The Flag of rebellion is raised in Gozo

Malta Independent Thursday, 16 June 2011, 00:00 Last update: about 13 years ago

Gozo is so close and yet so far. The sister island has always had specific challenges and problems, particularly in terms of autonomy, governance and convergence with Malta.

Before I start my report, let me first tell of something that, for me at least, was a total surprise. Waiting for the Gozo Channel ship at 7.30am I was amazed by the stream of people coming off the 7am ship from Gozo.

The people walking out could be termed the population of a small village in Gozo. I was told the same holds for around four trips of the ship from Gozo from 6am onwards. Day after day, sun or rain, summer or winter.

Many, obviously, are students at the university or MCAST. Others work in Malta. When people in Gozo say there is a huge brain drain ongoing, they are more than right. Many young people get to like it in Malta, settle down in Malta, or maybe go abroad. Sometimes they return to Gozo after some years, but it is increasingly becoming an island of elderly people, and also a holiday home for many who enjoy Gozo’s wonderful offerings.

The masses of Gozitans emerging from the ship on any morning may be seen as a sign of a failed policy, the failure to provide enough opportunities for its young people. Others may see it differently – it is a way of enabling the young people of Gozo to stop being provincial, to learn to mix with the students of Malta, and to enable them to be given the same learning opportunities and future that the young people of Malta enjoy.

The idea that the policy governing Gozo is failing can also be seen from the way that statistically Gozo’s GDP has continued to diverge from that of Malta following EU accession, instead of converging and this notwithstanding the funds that were attracted from the EU and the many public projects being put in place.

A conference held at the Kempinski on Tuesday commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Gozo Civic Council. But it was more, far more, than this.

Two years ago, in the same room, MCESD had held a meeting with the Gozo constituted bodies in the presence of the prime minister. A list of many urgent projects was drawn up, but, when I later asked what had happened to that list (apart from yet another body being created and MCESD opening an office in Gozo) not one person I spoke to could give me a proper answer, and only mumbled complaints about the way things are being managed in Gozo.

Now, it would seem, things have come to a head. The occasion, as I have said, was the commemoration of something that happened 50 years ago (and even that was problematic, as we shall see) but underlying the whole event there was frustration, anger even, at the way things are and the desperate need of a solution to find some institutional tool to try and manage the change.

Fifty years ago (in October 1958) a group of public spirited Gozitans came together to do something for their island. The timing is important – the Mintoff government had resigned in April and the country was being administered directly by the British colonial rulers. It was at this juncture of political vacuum that the public spirited Gozitans came up with the suggestion of creating a civic council. Foremost of these public-spirited Gozitans was Dr Anton Tabone, father of his namesake who later was to become the first Minister for Gozo, then Speaker and at present many times Acting President. Mr Tabone was the head of the committee set up by Parliamentary Secretary Chris Said to commemorate the Gozo Civic Council and hence the moderator of Tuesday’s conference.

The British colonial rulers, always canny, were quick to pounce on the opportunity to drive a wedge between Maltese and Gozitans, and on 4 June 1961 the first elections were held with the GCC’s first meeting being on 4 July 1961. A photo of the first council was distributed showing four priests among the first 15 representatives on the council, including Dun Nikol Cauchi who was later to become Gozo’s bishop.

As Edward Warrington explained, the GCC was created in a political vacuum. This was recognised right from the beginning – in fact the civil servant who drew up the Ordnance copied it from the British local government Act, but delayed doing it until he was forced to do so by the colonial masters.

On the one hand, Mr Tabone understandably and filialy listed the GCC’s many achievements: It enlarged the port of Mġarr, built the new hospital, the new technical institute, opened Gozo’s industrial estate, created Gozo’s first social housing at Taċ-Ċawla, built the first playing fields, tarmacked roads, brought the infrastructure to many villages which until then lacked it, built the bus terminus at Victoria (that is now being redone) and fostered private initiative relating to tourism, created the first connections by ‘aliscafo’ to the Grand Harbour and the first flights by the Islander plane.

