Everyone knew that the energy sector was to be one of the main focal points of the election campaign, for the writing has been on the wall for over a year now. But this past week has provided the electorate with something of an information overload, so much so that the country appears to be suffering a case of energy indigestion.

The Labour Party has fired the first shot with its proposal to tear down the Delimara power station and replace it with a natural gas-fuelled plant. The Nationalist Party has cried foul, warning that the plan, if allowed to come to fruition by the electorate, would endanger the country’s livelihood and place its very survival at risk.

The technical details of the issues being discussed by both political parties are far too much for any layman to make any kind of educated decision, and the endless debates on those heavily technical issues really and truly do the electorate no amount of good whatsoever.

The die-hards from both ends of the political spectrum assume their predictable stances and the floating voters out there, except perhaps for the engineers, are left scratching their heads.

That the incumbent party would campaign on a platform of not changing horse in midstream and that the challenger would advocate change for the country are all but blatantly obvious.

But both parties have resorted to scaremongering the public over each other’s plans, one of the lowest common denominator of political debate. The government’s charted course, the Opposition claims, has provided the country with power stations that cause cancer and all sorts of other serious ailments. The Nationalist Party, meanwhile, is warning that should Labour have its way, it would literally be placing a bomb twice the size of the Mosta dome right on the outskirts of Marsaxlokk.

Scary stuff indeed but with the technical details being exceedingly difficult to get to grips with, people may very well be tempted to single out the enticement of the cheaper electricity prices being promised by Labour as the determining factor. That would be a mistake.  Does anyone truly believe that if there had been a safe way to cut electricity bills after all that has happened in the area in recent years, that it wouldn’t have done so already? 

The price of electricity, it must be stressed, is not the be all and end all of the energy debate, the safety and security of supply of the country’s electricity comes first and foremost and these are not matters to be trifled with.

The energy debate so far has not been all that energising after all, and the best the electorate can hope for is that next week or at least in the coming weeks they will get the kind of answers they deserve. 

Until then, the mutual scaremongering and the inability to comprehend the very serious issues at stake when it comes to the country’s energy supply pretty much equals out both parties. We hope for better when the next hot potato come around to be debated.

Setting the agenda

BirdLife Malta and Din l-Art Helwa, two organisations with the environment and heritage at heart, yesterday sought to set at least some of the agenda for the election campaign, rather than allowing politicians themselves to set the stage and to campaign purely on their own terms.

Din l-Art Helwa is to launch an on-line public opinion poll tomorrow to give the public the opportunity to express their own priorities for the protection of Malta’s natural and cultural heritage, for consumption by politicians.

BirdLife, meanwhile, has called on the public to voice its opposition to the ‘illegal occupation’ of the countryside, widespread hunting and the health and safety risks caused by uncontrolled hunting during the campaign. The campaign’s aim is to encourage voters to speak up over such issues in the lead up to the general election.

Both organisations are completely correct in their approaches, and both are encouraging the electorate to speak up and to make their voices heard.

It is hoped that other civil society organisations will follow suit over the rest of the campaign so as to give more of a voice to those who really matter in this election campaign – the people themselves.

Paying dues

With all the talk of energy over this first week of the election campaign, one very important proposal tabled by the Labour Party has not been given the attention it rightly deserves. That was the Labour leader’s statement that if elected, the PL would see to it that ‘social compensation’ would be awarded for areas that have been adversely affected by the country’s major projects by way of recreational, environmental or commercial projects for the afflicted communities.

The statement was made in Marsa, one of the worst afflicted areas in the country, and one which has borne the brunt of the Marsa power station and the effects of its pollution for decades now. The statement was made right after the Labour leader said it was unacceptable for Malta to register one of Europe’s highest incidences of respiratory diseases.

Labour has said that it would ensure that social compensation would be given to areas where major projects have had a negative impact, in the form of projects that would help improve the social and environmental regeneration of the area.

He observed that certain parts of the country had been used as a dumping ground for developments which may be necessary but which may have a negative impact on their surroundings and he is more than quite right.