Alternattiva Demokratika politicians have always strived to give the impression that they are fundamentally different from the rest, that they are a breed apart. Every politician on earth does his best to distinguish himself (or herself) from the pack, to persuade the public that he is their best bet. That is the nature of democratic politics, particularly at election time. Yet AD’s politicians go beyond this type of self-projection.

The image of Maltese politics AD created for themselves is one in which every politician is tainted by original sin except them. In AD’s world, Nationalist or Labour benches are populated by men and women who are either wrong, or corrupt, or visionless, or self-interested, or parochial, or power-driven, or incompetent, or not-quite-as-good-as-he-should-be, or what have you. For Malta’s Greens, non-green politicians can be anything except one thing: better than their Green counterparts.

For AD, PN and MLP politicians can never redeem themselves of their original sin of politics. The reason is simple: they all joined the wrong party. In biblical terms, every PN and MLP politician picked the apple from the wrong tree. Had they picked one from another tree, the one bearing Green apples, the serpent would not have appeared and we would still be living in the Garden of Eden.

This image of Malta’s political world constructed by AD was, is and will always be a fiction, a lie. It is not the party which makes a good or bad politician but the politician himself. That is why there are both excellent and pathetic politicians in each party.

Yet AD prefers to believe the lie that they are the chosen few. And this lie is used for all sorts of insidious purposes. It gives its exponents the political licence to kill anyone who has dared to give some sort of contribution to this country but not under their banner. This self-stamped licence has been used to cover all sorts of sins. From lying about me and accusing me of being involved in drugs a decade and a half ago to stating that Simon Busuttil was not fit to represent Malta in Europe just hours after some 60,000 people voted for him to do so.

Well lo and behold now we know that AD politicians are human after all and are prone to err like everyone else. It transpires that Mark Causon, one of AD’s chief spokesman and one of its longest serving officials, was issued with an enforcement notice for “illegal excavations... carried out without permit in a scheduled archaeologically sensitive area” in his own garden.

The Superintendence of Cultural Heritage (SCH) had this to say regarding what its officials discovered in Causon’s garden: “Following site inspection, ...they noted that unauthorised excavation within the garden has already revealed large blocks and classical pottery, confirming the archaeological sensitivity of the area. The Superintendence therefore objected to the swimming pool, noting that it should be given adequate time and opportunity to record the archaeology, before the garden soil is replaced.”

MEPA had this to add: “Eventually, the site was reburied before the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage was given the opportunity to record the site adequately. MEPA has evidence that a lot of the excavated material contained valuable remains and that this was lost to posterity after being carted away from site.” Mark Causon, the holier than thou Green politician, continued with the works on his property “without the necessary permits and in defiance of a stop and enforcement notice. Moreover, the illegal excavations carried out were backfilled during October 2004 contrary to a request by the SCH made in June of the same year...”

Just imagine what AD would have said if a minister or a member of the Opposition had done such a thing. In the past, AD called for the resignation of ministers for much smaller infractions. So what did they do in this case, when one of their own was not only caught red handed breaking the rules but continued to do so after he was caught? Simple. They accused MEPA of abusing its position, for its “scandalous” use of information, for politicising the issue and for its attempt to “silence and stifle” them. Rather than apologise for Mark Causon’s behaviour and ask him to resign quietly for breaking the law, they accused MEPA for upholding it.

So now we have it. AD is just like any other political party. They defend their own even at the cost of their own principles.

One final thought; a similar story hit the news a few months back. The owner of the house in Mdina was one Richard Cachia Caruana. MaltaToday went to town with the story. Richard Cachia Caruana was portrayed as Attila the Hun driving a steamroller over Malta’s archaeological heritage. They even showed pictures taken during a helicopter ride over Richard Cachia Caruana’s house. I am looking forward to reading MaltaToday this morning. I am sure that I am going to see a helicopter shot of Mark Causon’s garden.

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