While reading her piece Eight fallacies, (TMID 30 June), it seems to me most probable that Mrs Caruana Galizia never took an economics elective in her university days. Had she done so, then she would have grasped enough basic economics principles to have spared us her arguments in her contribution. More on her eight fallacies later – first things first.

The rent reform is about economic matters, but first and foremost it is about justice. Mrs Caruana Galizia has, on numerous occasions, bravely posed as the champion of those suffering injustices, be they abused women, children or animals – and rightly so. This time, however, the lady has chosen to conveniently side-track the justice issue by attempting to quash a number of economic arguments that Alternattiva Demokratika has put forward, not directly about the rent reform, but about proposals to achieve a holistic and far-reaching reform not just to our pre-1995 rent laws but also to this country’s outlook on real estate specifically and to land use more generally.

Why has she, coincidentally this time when AD has championed the issue, ignored the pains of so many property owners (the landlords are indeed few) who have suffered this injustice while being effectively locked in a two-party system that deems them politically expendable? Can she forget AD for a moment and think of these people? Frankly, property owners do not give a flying fig about AD’s and Daphne’s (and Marisa’s and Malcolm Mifsud’s and Michael Falzon’s, for that matter) differences of opinion about the economic reasons for a complete and far-reaching reform – these can be debated ad nauseam by all and sundry when the government finally succumbs to the public’s pressure and proposes an acceptable reform.

What these people care about is being given some justice. Can I, or anyone on this island blame them? What would you do if you were in their situation? How would she feel if somebody drove off with her car or occupied her home or took away her family investments while the government looked on?

I am not sure how she would take it. What I do know is that I would not take it lying down. It is uniquely Maltese, and financially sheer madness, that I feel relieved not to own any of these properties. The raw deal offered by the PN in government to property owners for the last 18 years, has been – rent reform or Labour, you choose! That is the deal for PN sympathisers. Property owners with any Labour sympathies, and believe me there are several thousand, are never factored in. They are not only expendable, they are a non-issue.

Daphne’s deal to property owners is not so different. She does not want people to rush in to petition the government for a referendum. Her excuses are rather pathetic – there are just too many obstacles, AD’s reasoning is completely fallacious, the referendum might fail, don’t you worry, the government will sort you out in good time. All you have to do is wait. Come on, what’s another year or so compared to the previous 60?

Fine. If property owners want to believe her, they can ask us to stop the campaign. If they believe Minister Cristina’s promise for a document to be presented to Cabinet in the heat of August, with a follow up White Paper in January of 2006, just give us a call to stop the whole process. The government is welcome to take the issue away from us, we will find other winds to catch our sail.

We measure victory on a different gauge. Giving even some justice back to that lady who during Saturday’s public meeting in Gozo recalled how she has had to live for 30 years receiving a paltry Lm4.50 per annum for a seafront house in Birzebbuga, footing Lm2,500 to repair damaged ceilings, while year-in year-out watching her tenant enjoy an annual holiday overseas, when she can only afford one every three or four years is more important than winning the partisan political argument.

If Minister Cristina is promising to give the lady justice, let it be so. However that lady has run out of patience. She is getting too old and too tired waiting for something to happen. What has Mrs Caruana Galizia got to offer her, apart from her eight fallacies? After all is said and done, will she sign up? As long as this lady and so many more in her situation desire, our campaign goes ahead, at full speed.

Back to Daphne’s eight fallacies. I will not discuss in any depth her economic assumptions as, I am sure that she will not bother discussing my archaeological ones. As a quick eye-opener though, I will just quote some of her statements that reveal some rather interesting contradictions. She says “the first fallacy is that renting is not an option. It is”, she says. In the next sentence, “many owners cannot be bothered with all the trouble of renting”. Is there a shortage of property for rent or not, then?

