Discussing but Seriously

The Malta Independent on Sunday

Discussing, but Seriously!

I just don`t understand how the government is conducting its business. I have written extensively these last few months on the mounting economic problems. I have voiced my opinion about the uncanny way we are going about seeking` membership in the EU. I have even published a book about the matter.

I have spoken at conferences and in the last one in the presence of government ministers I explained that the government is complicating rather than solving our economic problems.

Not one word in reply.` No arguments to rebut` or counter analysis to mitigate any conclusions.` On the contrary the Minister for Economic Services writes in his regular Sunday Column that he liked my presentation but I should not have peppered it with political loading. So basically he admits that as a stand-alone my arguments are right but I should refrain from attributing` political responsibility for the poor state of our economic affairs.` I should console the victim but not condemn the economic rapist lest I be accused of playing political.

I make strong accusations to Government that it does not have the credentials to solve our deep economic problems because its electoral mandate promises confetti not sacrifices; because it cannot claim prior ignorance about the dismal state of the financial mess of our public accounts which the present government and the same incumbents themselves fabricated mostly between 1993 and 1996. Not one word of defence.

I make strong accusations that the schedule for accession into the EU is being unnecessarily accelerated with grave consequences to the standard of living of the low and middle class, to fit the personal ambitions of the Prime Minister and not to suit the true interest of the country. Not a whisper.

Through the Association for the Minority Shareholders accusations are made that HSBC Bank Malta plc is serving the interest of the major shareholders by making unethical pressure on the minority shareholders to give their proxies to the Chairman appointed by the majority shareholder.` Yet nothing moves. In front of such accusations, no denials are offered and the Regulators continue their cosy sleep happy to ensure that in the paper work the t`s are properly crossed and the i`s correctly dotted but not interested in performing the true functions of effective regulation.

Then I gather an ounce of` audacity to tell Alfred Sant that he should not have extended his admonition for EU enlargement commissioner to control his tongue by a threat to bite it back and it seems as if I shook the earth.

We cannot go on like this.` How on earth can we continue filling our national agenda with useless platitudes and seek confrontational solutions to problems which can only be solved by a pragmatic national approach`

How can this government which secured our electoral order with false promises of` milk and honey with little effort, now expect to capture the imagination of the electorate with` an EU vision which is hardly ever translated to real understandable language of how our daily lives will be effected`

Can`t we have real discussion please, but seriously, about whether a Government which has misrepresented facts to the electorate can have` what it takes to deserve our backing to accept his ill-devised solutions without murmur.

During the week we had two further examples of the pitiful level which discussion in this country has sank into. Enemalta saves $1.7 million on oil purchases replied the Minister for Economic Services to a parliamentary question. This same Minister had cruelly criticised his predecessor for agreeing to the hedging agreement which produced his saving. So to cover his `. the Minister added that the fact remained that the hedging agreement exposed Enemalta to major risk which was not based on scientific evidence and that this` speculation in a highly volatile sector which could have had serious consequences for the country.` Bombastic words indeed for an agreement which produced a saving!` It would have been better if the Minister saved his breath from such grandiloquence and informed what scientific studies has led him to allow Enemalta to buy oil at market prices since the hedging agreement expired last December. I estimate that on current oil prices Enemalta must be losing some $4 million each month. My forecast that if oil maintains its current levels, as seems likely, we will soon have to experience another energy price hike has not been rebutted since I made it in the Labour Party general conference 4 weeks ago!

And Roderick Pace solemnly maintains that entry into the EU will protect our statehood. We need another year to know what voting rights we will have in an enlarged EU and our learned critics eloquently profess the preservation of our statehood even if we have to accept that all decisions are taken for us by others.` Let`s discuss, but seriously!