Like the prime minister, we would all like to have the “peace of mind that our country is moving in the right direction”. There were touches of both narcissism and magical thinking in Robert Abela’s New Year message, which seemed to be trying to convince people that all it takes for Malta to continue on the road of prosperity is for everyone to adopt a positive attitude. Despite a passing mention of “the global context which we find ourselves in”, his address betrayed a denial of the hard realities facing this country and the world. Or it could be that Abela is lost for ideas on how to deal with the present challenges, which include supply-chain disruption now hitting medicine importation, rising prices that have necessitated unsustainable subsidies and dark economic clouds hanging over our closest trading neighbours. Abela’s answer is mainly to throw money at problems, which only means he or his successor would have to pick up the pieces at some point. The prime minister spoke of “a renewed plan” for the country, a plan chosen by the people in the last election. He was, of course, referring to the Labour Party’s electoral manifesto “which consists of a thousand proposals aimed...
