for an objective analysis, and for correct information. He also spoke clearly against using arguments that are only intended to sow confusion without having the slightest semblance of fact or truth.

Labour's choice for a continuous untruth game that can be expected to escalate in the coming weeks was still more clear when the party organised a mass meeting last Sunday. While many will rightly remember how that meeting demonstrates that the Labour Party is back to its old antics and mannerisms (cruelty to animals included), no one can underestimate how that meeting was an exercise in deception and scare mongering.

Only persons who know that truth is not on their side resort to untruths and scare tactics. Last Sunday, the Labour leader indicated, by name, a number of firms which according to him would go through a negative experience with regard to employment if Malta joins the EU.

The managing directors of all the firms named by the Labour leader retorted that they are geared for membership. Two of those firms are investing Lm3 million to upgrade their production methods, knowing only too well that Malta is preparing to join the EU in its next enlargement. Would firms that are facing downsizing or possible closure make that kind of investment?

The Labour leader responded that he will be naming more firms. This approach has been criticised by the Federation of Industry. This partisan and politically dishonest method of opposition can have a disruptive effect on industry.

The Labour Party is predictably being echoed by the General Workers Union which would prefer to defend the MLP's interests rather than those of its members.

The truth is that EU membership will enhance stability and security, and deliver certainty to our business community. By today week we shall know the precise date when the people will be called upon to make this crucial decision.

It is a choice between going for economic growth and prosperity or condemning our country to its worst ever depression. It is a choice between boom or bust.

e-mail: info@franciszammitdimech.com
Website: www.franciszammitdimech.com