Let’s start with the good

Sometimes politicians are criticized for failing to be objective in their assessment of their opponents and for only saying things which put their adversaries in a bad light and themselves in a positive one. I will go a bit against the grain and start by making some positive observations on initiatives taken by this government I found to be praiseworthy.

I will start with Minister Evarist Bartolo’s initiative to open up public schools playgrounds after school hours to autistic children and their parents. This will give these children the chance to play and mingle in a safe and sheltered environment. Unfortunately, they cannot do this in many of the popular public areas. Unfortunately, certain places although nice and exciting for kids tend to be very dangerous for children who are autistic and possibly suffering from ADHD and similar conditions. It is a pity that such an initiative did not go down well with some NGOs working in this field since it was probably viewed as some kind of segregation. I beg to differ. Most of these children attend mainstream schools during the day and stay in the same class with children who have no special needs. The after-school opportunity is as beneficial to these children as it is to their parents who very often do not have an opportunity to meet other parents in similar situations with whom to share their experiences. For the sake of these children and their parents, I really hope this initiative does not come to an abrupt halt.

I will also give a thumbs up to Minister Coleiro Preca’s statement that her ministry is working to reward people who want to work and earn a living rather than those who can work to earn a living but prefer the comfort of social services. I have discussed this point with Minister Coleiro Preca and I think we agree that those families who go out of their way to earn money, try to live a decent life, pay taxes, but who at some point in their life require the assistance of the state, are not penalized for owning a house, for saving some money and for having a job. We should be flexible with these people at least to show that it pays to be hard-working and honest.

The bad

On the other hand, I cannot fail to comment on a very dangerous trait of this administration that is becoming quite worrying. First we had a minister who admitted being present during interviews for posts related to the Security Service. Then it was revealed that another minister interfered in a process for the selection of a law firm needed to provide legal services to governmental unit. Worse still, he altered the final result, awarding the contract to a company that was not selected by the appointed board which also included the minister’s representative.

This style of administering the country is very dangerous. These were not the only examples of this government’s attempt to micro-manage public entities instead of doing what a minister should do – give political direction and ensure that entities, boards, departments and officials falling under their responsibilities do their work properly and deliver the goods.  I have heard stories of ministers and parliamentary secretaries bypassing their officials and ordering transfers of public officers from one place to another. While I cannot verify these rumours, I fear that the trend started by this government does not bode well for the good governance of this country.

One other down side of this government is its way of going about launching major projects such as land reclamation without first consulting stakeholders, experts and NGOs. In the past few weeks there were many who expressed their anxiety that if such projects had to materialize our environment would suffer. But has this government listened?

Recently, we also had the shocking revelation by the current chairman of Mepa, Architect Vincent Cassar, who in a meeting of the parliamentary committee for the environment and planning admitted that the discussions and consultations held so far regarding the hiving off of the environment directorate from Mepa were limited to the minister, parliamentary secretary and their staff. Very nice indeed!

The ugly

Undoubtedly this title should be reserved for the shameful way this government, particularly Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, dealt with a surge of irregular immigrants, which is quite common for this time of the year. His childish behaviour under the guise of taking action in the national interest, threatened the good name this country has made for itself in the EU and internationally. Prime Minister Muscat threatened to breach international law unless the EU “listens” and “wakes up to smell the coffee”.

The European Court for Human Rights stopped Muscat from proceeding with his plan but it did not stop the spate of racist comments and xenophobic attacks that followed. The Prime Minister’s talking of “pushback”, “pushovers”, stamping of feet and brinkmanship seems to have made some individuals see red (or black!) and feel free to unleash the racist monster in them. Undoubtedly, Dr Muscat’s threats must have hit a chord with many people, on the different sides of the political divide, because naturally this issue causes fear and uncertainty in many people. But it has also damaged our reputation in Europe and in the world and raised the spectre of racism in an otherwise peaceful society. 

One hopes that the Prime Minister has learned a lesson and that he will change course in the future. As Opposition we will be on the government’s side in its efforts to convince the EU to show more solidarity with Malta as long as human rights and the international law are respected. This is what the national interest requires.

Mr Bonnici is opposition spokesperson for sustainable development, the environment and climate change

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