At its basis, it enjoyed what is known as fiscal autonomy – in other words it kept for itself the taxes paid by Gozitans as well as the police fees, etc. And the government helped it by a hefty subsidy.

But it was an experiment which failed, or was made to fail. The post-1962 governments (the first two led by the PN and the Mintoff one in 1971) progressively chipped away at its funding. Then a referendum was held in 1973 on whether it was useful or not, with the Labour Party urging a ‘No’ vote and the PN suggesting abstention, and only 1% of the electorate voted. When Dom Mintoff’s government abolished it in 1973 it was as painless as extracting a rotten tooth.

So why would one even dream of commemorating an experiment which failed, or even suggest there are lessons to be learned, were it not in response to an underlying sense of frustration with the way things are at present?

The Mintoff government, as is well known, was a heavy centraliser and for many years Gozo was considered as one other electoral district. Then, after 14 years, the new PN government created the post of Minister for Gozo.

It was instructive to listen to Mr Tabone describe the role of the Minister for Gozo, of which he was the first. Continually, he placed the emphasis that the Minister for Gozo is there to raise the concerns of the people of Gozo in Cabinet. His successor, present Minister Giovanna Debono, who was present throughout the conference, described it very differently – as the focus of government action in Gozo. In fact she listed the works being done, the funds spent (EUR 77 million a year plus €25 million over three years for eco-Gozo).

After six years, there was a further innovation in governance, not just in Gozo but all over Malta as well – the creation of the local councils. This was subsidiarity and decentralisation in practice, bringing local government down to grassroots. Over the past 17 years, Gozo local councils benefited from €55 million in direct allocations alone. Many Gozo councils were (are) in the forefront of obtaining EU funds.

Even these do not seem to have been enough to satisfy Gozitan complaints. Two people in Tuesday’s conference seemed to point at (the references were clear but everything was nuanced) further autonomy.

Dr Samuel Azzopardi, Victoria’s mayor and the first head of the Gozo Regional Committee (elected last year by the Gozo councillors) began his speech by significantly referring to the two year period, under the French, when Gozo was an independent nation and even sent its own ambassador to Palermo. Mgr Joe Bezzina, who is writing the history of the GCC, said Gozo was autonomous all the way from 1350 to 1798.

Bishop Mario Grech pointed out (as Mr Tabone had just pointed out as well) that the creation of the Gozo diocese in September 1864 was regionalisation in the right way – a diocese in its own right with its own seminary, schools, institutions, separate from the archdiocese of Malta yet like it part of the Universal Church.

There are four other regions in Malta but the one in Gozo is special and should be given further powers and role. This is what the meeting was led to as a conclusion, by none other than Dr Chris Said himself, even suggesting a limited mode of fiscal autonomy and that the president of the Gozo Regional Committee should be the Minister for Gozo, with more participation from civic society.

Others were not so sure. Mario Tabone said this is not 1961 and now, the Ministry for Gozo and the local councils exist. Giving more powers to the Regional Committee seems like over-governance , he said. And who will see his powers curtailed to give this Regional Committee more powers – the ministry or the local councils?

The two Labour MPs from Gozo, and the PN backbencher, stayed away. Labour was represented by Stefan Buontempo who said his party is in favour of the Regional Committee.

In his speech, Bishop Grech hinted that if regional powers are granted to Gozo this could balance out separatist movements and reinforce national unity. At the same time, he added that the church in Gozo will continue to proclaim Christ and will continue to collaborate with the social partners for the social progress of Gozo which is also the social progress of Malta.

There is much that Gozo can offer to Malta, not just landscape and peace but also the right view of what man is, an antidote to strengthen the moral fibre of society, the family and the environment.

Many of the speakers in the short time allocated for comments from the floor seemed to go ahead with the suggestion that the next step for Gozo seems to be a regional set-up such as exists statutorily abroad.