Kissing the Better Half Goodbye

The Malta Independent - Friday Wisdom

As our parliamentarians wished each other happy holidays in the House before its summer recess, two fifths of the legislature was archived into history. As quite often the legislature does not run its full term, which would mean general elections in peak summer of 2008, then it could be argued that this legislature, which was sanctioned by the general elections of April 2003, will have passed its half way mark before parliament resumes late next September.

The question is – are we kissing goodbye the better or the worse half of the legislature?

It depends on what criteria one uses to measure the better or the worse. I go by substance and experience leads me to conclude that a legislature is normally split in two halves. The first half is where the medicine is applied; where the unpopular decisions are taken to address the country’s problems; where government generally is less popular as it suffers the mid-term blues as the electorate feels the pinch of the tough medicine without as yet perceiving the benefits of the cure.

Memory flashes back to the Labour government of 1996-1998 where it had only time to give account of the first two years where it was constrained by the inherited problems, whose fatherhood entirely belonged to the outgoing PN administrations of 1987 – 1996. One can well remember the very sensible measure of applying a token fifty cents charge on free medicine prescriptions, not as a fund raising measure, but purely to discourage waste in free medicines being claimed unnecessarily.

Surely one can easily recall the unjust criticism against such a necessary and sensible measure, with Labour being accused as having lost its social conscience. Because Labour government’s life was cut all too short as it was forced to face the electorate with a record of pain and no gain, the measure was aborted and the medicine problem remains not addressed till today.

Government’s medicine bill is going through the roof. Bills due for medical supplies to local importers mount unpaid and importers have pooled together to issue a common legal warning to government urging it to pay its dues. This is quite an unprecedented event which indicates that government finances are scraping the bottom of the barrel and that any claimed improvement in government finances ought to be taken with a pinch of salt as unpaid bills continue to mount unrecorded in government cash-based accounting system.

In the meantime the Central Bank regularly reminds the government in official speeches of its Governor, and no doubt even in private meetings, that it can only meet its Euro targets for reduction in public deficit to within the Maastricht criteria if a system of co-financing for public health services is introduced.

Co-financing in simple words means that public health service would not remain free as at present but consumers of such services will have to start making some contribution both to ease government expenditure as well as to remind consumers that non-payment does not mean it is free. There is no free lunch anywhere and someone somewhere is paying for free medicine, whether it is through our current taxes or through accumulating debt which burdens future generations.

Memory also flashes to the re-structuring that Labour government of 1996 – 1998 wanted to do in the student stipend system for our tertiary education. Knowing fully well that that system was neither sustainable nor fair, Labour wanted to shift part of the stipend payments to a loan system which students would pay back to society during their post-graduation economically active life. UK introduced similar measures by demanding co-financing top-up fees for tertiary education to keep it sustainable. Labour wanted to keep it entirely free but simply shift part of the stipend to a recoverable loan. Hell broke loose and the PN, in spite of their blame in constructing an unsustainable stipend system, was scandalised at Labour’s loss of social conscience for attempting to do what was right and necessary.

Here we are seven years later and the monetary authorities regularly have to remind the government that if its finances are to meet the criteria for Euro adoption it needs to restructure the cost of educational services.

My experience shows that if such measures are not taken in the first half of the legislature it will be difficult, unlikely and almost impossible for government to take such decisions in the second half. As the general election starts getting visible on the horizon, with electoral districts boundaries revised, agreed and all, government will become increasingly sensitive to its political fortunes and will start doing what is popular rather than what is right.

So if in the first half of the legislature we have not taken the tough measures that our economy really needs and without which we cannot make it to either joining the Euro or to achieve successful and effective economic re-structuring, so why is it that government is equally suffering mid-term blues? Why such blues if we have not taken the pain and consequently cannot expect the gain in the second half of the legislature?

The simple answer is that this is a fatigued administration that has over-promised and under-delivered. The first half of the legislature, for all the promises of the new incumbent at the helm, will be more remembered for faux pas like Malta House in Brussels rather than for any new energy in truly addressing our chronic economic ills.

A typical case of such fatigue is the administration’s inability to appoint a new Ombudsman when the current incumbent has exhausted the two terms permitted by the constitution. What efforts were made to find a name acceptable to Parliament to avoid leaving gaps in this most respected public post amongst society? Why should these efforts, if indeed any were made, not be made visible to the people to give us account that our parliamentarians and the executive are doing the minimum expected of them?

Is it reasonable to expect a better half for the remaining time of the current legislature? I think it is more reasonable to expect more of the same.