Public Convenience and the National Interest

The Sunday Times of Malta



For nationalist stalwarts like Roamer the national interest is like a public convenience. Promote it when in government; neglect it when in opposition.

My contributions to the press are meant to raise the level of debate from mere partisan feuding to logical problem identification and resolution theory and practice. People like Roamer (Sunday Times 23rd July) treat their readers with disdain when promoting national interest only when the nationalist administration is with its back against the wall.

Firstly let`s rejoice! Finally we have at least some sort of cross-party agreement. There is consensus that there is a problem. Less then two years ago the nationalist party then in opposition, fully supported by Roamer et al, was denying the existence of such problem. It depicted Labour`s effort to raise public awareness of the structural fault in public finances as a mere figment of Labour`s imagination.

Much the same happened when Labour administration started delivering changes at Malta Drydocks meant to instal management accountability and drive substantial improvement in efficiency. The Nationalists from the opposition benches were objecting like a prostitute taking offence to the virgin wearing a skirt above the knee.

When Labour assigned six other much wiser men and myself to co-author a report on new initiatives for creation economic growth, the Nationalist took objection because this report, apart from highlighting new projects like the Cruise Liner Terminal and the Film Industry, indicated a practical socially sensitive way how to ease the financial burden of the excess manpower in the public sector. They castigated Labour in the 1998 election run-up for having the audacity of merely receiving such report!` No trace of the national interest then!

When Labour finance ministers were having to borrow to fill the big black budget hole left behind by the outgoing nationalist administration of 1996, the Nationalist were with their saintly innocence from the opposition benches castigating the government for borrowing to finance the deficit and the unsettled bills they had left behind.` Where was the national interest then`

So before I would attempt to persuade my Leader first on a small and then a big round table conference to agree on principles of how to solve problems which are in the national interest and which no government alone can solve, let Roamer get agreement from his Leader on the following pre-conditions:

1.











This government will terminate its term by Dec 2001 which was the natural expiry of Labour 1996 mandate so that the country can go to fresh elections early in 2002. Such shortening of the mandate is necessary firstly to close this democratically unhealthy mandate which has its origins in the undemocratic ego of Mr Mintoff. Secondly it would be conducive to the bringing of a mountain of goodwill to the roundtable. The prospect of being in government in the near term to take benefit of the national consensus motivates a goodwill approach by the parties involved.

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Until then economic re-structuring will take place on areas agreed by Government and Opposition as needing treatment for our own sake to be and remain competitive in a globalised world, not merely to adhere to the EU acquis communitaire.

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The 2002 election will be considered as the referendum on Malta`s EU accession.` If the PN wins the Labour Party will have to accept the inevitability of Malta joining irreversibly by 2007. If the MLP wins PN would have to accept that Labour would go for a Swiss style relationship and that the EU membership issue would have to wait till at least 2010.

4.











Both parties have to agree on full audit under the aegis the Ombudsman to have their finances checked and for clear and equitable legislation to be passed putting democratic discipline into the matter of party financing.

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Full autonomous audits are to be made by persons trusted by both sides on the Daewoo issue, the Mid-Med Bank fire-sale, and Labour 1992 leadership elections with the results of such audits being published by latest June 2001.

If Roamer can get his Leader`s agreement to these sensible pre-conditions than it would provide a sound basis for my encouraging agreement from Labour on his roundtable proposal.` Non-acceptance of these pre-conditions would on the other hand prove that for the nationalists, national interest is as useful as a public convenience.

The same way the nationalist governments have over the last 13 years used the shipyards as a public convenience to pour hundred of millions of subsidy funds without even attempting a real national interest solution. What makes Roamer think that the nationalists can wake up to their responsibilities after neglecting them for 13 years. And no, Roamer, `the Drydocks problem does not stretch back to 1970 or 1973. `After the 1973 Lm12 million loan write-off ( we now dish them out and more every year) Drydocks made a profit until 1981!

Alfred Mifsud