Following Stephen Calleja’s reasoned (!) article in last Sunday’s Independent, I am sure that Malta’s NGOs will be moved to apologise for ruining Malta’s economy. This includes the growing debt, the mismanagement of the various government boards and committees, the apparent inability to make government departments take their responsibilities seriously, and the duplication of so many services paid for by the taxpayer. The NGOs should be sorry for causing Calleja’s “sources” to have second thoughts about submitting applications for development and for causing mass unemployment. Obviously this has nothing to do with the mess at Mepa and the glut of over 75,000 vacant properties, besides the increasing tax burden, the lack of tourists and foreign investors, the dirt everywhere and, last but not least, the international financial crisis.

Oh, I forgot to mention the NGOs’ national sin of trying to defend St. John’s Co-Cathedral, safeguarding people’s health and preventing illegal construction. For all this the NGOs should be seriously contrite.

On the other hand, I suggest that if the Independent wants to be taken seriously, it might wish to reconsider publishing such absurd, thinly-veiled politically-founded attacks on people who are simply exercising their perceived democratic rights.

Barbara Scerri