No hope

The Malta Independent



I never really had much hope that the referendum campaign could fill the gaps of knowledge needed by the electorate to help it make an informed decision.

The Yes campaign, with apparent limitless resources to spend in media exposure,` keeps avoiding the specifics and just expects us to believe that Labour`s partnership is a mirage and that membership as proposed is the last train to heaven which should on no account be missed.

I have now given up hope completely. Anything Labour issues, no matter how detailed, is just written off by government friendly` media as a pipedream lacking credibility purely because Labour has not had the opportunity to negotiate the way the government did. As if the EU would negotiate with the opposition the same way as it negotiates with the government!

`I have enough grey stuff under my hair to realise that growth needs investment and that growth differentials between the partnership and membership models depends on the amount of investment which each model would attract.` But then, if any unheard of professor presents undisclosed and untested economic models and asserts that by just wearing an EU badge on our lapel we can make our economy grow by an additional 6% p.a. without the need to attract additional investment, then the government friendly media presents it as dogma straight from heaven.

If anybody were to seriously convince me that this could reasonably be expected to be so, I would be the first to at least favour Malta to join the EAA, essentially taking on the obligations of the single market, excluding agriculture and fisheries, without participating in the political dimensions of the EU.

But I have enough grey stuff under my hair to realise that growth needs investment and that growth differentials between the partnership and membership models depends on the amount of investment which each model would attract.

I have often made the case that through partnership we could draw more FDI than under the membership model even though through membership we will undoubtedly get more exposure among FDI providers. I made this case nearly four years ago when I had published my book on a practical way forward regarding our relations with the EU.

I argued then, and still do now, that whilst we will get on the short-list of FDI providers more often through membership, we will make it to the final selection much less than under partnership.` This because once we will not have the flexibility to differentiate our investment attractions package from those of other candidate EU countries that are geographically positioned much closer to the market, we will get regularly eliminated on the basis of superior cost structures. `Now that Labour has forced the government to publish a secret report which confirms what was already so obvious four years ago, the government keeps fudging the issue and gives no assurances or indications of whether it will go for numerus clausus or introduce fee based tertiary education.`

I also argued 4 years ago that our free university model would become unsustainable under membership as it would draw substantial subscription from EU students who would settle here, saving the high cost of tertiary education in their country and at the same time enjoying mild Mediterranean weather and the facility to practice the English language.

Now that Labour has forced the government to publish a secret report which confirms what was already so obvious four years ago, the government keeps fudging the issue and gives no assurances or indications of whether it will go for numerus clausus or introduce fee based tertiary education.

But whilst the Deputy PM avoided the issue in a BA press conference when quizzed by a Super One journalist, in a televised information programme` a junior MIC official when faced with the same question readily replied that the government has guaranteed free` tertiary education and will give the same facility to EU students who use their freedom to come here to share the generosity which this nation shows to its students. I could not help concluding that this MIC guy did not know what he was talking about.

I lost hope of getting an intelligent campaign and should never have expected one in a referendum held as an election campaign tool!`

Alfred Mifsud