Malta needs a new leadership

Alfred Mifsud

Management consultant Alfred Mifsud yesterday gave the government a tongue-lashing during his address at the FOI annual conference.

Literally tearing the government's economic policy to shreds, Mr Mifsud dwelt at length on the numerous weaknesses that are draining the economy and those opportunities that will remain unreachable.

Mr Mifsud said that opportunities can only be exploited if realities are understood, and if the weaknesses of current realities are effectively addressed. He said that unless these weaknesses are understood and addressed in a pragmatic manner, opportunities will remain unreachable.

Mr Mifsud then listed the weaknesses as follows:

In Malta there are still pious beliefs that somebody still owes us a living and that the rules of economics do not apply to us.

We have a government with lop-sided policies and priorities.

A private sector which is still inward looking and which still expects government to give all the leads. A trade union movement which deals with government entities very differently from the way it deals with private sector employers thus perpetrating the resistance to real reform in the public sector.

Mr Mifsud said that to grasp the opportunities that are staring at us in the face Malta needs new leadership.

"How sad we continue to refuse to look at the mirror put before us by the last Labour government and prefer the mirage that we can spend our way out of our economic mess," Mr Mifsud concluded.