All of us are affected by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (Mepa) because it is the national authority responsible for land use, planning and environmental regulation in Malta.

We all rely on Mepa as a focal point where citizens should find access to justice in environmental matters. So, we came to Mepa to put forward the nation’s case in the national interest. Our objectives were simple.

Government sat for years doing precious little in terms of enhancing our energy-generation capabilities, and continued to rely on the Marsa Power Station well past its sell-by date. It failed to implement its energy targets.

We now need to act with urgency to provide Malta’s energy needs with a value-for-money system that places our own environment and health at the very top of the agenda.

But we will try not to permit this Nationalist government lethargy, whether it is deliberate and devious lethargy or not, to act as an excuse for scheming behaviour at the expense of our taxes and, much more importantly, at the expense of our health.

We were left with no option but to rely on Mepa to achieve our national aims because Mepa is the focal point where citizens should find access to justice in environmental matters.

We all know now about Enemalta’s behaviour leading to the Mepa hearing – chairmen who should have resigned but did not, their close business partners securing important contracts, selected advisors who were not only blacklisted by the World Bank but who had links to the ‘successful’ protagonists and go-betweens, these blacklisted advisers being instrumental in changing the original terms from tried-and-tested to prototype that fitted the ‘winners’ like a glove, the final contract that ended being more favourable to the contractor at the taxpayer’s expense, the haste with which the contract was signed… the list is indeed endless.

Within this context we came to the place where citizens should find access to justice in environmental matters.

The mass of technical, environmental and health arguments that were submitted pleaded for some kind of sanity in the decision-making process.

We were keen to hear any counter-arguments being put forward. Yet there was no counter-argument, no coherent deliberation. It was just a case of Mepa calling a public hearing, the chairman giving the floor to a number of speakers to present solid arguments, and then when the Board decided, the majority voting in favour of Prime Minister Gonzi having his way. No heed was taken to the submissions lodged.

One must recall the maxim – not only must justice be done, it must also be seen to be done. During last Thursday’s hearing, justice was not done and not even seen to be done.

Indeed, Prime Minister Gonzi can no longer hide behind corporations, authorities, ministers putting forward irrelevant arguments such as the Marsa Power Station must close. Of course Marsa Power Station must close but it should have closed years ago but you failed to act.  We cannot rely on fidgeting experts having their lines carefully slotted in tailor-made TV spin productions and other propaganda funded from the public coffers.

There is now a systemic, long-running failure of institutions to discharge, in a rational way, their obligations in the interests of citizens, as their actions betray an overriding concern not to damage the narrow interests of the PN government.  

Yet these events do highlight values that a Labour government must apply with genuine commitment. These include the values of democracy based on the dissemination of reliable and timely information. Proper values that should underpin good governance as well as the courage to put in place effective systems that check and balance power. Above all, the values that place the well being of all members of society, and therefore society itself, as the key motivator that should guide all our actions and decisions.