editorial • November 30 2003

Stark reality to a uncomfortable fact

To argue that the deficit problem is not linked to economic planning is wrong. One should not forget that for the last 17 years the PN has been in government and ruled this country. Then again, the diversity, the democratisation, the opportunities, the economic progress continues to overshadow the dark years before 1987 offered to us by a combination of Mintoffian policies and Mifsud Bonnici follies. No one should forget the ridiculous autarky promulgated by those policies that blocked the fruition of a free market economy and compelled everyone to look to corrupting minor officials and taking on Catania flea markets as a solution to better their purchasing power.
The changes of the late eighties and nineties could only have got better had it not been for certain politicians that postponed reform. But then again, there were very few Thatcherite policies in motion. The Nationalist government cannot be accused of bulldozing any social reform policy. On the other hand, it patiently discussed every motion it planned with the unions, first with Anglu Fenech then Jack Calamatta and finally with Tony Zarb. To the detriment of reform and change.
In the first years of Nationalist government, the flakes of Labour violence carried on captained by the thuggery of the late Lorry Sant and the militancy of Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici’s inward looking Labour party.
The nineties opened new opportunities to bona fide entrepreneurs who challenged the old guard dominated by four big families, the Bertu Mizzis of this world. Not all was above board, but the nouveau riche had every opportunity to move and share the kill with the privileged few.
In the cultural scene there was first a void and then an explosion. The dying cinemas were replaced by state of the art cinemas in one, two, three and four localities
The University campus contained 9,000 students and not the few hundreds imposed by the silly antics of numerus clausus. Graduates over-spilled into new jobs upgrading standards all around.
Not all was rosy, but the purchasing power of most Maltese doubled, tripled and in some cases quadrupled from the 1987 norms. Speculators smiled as they raked in hundreds of thousands of pounds and reinvested in lucrative funds or ideas.
In the economic boom of the nineties, infrastructure projects brought to the fore a new air terminal and freeport. New private hospitals blossomed and so did private old people’s homes.
Eateries and entertainment places became more sophisticated and media transformed itself from one English newspaper and two Maltese newspapers to a plethora of newspapers, radios and TV stations. Computers and IT once the scourge of Labour policies infiltrated every home and the same occurred for mobile telephony. Japanese and French cars once banned under Mintoffian rule were back again, together with the thousands of fancy cars that literally invaded every nook and cranny of Maltese society.
But not all was rosy, the economic drive failed to look at the global factor that had an intrinsic impact on the ups and downs of Malta’s competitiveness and tourist potential.
Even more so, the rush led to serious environmental degradation, even though a planning authority contributed to somewhat limiting the damage. On an institutional level the PN failed to change the electoral system, the judicial system and the financing of political parties.
And worse still, government took five years of our lives to introduce a tax regime, which was then removed, changed and finally returned to us once again. And on the European Union question, Malta had to suffer the unbelievable argumentation of Harvard graduate Alfred Sant who first waged war on accession then chose to suddenly embrace it.
In the end, we are all back with another budget. The same accusations of incompetence and mismanagement have been bandied around at the very same feet of the PN government.
There is truth in that statements, but the ripostes to the ‘fair’ accusations, is that in all fairness; the Nationalist monarchy is still the better alternative and if there are any kings in the waiting, we are not seeing them.