Editorial

After weeks of national discussion on the need to ensure sustainability of the pensions system, health services and social benefits, the prime minister has now announced that in the coming weeks the government would be arriving at "definite conclusions" on these matters. These decisions, to be taken after "consultation" with all those connected with these services and who could contribute towards finding a solution, were to be incorporated in the budget for next year, to be presented next month.

Hopefully then, the country may soon start tackling problems which, for political reasons, had not been given the priority they deserved in the national agenda. It is as if we have now suddenly woken up to the reality of the situation. Indeed, there were those who only up to some time ago derided the government for bringing up the pension problem into the open, thinking, most unwisely, that there was no such urgency.

For details of what the government has in mind, we would now have to wait for the presentation of the budget by the finance minister. But it is expected that the government itself will now abide by what it has undertaken and consult, in time, all those who are directly concerned so that, at last, the country will be able to make some progress in what are by far some of the most delicate reforms that have yet to be undertaken for many years.

When he addressed a Nationalist Party meeting in Floriana last month to mark the 39th independence anniversary, Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami said EU membership demanded new attitudes and new ideas from everybody. Politicians, he said, had to be credible and objective when giving views of the situation facing the country.

The comment applies equally well to the government for if the latest complaint from one of the strongest trade unions in the country is anything to go by, and it certainly is, then the government itself ought to pull its socks up and be credible in what it says. For instance, when, some time ago, the finance minister was explaining to the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development the island's financial situation, he said the government had planned to run the country by consensus.

Only a few days later, the Union Haddiema Maghqudin came out saying it was frustrated and concerned about the government's lack of consultation with his union and the other social partners on the country's problems. How does the government explain this? Does it really believe in the value of the MCESD or not? It does seem from what the UHM says that the government itself ought to move from words to deeds.

The prime minister listed five principal problems facing the country - the creation of new jobs, the welfare system, the public service, the government deficit and the drydocks. These are indeed key problems but there are others of a serious nature that require national attention. The country needs to ensure that it does not lose its competitiveness. It also needs to cut waste, particularly in the public service.

Indiscipline, overmanning, the proliferation of quangos and disenchantment with politicians and politics are other problems that have to be seen to if we are to mean what we say. The last problem, for example, is not one the politicians themselves might readily want to discuss but more and more people are getting increasingly tired of the parochial style of Maltese politics.

So, it is time for politicians too to think about reforming the way they do politics.