Right down the Middle

The Malta Independent

Right down the Middle

Political parties can continue analysing the local election results to their heart`s delight and stress those elements of the results which suit their purpose till there comes` a month of Sundays. None of this will change the simple fact that the electorate is split right down the middle.

This has its strengths and weaknesses.` Strengths come from the fact that any party in power ought to know that it takes just the slightest shift to lose electoral support. This` should` render the political class accountable to the electorate for their promises and performance.

It has its weaknesses in rendering the political class overly sensitive to a relative minority swinging part of the electoral vote, often avoiding taking `save nine stitch in time` unpopular measures to cure economic weaknesses in order not to alienate this important electoral minority.

The lesson to be learnt is that for the last two elections we had a government elected on a manifesto meant to please this minority which is in direct conflict with what is necessary to address the real economic problems of the country.

Labour`s impressive victory in 1996 did not promise any cures to the economic problems which though hidden were perceivable to careful commentators like JG Vassallo and myself though not admittedly in their fullest extent.` The current government`s mandate is even more unsustainable as its manifesto, in full knowledge of the economic ailments of the country, is based anything but provision of an effective though painful cure to these problems.

Only when the electorate returns to` government a party whose manifesto proposes effective measures to address our economic ailments can we really start tackling the real problems and take the structural decisions for the country`s future. The last time this happened was in 1971 when Mintoff`s Labour was returned to power on a belt-tightening manifesto. The results was 7 years of spectacular growth and effective transformation of the economy from military spending to commercial economic activity. The failures of Labour administration post 1979 should not obscure its performance up to that date.

Any structural irreversible` decision, like joining` the EU, taken by a government with an unrealistic and undeliverable manifesto is unsustainable especially if the local election results could be a fore-taste of the referendum to be held within the next two years.