It is an inexplicable fact that certain columnists have made a habit of disparaging NGOs. A common line of attack is an attempt to undermine their integrity by insinuating that they have a political agenda or that everything they do has an ulterior motive. Another is to blame them for not taking action on certain side issues, as though they are salaried civil servants who are not putting enough effort in for their pay. The worst among these critics must be Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was up to her usual disagreeable mischief last Sunday.
First of all, let’s get the spiteful teenage girlie stuff out of the way. As usual, Daphne resorts to foul-mouthing and taunting well-meaning people with snide comments about ‘moan machines’, people getting ‘cross and squeaky’ and dark, political “nudge-nudge, wink-wink” allusions to ‘tal-pepe laburisti’. This sort of snivelling, facetious language can only be regarded as filthy malice that is as far from intelligent criticism as anybody can get. It is neither witty nor worthy of a respected newspaper. If Daphne wanted to make a valid point last Sunday, it was lost in a mass of waffle of twisted facts and squalid epithets.
As to Daphne’s morbid speculation about Flimkien ghal-Ambjent Ahjar’s political proclivities, this basic fact can only be repeated: one of the abiding principles of any NGO is impartiality and independence. And, like any other NGO, FAA has always been, and remains, absolutely non-partisan. As implicit in its name, FAA’s only loyalty is to Malta’s environmental welfare and to say that its demonstrations and protests over the last few years were “invariably interpreted as anti-government, anti-Gonzi” is a delusion.
If, as Daphne claims, FAA’s activities were exploited by the Labour Party, this was not FAA’s problem: as everybody knows, this is the normal way political parties conduct their business. It is therefore false to blame well-meaning NGOs for this sort of thing. And as to who is in bed with construction magnates, again, this is of no relevance to an NGO. In any event, evidence of our last administration’s attitude towards the construction industry over a quarter of a century is there for all to see – most of Malta is now covered in blockrete, added to which is the infamous revision of Malta’s Outside Development Zone (ODZ) policy which compounded the construction industry’s potential for environmental damage. The same is happening all over again. Now it seems that, as before, the construction leviathan is set to continue its destructive rampage across the Maltese countryside – aided and abetted by Mepa and the new administration.
There is something pathetic about the way Daphne has remained so firmly stuck in a groove. She fails, on a heroic scale, to realise that Maltese politics has moved on and that she has been left behind. Sniping at perceived friends or enemies, of whichever imagined political persuasion, is old hat. Trying to make fun of people no longer of any use is counter-productive. The PN has all but disappeared, but Daphne continues to represent a surviving disagreeable remnant of those elements whose personal attacks alienated many former PN voters and significantly contributed to the PN’s downfall in the first place. Even her phrase: “tal-pepe laburisti”, falls flat on its face today. Such old-fashioned thinking harks back to decades long gone, when Malta was neatly divided into blue and red. This demarcation started to become blurred years ago and people now vote more pragmatically – not on party lines but by taking their cue from Deng Xiauping: “I don’t care if it is a black cat or a white cat – it’s a good cat if it catches mice”. It has yet to be seen if the party in power will catch the mice and deliver; so far, the writing on the wall in respect of the continuing exploitation of Malta by the construction industry is very worrying. It seems as though we will be getting more of the same in that department. So FAA has a busy time ahead of it and there is no way they are going to be stopped by Daphne’s futile prattle.
G. Debono
SLIEMA