The Promise of 2003

The Malta Independent



We desperately need a new way of doing things. Unless we start pulling together to resolve problems that are eroding our financial structures and social values, we cannot make it. External discipline will then become a necessity for survival.

The government`s premise for EU membership at all cost is based on the realisation that 15 years of laissez-faire and wasteful (mis)management has damaged beyond repair its ability to run our own affairs. No country our size and characteristics can survive economically if we continue to burn money in useless subsidies rather than re-structure for optimal allocation of scarce resources.

`It is for this reason that we have to make a strategic choice on a fully informed basis through a binding electoral contest and then confirm it as necessary by a large national majority through a referendum.` Rather than approach a monumental decision such as that for EU membership with our heads high permitting a smart choice, we are sheepishly led to believe that we have no real choice. We are invited to feast because we got Lm26 million per annum for the first three years even though compliance costs and fresh subsidies will cost us just as much or even more. Granted, there is much more than funds to the EU. The real benefit could be the discipline to run our affairs efficiently, to stop the rot of the `money no problem` culture, and to set high standards of safety and environmental adherence in all spheres of life. But to do so we should not take the obligation to subsidise rich French farmers; to build infrastructures that in the local context add no real value; to lose our ability to differentiate ourselves; to give up the advantage of flexibility inherent in our small size enabling us to grasp opportunities as they arise; to forfeit our natural advantage of having a strategic importance far bigger than our size. It is pitiful that we have been reduced to a state where those who will vote for EU membership will be mostly motivated by the false belief that no real alternative for economic well-being exits.

Equally distasteful that many who will vote against will do so because they think we cannot effectively compete within the EU. Whatever we decide could be premised on the wrong reasons. The future does not just happen. The future is what we make it; building on our strengths and addressing our weaknesses. It is for this reason that we have to make a strategic choice on a fully informed basis through a binding electoral contest and then confirm it as necessary by a large national majority through a referendum. May the year 2003 be the year when the nation comes back together to face the future with confidence.