Maybe there is a reason, after all, why there will be an additional 16 local councils, albeit under a different name.

Having 68 councils is not enough for Chris Said to be present in the media daily, using events they organise to his advantage; so much so that he has recently taken to launching Good Friday activities, planting trees and distributing prizes to children as well. With 84 councils, he stands a better chance of having his picture taken every day.

But, as one Gozitan who knows him told me, anyone with an ambition to walk up the stairs at Castille – not as parliamentary secretary – has to make himself seen and heard at all times. What’s more, it seems he also has the ability to be in two places simultaneously – last Thursday, our newsroom received media calls that he was to address the convention of Maltese living abroad in Valletta and attend a business breakfast in St Julian’s at the same time.

Good thing that, although recently he has been made responsible for consumer affairs, he has not started sending for journalists every time he goes to buy bread and milk. But perhaps I’d better keep my mouth shut and not give him any ideas.

Joking apart, I do seriously question why the need was felt that local councils, which in Malta are already very small, should be assisted by mini-councils. Having a mini-council made up of five people to help a council, in some cases made up of another five people, is ridiculous. It is also very strange that whereas other countries are doing their best to amalgamate communities to use resources better and cut down on expenses, here in Malta, where many councils represent fewer than 5,000 residents, we are dividing them up even more.

Secondly, these mini-councils give the people they represent an edge over other residents, thereby creating a privileged group. The 16 areas that have been chosen will have double representation, and this system is therefore creating two classes of residents – those who have two councils representing them, and those who have one.

Thirdly, I cannot understand why on the one hand we carry out a reform in the way local councils operate and do so to reduce the number of times we go to the polls; and on the other hand we invent another occasion to organise elections, which cost the taxpayer money.

Through the local council reform, 2010 was supposed to be a year free of elections. However, this bright idea has changed things because this year we will not have just one election, but two. This is because the government was not happy with having the election for the 16 mini-councils at one go.

No, these have been divided into two batches, with elections in eight localities to be held on Saturday, and the other eight to be held in September. Maybe it’s just another way for Chris Said to get double the publicity.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi went round in circles when I specifically asked him about this during a recent interview. He tried to justify the introduction of these councils as being a way to accommodate residents in areas that are cut off from the centre, and who therefore have special needs.

I do not buy it. Is Guardamangia cut off from Pieta? I do not even know where one begins and the other ends.

And this takes me to another issue, which neither Dr Gonzi nor Chris Said have explained – how the 16 areas that will have the mini-councils were chosen.

I ask this question because while some of the areas to have mini-councils are small and do not have the special needs that are being suggested, there are bigger and more delineated areas which were not included as needing a mini-council. There are then areas that were chosen, while others with similar identities were not.

This leads me to suspect that there were other motives behind this discrimination.

Why was Guardamangia chosen, and Balluta left out? Why was Paceville selected, and Bugibba and Qawra ignored? Why was Santa Lucija in Kercem picked, and Manikata overlooked? Why was Bubaqra on the list, and Qajjenza disregarded?

If Paceville and Bubaqra, according to the government, have special needs, don’t places like Bugibba and Manikata have similar requirements too? I repeat – I do not agree with the formation of these mini-councils, but if we are going to have them, the government should see that all the areas that can be described as being cut off from the centre or which have special needs are listed, and not only those that came to Chris Said’s mind for whatever reason while he was crossing the channel.

Having three of the 16 mini-councils in Gozo – while bigger areas in Malta were left out – does appear to me that Chris Said is taking care of his constituency and friends first, instead of the overall picture.

There should not be a situation where Guardamangia, which is made up of a couple of roads, gets its own mini-council and Bugibba, which is frequented by thousands of tourists and Maltese in the summer months, and is the most important tourist area in the north of Malta, does not get one.

There should not be a situation where Santa Lucija in Kercem gets its own mini-council and Manikata, an area which is completely cut off from Mellieha and has completely different needs from those of the locality of which it forms part, does not get one either.

Something is wrong. To me, the selection of these 16 councils was made haphazardly and without considering all the situations. Some were included generously, because they do not deserve to have a mini-council, while other places which – according to the government’s way of thinking – should get one, were ignored.

I just wonder.

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