Whose vision?

Soon Mater Dei Hospital will open its gates to its first patients. The proximity of this milestone in the centuries-old distinguished history of health in these islands will be welcomed by the whole population except the very few who have been deceived by Labour's short-sighted propaganda. Not for long! Short-sighted, because the imminent opening will show Labour for what they really are.

The hospital will profit the whole population, not only Nationalists. Only, Labour supporters will discover that they have been duped once more by their own propaganda machine. It is well known that people only blast the services offered until they become patients and are admitted to hospital. Then many write to thank and extol the service they have received. Even the opposition papers frequently have to publish letters of thanks and praise. Hearsay against actual experience!

Many of our staff has had a taste of things to come over the last few years having been taken on a visit. The migration process has not started just now. Now the process is naturally being intensified. It will proceed until all acute patients will be treated at Tal-Qroqq. The general population has also been invited to visit and see for itself. Thousands have done so. Labour and the usual moaners and downers have decried this practice. The fear of the proverbial bubble bursting in their face!

Would this hospital have happened were it for Labour? A resounding no! The evidence is readily available. Before coming to power in 1996, Labour went on record that they would pull it down or turn it into a football ground. Alfred Sant's speeches when PM gave him away that it was only circumstances that had forced him to accept it. He went on to double its size and scope. Just before he resigned in 1998 he stated that he was still of the opinion that it was all a mistake.

The truth is that Labour never had a vision for this country. And it is this lack of vision that makes them unfit to govern. They themselves feel it! Witness the comments made by apologists in their effort to rehabilitate their leader. Not only by boasting in and out of season of the five consecutive victories. This very week in this very newspaper Joe A. Vella, a Labour veteran journalist, in his efforts to boost Dr Sant's political persona went so far as to disparage Old Labour policies.

I don't recall he ever did it in the dark ages when people were being persecuted, beaten and even murdered. He had the cheek to blame the VAT fiasco on Dr Sant's Labour colleagues since they did not stop him from concocting a replacement of sorts. This is indeed rich when today it is well documented that Dr Sant had imposed his fiscal policy without consulting anybody. With friends like these... According to Lino Spiteri, his leader acted like this because he wanted to commit him. That's democratic leadership for you! Could the general conference demur and dissent faced by an impending general election? Isn't this claim a vindication of our assertion that Dr Sant cannot be trusted (not even by his colleagues) and an affirmation of his early avowal that he was ready to deal with the devil if that would win him votes. His answer to Mr Spiteri's query as to how did he plan to recover the lost millions of liri in revenue is typical of policy-making on the hoof, more recently explicitly articulated in the colourful Maltese equivalent of fudging.

At whose expense? His own credibility and any claim to his fitness to lead and govern. But what is more vital and damaging, at the expense of the people of these islands. The VAT replacement by Dr Sant's concoction, CET, its reintroduction by us immediately we were called to repair the damage done in a short 22 months and its final acceptance by Dr Sant on the eve of the 2003 election meant the loss of millions of liri to the economy, loss of credibility (witness a mere Lm18 million in foreign investment), a lot of harm done to the thousands who switched over to Labour to get rid of the hated cash register and its tell-tale audit trail, and millions of liri lost in government revenue. No wonder in his assault on the deficit, the Labour leader, armed with his CET weapon, increased it to Lm127 million in his first year and then to Lm150 million in his second. Given this record, no wonder the majority finds it so hard to vote Labour even when, due to the difficulties brought by the necessary restructuring and adaptation to EU parameters and regulations, they are at present not especially enamoured of the present government.

Nor is this the only baring of Labour's political poverty. Neither is this a recent phenomenon. Old timers will remember Dom Mintoff's battling for integration with the UK at the very time when all colonies were breaking free of their colonial shackles. Even those younger will recall Mr Mintoff, Canute-like, ordering computers not to touch these islands lest they would create massive unemployment. Quite a few of those now in the front benches were at the time gazing in adoration at the great teacher and leader. The result? Never was unemployment as high as in the early 1980s, besides a whole generation lost to computers!

Others will remember Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici lambasting our government for investing Lm80 million to replace our Neanderthal communications system where, in Mr Mintoff's words, you called Cetta and got answered by Cikka, or when calling your mother you became privy to half a dozen conversations on the phone. Many more of today's front benchers, including Dr Sant, were around at the time. Were it not for the courage and vision of our ministers then would we have been able to create a knowledge-built industry from scratch? Can you imagine SmartCity with Stowger equipment and without the millions of liri invested in ICT education?

I can almost hear Mr Vella protesting that Dr Sant was not the leader then. I have already mentioned VAT. How about EU membership? Can you see Labour under Dr Sant with his God forbid proclamation achieving membership? He is still asserting it is second best. Or can you imagine Labour tackling globalisation by revolutionising industrial policy? Or do you rather envision Dr Sant's Donquixotesque efforts at protecting old manufacturing industry? Can you imagine MCAST happening? Or 10,000 attending the University?

Whether constitutional or foreign affairs, industrial or commercial policy, education, health or communications, Labour never got it right. It's all a question of vision. Their inherent lack of confidence in the resourcefulness of the Maltese people always prevented them from thinking big, from recognising the signs of the times.

That's why many judge them unfit to lead us on to new heights. That's the difference between them and us. That's the chasm between Gonzi and Sant. It's the vision thing. That's the choice people will have to make in a little over a year.

Dr Deguara is Minister of Health, the Elderly and Community Care.