Honesty and dishonesty have been with us since the beginning of the world and both have always found their champions, not least in our miniscule island.
I listened to Simon Busuttil’s speech during yesterday’s celebrations of the 52nd anniversary of Malta’s Independence which itself was the merited trophy for political honesty winning over political dishonesty.
Simon’s speech was an eye opener for the future vision of a revamped Nationalist Party and, in my opinion, he made crucial bold statements for followers of honesty, one of them being:
“I have no Government jobs which I can offer you. I cannot buy your vote”.
The opposite of this statement has been the testimonial of the past three years of a Progressive and Liberal Movement championed by the Labour Party through its Government Leaders.
Politically engineered jobs in Government and parastatal sectors and Corporations have been the legacy of past Socialist/Labour Governments. It is enough to recall the Dockyards, Enemalta, Telemalta, Sea Malta, Middlesea, Air Malta, Kalaxlokk, the Pioneer Corps, Dejma, Izra w Rabbi, Bahhar u Sewwi and many others of perhaps lesser importance.
The direct result of the unsustainable thousands of political jobs bought for votes, was a substantial problem for the subsequent Nationalist Governments in sustaining a low public deficit and an ever-increasing public debt which we are suffering from up to this very day.
The present Government has also been resorting to the same policy by increasing the number of employees at Air Malta during a restructuring period, employing a large number of persons not fit for purpose in positions of trust, employing the unemployable in an agency managed at a fee by the General Workers Union, and employing persons (through the same agency) made redundant from Corporations and entities which are being privatised through secret agreements.
The result of this irresponsible creation of unnecessary jobs is an increase in the public debt in real terms despite the Government boasting of Debt ratios.
The message being given by Simon Busuttil is that jobs are earned and not given, and also that jobs are earned on the basis of meritocracy. Buying votes is alien to Simon Busuttil and his approach will be that of creating the right educational infrastructure that will help our youths in obtaining the training and education required to help them acquire jobs in the productive sector by right and not by political begging.
This will surely be one of the steps forward into fostering honest politics.
