It’s been practically 12 months since my last post. You can say that in my 70’s I lost interest in commenting publicly, or that I am not inspired at all by what has been going on. It seems that only the August lull creates enough stimulus to force the volcano of emotions held inside me to erupt.
What has forced me back to my keyboard is that whilst around us so many things are changing:
inflation has returned to its 70’s level,
we have a hot war going on in Europe three decades after what was thought to be the end of the cold one,
the environmental degradation has become a true menace to sustainability,
social media has turned into a dangerous tool to absorb people in dangerous echo chambers threatening the very essence of democracy,
traffic situation seems to be getting worse rather than better in spite of multi hundred million investments in road infrastructure,
we have a government that seems bent on not deciding anything so as not to upset anyone, and an Opposition that is so in name only. The real Opposition are now basically NGO’s like Graffiti and Republika.
Let me get the situation of the Opposition out of the way as it is simpler to decipher and to chart a way out of its paralysis. The Opposition is divided between two philosophies which are impossible to reconcile and as long as it stays divided it will continue to be ineffective. It will become a historical relic rather than an government in waiting.
The Opposition has to call a spade a spade and having lost three consecutive elections with a landslide in spite of all the corruption and lack of governance issues that have been tormenting Labour, it must face reality that the party must split up in 1949 Labour style. Only then can an winning philosophy emerge which will strengthen one part and weaken the other until all the remnants re-unite under one philosophy and common leadership as Labour did leading to its election to majority government in 1955. Otherwise we will continue to see Labour landslide wins notwithstanding the normal fatigue of an overstay in government.
On the other hand Labour in government must show it can govern not only when faced with a crisis like Covid, but it must be an effective government in business as usual mode. Unfortunately that is not happening and one gets the impression that Labour seems to be thinking that leadership means taking no decisions so that it steps on nobody’s toes and thus preserve its wide gap in public opinion over the PN.
That’s not leadership!! That is management by hope that issues will sort themselves out and government can thus retains its popularity. But those are pious hopes. Issues will not sort themselves out. Only effective leadership can give a sustainable future to our children. Government must spend some of the huge reserves of political capital it enjoys to bring the country back on the straight and narrow road of sustainability in all its dimensions.
Some pretty urgent decisions are needed to address these issues which cannot just evaporate through inertia and passage of time:
Transport
Building new road infrastructure and rendering public transport free of charge will not solve our traffic problems. As public transport is rendered free of charge private means of transport must be taxed to dissuade its use. Otherwise many people will not use public transport even if you pay them. Traffic congestion does not allow punctuality to the operations of public transport.
The maxim of no taxes is politically catchy but economically, socially and environmentally destructive. Taxes are not just imposed to raise revenue. Often they are the only effective tool to change habits. And we must be nursed out of our addiction to use private transport by having real public transport alternatives and by paying taxes if we insist on sticking to our bad habits.
Construction
We seem to have placed our economic growth overly dependent on the construction industry. I tend to get the impression we have embarked on a brakeless train towards a destination which will bring destruction. We continue to fiscally incentivize the construction industry which by necessity creates substantial challenges to our quality of life beyond any GDP measurement.
It is time to consider putting some brakes on the construction train. Removing fiscal incentives introduced during Covid would be the first step. Closely followed by incentives for property development in Gozo, the rural character of which is being challenged by over-development.
Then we need to reconsider whether the system of taxing property vendors on the basis of sales price declared rather than profit on the sale is needed to bring order to rampant VAT evasion in the construction industry.
Finally we need to rechannel the capacity of the industry towards environmentally respectful developments such as greening existing buildings.
Labour
There must be a limit to how many guest workers we can accommodate. And once we set such limit we must be selective in issuing such work permits to persons that bring new skills and value added and not to low skilled food delivery type of operators forced to work under near slavery conditions.
Whoever sponsors an applicant must be responsible that the applicant is provided with resources that respect our labour laws. If this means we have less food deliverymen or shelf stackers in our shops so be it. We did not have any food deliverymen 10 years ago and probably we have too many shops.
Tourism
It is not possible to freeze applications for new tourism outfits including additional accommodation. But in so far as accommodation is concerned we can have policies to ensure that any new accommodation projects ties up with a strategy to up-grade our tourist visitors to higher quality value.
Should we not consider that applications for additional accommodation must buy out permits from lower quality outfits who with the premium thus obtained for ceding their license can re-invent their properties to new uses, including old people’s homes, day residences, or sellback their property to the State where the space can be use to create open spaces in our congested areas.
And we must not continue to waste money on keeping Air Malta alive. We have spent too much already, probably more than we spent on the shipyards. Government should bury Air Malta and join the private sector to create a leaner efficient airline which can sustain itself economically and work on strict commercial lines enjoying no preferences and no disadvantages as its competitors. If this is not possible then bring on more Ryanairs and Whizzairs.
I can keep going. There are so many decisions that need to be taken.
Soon after summer is over this government would have spent the first 6 months of the legislature practically deciding nothing of substance. Now it is time to move forward. Time to spend a part of its vast reserves of political capital to give back oxygen of sustainability to the environment, the people and the economy.
Clearly there will be complaints and dissatisfaction in some quarters by those who expect the government has to solve everyone’s problems by having the Exchequer carrying an open cheque book. However by the time of next electoral test if government takes wise and bold decisions now, it can count more winners than losers.
What is not decided and implemented in the first half of the legislature will never get done.
