The Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS), a German-based campaigning group which was set up 37 years ago to put pressure on those European countries where migrating birds are illegally hunted and caught, has been in Malta for the spring hunting season

It has again exposed the inability of Maltese hunters to shoot birds for sport within the rules. But it has also, regrettably, once more highlighted an ugly side to the Maltese character of xenophobia, intolerance of justifiable criticism and sheer lawlessness.

Reports about the indiscipline of our hunters during the recent spring hunting season have been rife. There is no reason to doubt their credibility as they fit in with a long-established pattern of Maltese hunters’ behaviour stretching back centuries, as a cursory glance at Natalino Fenech’s excellent ‘A Complete Guide to the Birds of Malta’ would readily attest.

We have only to recall the report a couple of years ago by two young Swedish bird-watchers, Blomqvist and Kihlberg, who had spent eight weeks studying Maltese hunting and trapping patterns at Delimara, Miġra il-Ferħa and close to Luqa airport, to place absolute credence on CABS’ reports about the illegalities committed this time. They fit a well-worn pattern.

Some 530 offences against conservation laws were committed in the 16 hunting days between 12 and 30 April (an average of 35 misdemeanours a day), including the shooting and trapping of protected species, the use of many illegal trapping installations for song-birds, and numerous instances of shooting on Sundays and after 3pm when hunting was banned.

But what made the lawlessness even worse for Malta’s image abroad was the fact that CABS was accompanied by a television team from Germany’s most influential TV station, RTL. The resulting 20-minute documentary was aired in Germany as part of a current affairs programme on 7 May. It showed in all its awful detail the aggressive and uncouth behaviour of our hunters. The naked aggression of Maltese hunters spitting, snarling, swearing, insulting, physically threatening and actually assaulting members of CABS has been recorded live on television and seen by thousands of German viewers – many of them once potential tourists to these islands, but probably no longer.

The excuse is invariably that a few rotten apples don’t represent a barrel. But the pattern of aggressive behaviour is now too well-established (“Namur jew ntajru”scrawled outside the pre-historic temples, loosely translated as “Give us our birds or we’ll blow up the temples”), and those of us who have come across hunters on our walks in the countryside too inured to the abuse and outright intimidation shown by hunters and trappers, for this explanation to hold water any longer.

Many will argue that hunters do not convey a true picture of the Maltese. And they would be absolutely right. None of us – the silent majority – wishes to associate with, or be taken for, the kind of Maltese that this unfortunately sizeable minority represents. But regrettably, the majority of the 15,000 or so Maltese hunters – with very few exceptions, among whom I count the officials leading the various hunting federations who have a thankless task keeping their members under control, and failing – are utterly primitive in their behaviour. Those who support this so-called traditional sport are Neanderthal, and behave accordingly in an uncivilised manner.

As though the hunters’ disgraceful behaviour was not enough, the situation was made worse by the reaction of many ordinary Maltese to the exposure in the international media of the hunters’ behaviour. The fact that much of the evidence was filmed from an arguably technically illegal camera attached to a small polystyrene model aircraft powered by a battery-driven propellor was regarded, perversely, as particularly despicable.

One might have thought that a mature reaction would have been to reserve Maltese anger for the unlawful activities perpetrated by the hunters on the ground, rather than the technology used to expose them. Instead, we had an outpouring of xenophobic bile directed at Germans and Germany which was unseemly and harmful to Maltese-German relations. It ranged from the displaying of Nazi swastikas on placards around the Maltese countryside, to slogans about gas chambers and comments on the killing of babies through abortion, to the most spurious and far-fetched connection with German attitudes to illegal immigration to Malta. Talk about shooting the messenger for being the bearer of bad news!

What is it that makes us so chippy and thin-skinned about any criticism of our historic and much-loved country? We have a civilisation stretching back 7,000 years and a brave history. We have been an independent, sovereign state for nigh on 50 years. With virtually no resources and only limited external support, we have not only managed to survive economically, but also to thrive. We are justifiably proud of these achievements.

But we also have – like all peoples in all countries – many faults. To name but three at random. Our driving habits are atrocious. The filth on our streets is appalling. And our hunters are a disgrace to a civilised country. We know all this. But when a foreigner has the temerity to tell us these things – and in the case of illegal hunting to prove it beyond doubt – we react as though such criticism is unjustified. We throw it back in their faces by talking about abortion or child abuse, or even in this case some historic period long passed and long overcome by a new generation of Germans.

We are like Liliputians. We behave like spoilt children and stamp our Liliputian feet whenever we are criticised by foreigners. Whereas what a mature country should be doing is seeing the mote in our own eye, acknowledging openly that these criticisms are justified, and then doing something about them. We should by now have the self-confidence to take constructive criticism in our stride and not resort to sheltering behind a sense of false nationalism.

When it comes to hunting we should not only openly deplore the actions of hunters and trappers, but also castigate our own government (and the Opposition) for their spinelessness in facing up to their responsibilities. In the face of opposition by the European Union, which regards spring hunting as contrary to the spirit and the letter of the EU Birds Directive, and following widespread condemnation of it in the European Parliament, Dr Gonzi – supported for once by an equally unprincipled Leader of the Opposition – has once again just allowed a derogation for spring hunting to take place.

The right course for Malta – legally, morally and in its own self-interest – is to conform to the letter of EU legislation and to make it clear to the hunters that they have to comply, or face the full weight of the law. The vast majority of this country would be fully behind any government which took such action.

As to the hunters, they should be permitted to practise their so-called sport provided they comply fully with European law about when they may do so. This is a dying pastime thanks to a better educated generation of children who now foreswear it, and the ever-creeping urbanisation of these islands.

Martin Scicluna is the

Director General of Malta’s only independent think-tank,

the Today Public Policy Institute.

He writes here in his personal capacity