She correctly says that “the Maltese do not like to rent”, but then says that “why (should anyone) pay monthly rent when you can pay the same amount as a monthly installment on a home loan?” Precisely, she is correctly deciphering the lunacy of our property market. The absence of a mature rental market has caused the same prices for rent to be set at a level where the gap between renting and repaying borrowing has almost dissipated. The Maltese don’t only like to rent, they simply cannot afford it. Perfect fallacy indeed, in the working of the market, though!

In her fifth fallacy, she is claiming that we are encouraging people to rent rather than buy. We never said so. We wish every person in this country to own their property. It is the soundest economic proposal, only, however, if property is affordable. It is in many ways already unaffordable, and the situation will not ameliorate if we continue excluding 30,000 vacant properties from the market, and if an alternative rental market (at affordable prices) is not in existence.

She claims that the Maltese do not need to rent, further establishing that “the rental market in countries much larger than ours is driven by people who move around regularly because of their work”.

What she conveniently omits to say is that in these larger countries, the rental market is primarily driven by the fact that outright purchase is simply unaffordable for many in the middle classes, let alone the working classes. The problem that we will encounter very soon in Malta is one where the middle class will not be able to afford adequate housing (this is indeed already happening), and then, to add insult to injury, cannot rely on the existence and proper operation of a well-established rental market to fall back on. Possible solutions – live in 70 square metres, live with mum, or lobby the government to requisition property. Is this the PN’s vision of progress? Is this Premier Gonzi’s drive to boost our quality of life?

The Greens have a different vision of progress. We, and many others, recognise the urgent need to deal with the madness in the real estate market. We recognise that besides rectifying the injustice suffered by property owners, there is also a unique opportunity to devise policies, in tandem, to stabilise the property market through the re-activation of close to 30,000 properties that lie vacant. We would like a comprehensive reform which gives fiscal incentives to those owning vacant properties to clean them up and put them back on the market, for sale or rent. A market price can only be established when supply is not artificially restricted.

The full and efficient utilisation of our country’s resources is a universal Green principle. The storing of vacant property for purely speculative purposes as if it were any other commodity, in a country where land is so scarce, is to us the equivalent of storing grain during a food shortage. We would like future generations to be able to afford to own their properties; it is a luxury – the Maltese treasure. Affordable rent must be a fall back option for those in the working class and middle class for whom purchase is very soon going to be unaffordable because the government and its apologists defend the property bubble; it has become the only lifeboat on which to hang onto in a sinking economy!

The issue of vacant properties is exclusive to that involving the rent reform, although not unrelated. The government can give justice to property owners and ignore the stock of vacant property which if, hypothetically, all had to lie in the same area, would be equivalent to the total housing stock of Gozo.

It would be another half-baked measure, but still doable. Minister Cristina can ignore all the economic arguments on real estate prices, scarcity and vacant property and just give property owners the right to enjoy the benefits of their wealth.

The arguments we have put forward on the better use of this country’s land resources is our contribution to widening the debate, so that reform is far-reaching and beneficial to others apart from property owners. The reform does not have to be a zero-sum game, with the owners’ gain equalling the tenant’s loss. Poor tenants have to be fully assisted with rent subsidies while those with limited means have to be given means tested assistance. Tenants who have their own means can look after themselves, period.

Unlike Mrs Caruana Galizia’s grand political call to inaction and ineptitude, the deal the Green Party is working on is change. We are using the means available to us at law to pressure the government to change the rent laws. Enough promises, no more missed deadlines!

Although we are sure that both the government and the opposition appreciate the extent of the injustices suffered, we are sceptical of their determination to change the laws. The stasis of 60-year long bi-partisan and mutually convenient inaction are hard to undue. A push from the Greens is what this issue needs.

Those of you who want to force the government’s hand to restore justice to property owners while providing adequate and well-subsidised housing to the needy, are encouraged to sign up and have their family and friends do as much.

Mrs Caruana Galizia, if she so firmly believes and so willingly chooses, can lobby Minister Cristina to preserve the status quo. That, by the way, is a challenge!

Edward Fenech

Spokesperson - Finance, the Economy and Tourism Alternattiva Demokratika - The Green Party