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The Mintoffian ideology was characterized by a centrally controlled economy, a brutal police force, a state-controlled public broadcasting service, political appointments on constitutional authorities and government boards, a bloated public service and state subsidies to parastatal companies. The average citizen felt powerless against an ever present and controlling state. The party was the state. The leader was the country. A lack of choice permeated the whole system. There was one state television service, one hospital, limited places at university, corruption in the issuing of trade and importation licenses and institutionalised corruption in the issuing of building permits. The gerrymandered election result threw the country into near paralysis. A government which had lost the support of the majority of the electorate dragged the country through five years of constitutional crisis.
1987 represented the beginning of a new dawn: Mintoffianism was promised to be confined to the history books. People’s expectations ran high. Positive and far reaching social and economic changes took place with immediate effect. The right buttons were pressed. It was clear that the new government had a well-prepared plan to push back the powers of the state, allow private enterprise to blossom and grant full recognition to the fundamental rights of the citizens. Not by coincidence but rather by design, the economy thrived and a vast improvement in the quality of life was achieved. A mixture of the reestablishment of majority government, the loosening up of state control of all activities and guarantee of human rights all helped to establish the fundamentals of a market driven economy western democracy. The Mintoffian infrastructure started being dismantled in 1987 and the process carried on after the 1992 re-election of the government.
The advent of European membership was to symbolise the final death knell for Mintoffianism. Indeed Mintoff’s legacy was the very antithesis of the spirit of Europe. We were all convinced that the process of change and the modernisation of our country would take off in earnest. Europe would liberate the country amongst other things from old restrictive working practices, the demolition of closed shops the privatisation of state controlled monopolies, the liberalisation of the air waves, the clear distinction between church and state and the reduction of red tape and bureaucracy. Most of all we felt that Europe would usher into the country a spirit of liberal freethinking.
Regrettably, the process of modernisation is taking longer than expected. The domination of the state by the parties is ever present. Unacceptably, party representatives sit on both the MEPA board and the Broadcasting Authority. This dominance only ensures that priority is given to the interests of the party rather than of the ordinary citizen. Party donations remain a state secret clouded by the familiarity between both parties and building contractors. The praiseworthy Planning Authority Act ensuring that no minister would simply convert a green area into a development site has been ignored certainly in spirit by the recent boundary extensions. Ministers’ zeal in protecting government monopolies baffles a public awaiting competition as the motor for reducing prices. Suffice it to mention the placing of the narrow interests of Air Malta prior to the national interest of the tourism industry. The advent of low cost airlines may not be a panacea for all the difficulties presently being encountered by our tourism industry but it certainly will go a long way towards increasing numbers and subsequent growth.
We augur that the impasse is overcome. Our transportation system is still over protected. What is stopping government from liberalising the taxi, bus and minibus system? Why is a monopoly still operating the Gozo channel crossings? Our objections to the existence of monopolies remains consistent. We disagree with monopolies in the hands of government and have even stronger objections to monopolies in the hands of the private sector. Regrettably certain privatisations have just taken the form of a transfer of ownership from the state into private hands. This all flies in the face of the free competition and makes a mockery of an open market.
The state owned television and radio service remains a throwback to the past. State broadcasting is still entrenched in the hands of the government.
Let us hope government develops the political will to shed the last vestiges of Mintoffianism once and for all.
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