‘What more could you want?’ – Gonzi

The Prime Minister took the fight to Ta' Giorni yesterday evening, where he attempted to raise morale with an impressive list of government successes in the economic management department.

Fresh from visits to Scotts supermarket and the Playmobil factory, among others, Lawrence Gonzi devoted much of the meeting to one central message: the country was doing well. Why change a direction that was clearly yielding dividends?

Listing out a raft of government initiatives and projects that he himself had seen with his own eyes in the last few days (all of which were separately applauded with warmth), he added that the evidence for the success of his government's policies was fully visible.

He himself had just visited Maghtab, where a rubbish dump had been turned into a public park. He had just opened a new school at Tal-Handaq; and factories - which only a few years ago were threatening to lay off workers - were now reinvesting and taking on more employees.

Earlier that day he had inaugurated a branch of Scotts supermarket, and Gonzi digressed to praise the entrepreneurship of a Maltese family which, through hard work and sacrifice, had turned a modest textiles factory into a thriving supermarket chain.

Reports were also coming in that Malta's unemployment was among the lowest in Europe. New jobs were being created, and banks were posting record profits.

"What more could you want?" he said. "What more can we do?"

All this contrasted sharply with the situation in other European countries: including a few that were economic role models for Labour leader Joseph Muscat.

Gonzi told his audience that the finance minister of Cyprus had only just just reported that people were drawing their life savings from the banks. Spain was engulfed by unemployment, having been brought to its knees by the flawed policies of a government that Muscat once promised to emulate; and similar experiences were being reported in Ireland and France.

"But Malta is working," Gonzi said to applause. "And it's working because of the sacrifices you made. Now we are approaching a critical moment of decision, and I know that many people are still undecided; there are those who are still weighing their options, and sizing up the alternatives. I can understand them completely. They are right to think carefully before making their decision."

Warning his listeners how easily all that their sacrifices had achieved could be lost as a result of that decision, he said that voting for change on its own made no sense, if the change was for the worse.

"When next Saturday comes, I will be able to safely say to myself that I did everything I could. From that point on, it will be the electorate to decide. I am confident that the electorate will take the right decision in the interest of the country."

As always the meeting was also addressed by audience members, who on this occasion included a heavyweight in the industrial and economic sector in the form of Helga Ellul, former CEO of Playmobil.

Ellul strongly endorsed the Prime Minister's overall assessment of the Maltese economy, which she described as "the envy of many countries".

"Our only resource is our people," she said, adding that it was through the hard work of the Maltese people that our economy had withstood the international crisis.

This success would not be possible without the necessary investment in human resources, training, education and industry.

Momentarily switching to English for his guest, Gonzi thanked Ellul for her outstanding contribution to the success she had just described. He then described a visit of his own to the Playmobil factory, where he had been impressed by the sheer technology that went into the production of millions of tiny toys.

It was this combination of human resources and investment in technology, he said, that enabled Malta to compete on an international playing field.

"Having robots and advanced manufacturing technology, on its own, is not enough. You need engineers and technicians to programme the robots. If I have the technology alone I will not be able to compete with China. But if I have the technicians who, thanks to their training, can manage to add even this much extra to my product, then yes, I can compete with China and the rest of the world."

On his part David Griscti, a lawyer who deals with international investment firms, explained how international investors are worried by the prospect of a change in government in Malta.

"They tell us: we see how well your country is doing, then we see opinion polls which indicate that people want a change, and they can't understand it," he explained.

The meeting was also addressed by TV personality Gloria Mizzi, who said that she did not represent any profession as such (Gonzi would later tell her, to much applause, that hers was "the best profession in the world") but wanted to share some insights with the crowd.

Drawing on the advice once given to her by her own mother, she warned that "not all that glitters is gold".

"I don't pay attention to nice-sounding words, I try to understand the substance beneath," she said.

Ending the event with a note of caution, Gonzi invited the audience to imagine that Labour had won the election five years ago.

"What would a Labour government have done about Libya? I don't know," he said: adding that he could make a guess based on the fact that 'Labour people' had criticised him for 'breaking the Constitution'.

"And what would a Labour government have done about the international economic crisis? Again, I don't know."

What we do know, Gonzi added, is what happened in all the countries Joseph Muscat once looked to for inspiration.