Just a glance at the PN’s media spinning machine, and it is more than evident that they have frenetically embarked on an attempt to transmit the impression that we are all in a state of intense happiness and a feeling of wellbeing! This euphoric attitude and approach has been culminating since the yearly appointment for all party faithful on the Granaries celebrating Independence Day.
In a desperate attempt to resuscitate its chance of being re-elected into office, the ‘think positive’ approach is now leading this moribund party-in-government to limits verging on the hallucinatory! A special edition of the ‘local’ Guinness book of records was circulated to all party delegates attending the last general council, featuring all the achievements of this magnificent government. Included were also projects that have been dragging on for ages and others that were never kick-started like the Crafts Village at Ta’ Qali – a fantastic performance that supersedes any previous ones throughout our entire history!
Whoever gives the other side of the story is a decadent, pessimist Jeremiah who always sees the dark side of the moon. Whoever mentions the structural deficit, the gross incompetence, the repeated overruns of infrastructural projects, the never-ending postponement of completion dates, the bribery and corruption of public officers, the mistrust in our public administration, lesser spending power, sky high property value and so on, is the prophet of doom who transmits only bad vibes, negativity and pessimism!
Lately, they want us to believe they are newcomers in running this country and have been responsible for the past four years only; consequently they deserve another term in office. Somehow they want to expunge the fact that at the helm of the party when they won the last election was Edward Fenech Adami.
Since 1977, it was Edward Fenech Adami who led his party throughout all the electoral ‘battles’ of the last 30 years and administered this country since 1987 except for a short spell of 22 months. The Gonzi administration is smarter than any other previous administration. Even though with most of the ministers spanning throughout the period of the last two-score of years, still there is no comparison with any other former administration, including the Fenech Adami ones.
To be in line with their assertion that somehow they are ‘newcomers’ in the administration of this country and are still honeymooners, I will be concentrating on what took place right through this legislature and conveniently ignore previous legislatures. What are the highlights of this legislature that should make us elated about?
Definitely, never ever did the average wage earner feel the hole in his/her pocket as during the past few years. Purchasing power has fast been eroded and dwindled downwards creating further hardship to most families who have to be more cautious even on their day-to-day spending.
The beefy tariffs, taxes, surcharge and administrative charges introduced by the Gonzi administration surely have exerted an extra pressure on the income of most of our families and became a dead weight. To make both ends meet it is becoming a struggling daily experience for most lower and middle-class wage-earners.
Job prospects and opportunities for our workforce seem to be only available in the form of part-time work. The number of part-timers has astronomically increased while the number of full-time gainfully occupied has increased insignificantly. Moreover, the past years were characterized by most workers in the manufacturing industries losing their main source of income.
Despite the investment of millions of liri in the building of new schools and the refurbishment of others, it is still unconceivable how we experience the fact that a substantial number of our youths leave the system without acquiring even the basic skills. The new colleges systems, introduced lately, was pioneered without any research and empiric data related to the local circumstances. Planning the implementation of the system definitely leaves much to be desired and now most practitioners are at a loss not knowing what’s going on!
The syllogistic conclusion for an ever-larger ETC is a defective educational system whereby rework became a necessity. The fact that hundreds of young people have to attend ETC courses in order to render them employable is a symptom of a system that needs a thorough reform, definitely not like the one proposed.
The last legislature was characterised by endless eye-catching promises but when it comes to their materialization, you soon realise that it was all lip service! Promising mega-projects in the hope that one day they might finally see the light, and keep on postponing their completion date endlessly is not a healthy symptom of efficiency and excellence.
The last budget of this legislature was an exercise to pull the wool over one’s eyes. An attempt to act as a pain relief after the hefty financial burdens imposed on the average wage earners during the past years. It reminds me of our childhood’s popular song, from the musical Mary Poppins – “just a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down.”
Once the dust settles and the people will come face to face with the daily reality of an ever diminishing spending power, they will soon realise that the hole in their pockets is still there. Then they realise that all this euphoria was simply artificially created. It is a mirage in a desperate attempt to attract those who presently are in the political wilderness.
The resulting hype and soap bubbles will soon dissolve in the air as our people are intelligent enough not to forget what they have been through in the recent past! This is an illusion which will soon fade away in less than twelve months, if we ever had to experience a non-election Nationalist budget once again!

Roderick Galdes is Labour’s spokesman for the Environment and National Heritage.