Writing in another section of the press, Din l-Art Helwa stalwart Martin Scicluna declared that “the vote taken in Parliament on 26 July 6 (extending Malta’s construction development zone) represents an act of institutional vandalism on Malta’s environment without parallel in the last 20 years”.

Coming as they do from a long-standing member of our National Commission for Sustainable Development, these are strong words. They are all the stronger because they have been delivered when the die was cast and the government has indicated in unmistakable terms that it is not going to listen to the voice of reason.

Martin Scicluna represents the school of thought, which believes that civilization is all about the eager, patient but stubborn desire that might should not be allowed to prevail on what is right.

In a democratic environment, wrongs could be ultimately remedied if reason has a fair hearing in the forum of public opinion, where the electorate is sovereign.

Inordinate haste

The arguments against the government’s inordinate haste to extend the development zone by 10 per cent are overwhelming. On the government’s own admission, there is sufficient land in the existing boundaries to build about 100,000 “units”, when the estimated likely requirement for housing, up to the year 2020, does not exceed half that figure.

Creating a further surplus of land for development, when there is an oversupply, is positive proof that there is more than meets the eye in Cabinet’s move, for which no individual Minister assumed initial responsibility.

This move was deliberate. On the one hand, it was hatched in the full knowledge that it flies in the face of the foremost challenge facing Malta in the 21st century. This challenge, identified by Martin Scicluna and so many others, is “the need to control building development and the way we use and share this tiny land”.

Steady uglification

Urban sprawl and land abuse have plagued development and desecrated the environment. The outcome was steady uglification and loss of quality of life, all of which, incidentally, undermined Malta’s struggling tourist sector.

This process triggered off other collateral damage and irreparable harm to cultural and heritage sites. It gave rise to new problems in the areas of waste management and air pollution.

On the other hand, Cabinet’s initiative offered possibilities to special interests, knowing that there are electoral votes to be gained by those benefiting from this move.

The government’s decision to press on with its initiative has produced far more outrage than jubilation.

It has antagonised all environmental groups which rallied to a common cause. It stirred civil society into action. For the first time since the early eighties, people took to the streets to protest openly

Considering that the ruling Nationalist administration has been in office for the best part of the last 20 years, it had every opportunity to sort out the problem of sustainable development.

It has failed. Not by default. It has failed by further aggravating and bedevilling the problem.

Clarion call

Martin Scicluna summed up this tragic story in succinct words. “Poor Malta, once rated among the most beautiful islands in the Mediterranean, has sold its soul to an incontinent construction industry, aided and abetted by short-sighted politicians, and now stands to be further ruined by even more tacky over-development.”

The irreparable harm sustained cannot be undone. But the prospect of further damage and deterioration could be remedied.

We must stop those responsible from sleeping, and from persisting with the errors of their ways when they are awake.

Martin Scicluna’s clarion call could do no more than raise the alert and rally public opinion.

In the end, it has to be the sovereign electorate to demand a change of course.

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