28 June - 4 July 2001

La Salle controversy

After four months of costly maintenance and repair work, the USS La Salle left Malta this week. In turn, the vessel left more than Lm3m in the Malta Dockyard’s coffers, a much needed boost for the cash-starved and indebted public entity.
The local ‘yard workers have been praised for the very satisfactory work they carried out on the vessel. This is not surprising considering the excellent workmanship and skills that our ‘yard workers possess. The Sixth Fleet flagship sailed out of Grand Harbour sporting the words “Grazzi Malta” (“Thank you, Malta”), a fitting farewell to the hundreds of Maltese who worked on the vessel.
To a certain extent, we should also be saying thank you to those who
managed to win the contract despite strong competition from other docks in the Mediterranean. It is no secret that the Malta Dockyard needs all the help it can get – not subsidies – but in the form of contracts like the La Salle one. Unfortunately, the good news that Malta had won the La Salle contract only served to spark off a heated debate on whether the work was in breach of the Constitution and violated a neutrality clause. The General Workers’ Union, which represents the ‘yard’s workers, had opposed the contract. The Labour opposition repeatedly stressed the need to protect the country’s neutrality. Matters would have escalated had the Prime Minister not put his foot down, giving the union and the yard workers an ultimatum. Within hours, the Union had backed down paving the way for work on the ship to start.
Even though the La Salle is back out at sea, the controversy is far from over. The question of Malta’s neutrality and whether similar jobs are in breach of the constitution still remains unanswered. If the Malta Drydocks manages to win other contracts, which The Malta Business Weekly augurs, the country cannot afford to say no to such business. This newspaper has in the past called on the government and the opposition to sit down and clear up this issue once and for all. If need be the clause in Malta’s Constitution should be changed. The La Salle stay in Malta has not affected the country’s neutrality and neither has it led the US to consider setting up a base here. What the ship’s visit has certainly done is pump a lot more money into the local economy and foster relations between the two countries and their citizens. The government and the opposition have not met since the arrival of the US ship, and now is the time for discussions to be reopened. The future of the ‘yard depends on similar contracts and not only from the United States. Military vessels from any democratic country are welcome to our shores. Turning down work simply because of a Constitutional clause does not make sense, especially when the ruckus was raised simply because the vessel came from the US. We feel that had the La Salle come from any other nation, no one would have said anything.
Minister for Economic Services Josef Bonnici was quoted as saying
earlier this week that the constitutional issue was being considered. He did not elaborate but one hopes that a serious and, more important, non-partisan discussion takes place. May common sense prevail.

Digital divide
Minister for Justice and Local Government Austin Gatt had harsh words for those working in the Civil Service and who “refused” to use modern technology such as the internet and email. We cannot but fully agree with Dr Gatt and his stand should be taken by all ministers. The government, through Dr Gatt’s ministry, is slowly moving towards the setting up of e-government, a system whereby the citizen is given all the necessary tools – via the internet for example – to avail himself of any government service. The initiative has been well received and this augurs well for the future. However, the whole e-government concept will be useless unless those who are working in back office willingly accept the new technology which is being introduced in all ministries.
Today, email is one of the most highly-used communication tools. So much time could be saved by government employees if they put down the phone and used email. There will be those who are opposed but why should they become a stumbling block for the government? If, for one
reason or another, government employees want to remain on the wrong side of the “digital divide” there is no place for them in the civil service. Dr Gatt and his ministry are to be commended for their hard work in this field. The e-government initiative deserves support both from other ministries as well as the private sector.