With reference to the SPED, of course I would have done things differently. There is no doubt about that. We need to get this country’s style of governance into 2015, after all.
I am totally against governments doing their five-year strategic planning and development policies within what they call relevant, autonomous institutions, which in actual fact are under their total and undisputed control.
National Environmental, Planning and Development, Water, Agriculture and Energy Policy should be formulated by an independent institution made up of experts in the respective fields, and token representation of political parties. Such policy should not be the makeshift, to save our skin cause of electoral promises kind of mangled roadmaps we are experiencing, but totally thought out, debated, sifted and resifted, negotiated and renegotiated from a position of strength, kind of policy, that realistically takes into consideration Malta and Gozo’s current status in the respective fields, and the status we aspire for our islands once the policy is implemented over the agreed time, by whoever is in government.
Therefore, yes, you understood me well:
The policy drawn up by experts should be a constant for whoever is in government.
The latter would then be judged by the electorate on the implementation of the policy not on its creation, thus avoiding the pitfalls of short-term, hastily drawn up recipes for disaster more often than not greatly weighed down from conception, by third party non-national interest, and you know exactly what I mean by that.
To date, we had a structure plan drawn up in 1992, which is now out-dated. It was a good much needed document at the time, and it served its purpose, to some extent, but we all know that it was so riddled with loopholes and clauses pitiably subject to interpretation that one wonders how it took us to 2015 to finally come up with a plausible replacement.
Now the replacement is close to being finalised. It is a government vision document which I tried to turn into a National vision document in my little parliamentary committee by pushing towards taking on board, as much of the NGO’s advice as possible.
As a vision document its far from perfect but still a good start, notwithstanding the fact that many spelt out resolutions, even if nicely put down in black and white to placate me and the NGO's, are at the mercy of the will and honesty of the government of the day, to apply them assiduously to protect the remaining natural, historical, and architectural beauty of our country.
We can only hope, that this vision document, together with any accompanying policy documents, Local Plans , and the new planning and environment legislation that will be up for discussion in the coming weeks, will turn out to be an instrument of safeguarding our heritage in all its forms, and not the instrument of its final solution.
Needless to say, it is in the government's executive hands. Two and a half years is a very long time. Depending on the path our government decides to take, we can reclaim some of the environmental heritage we have lost in past legislatures, or we can be condemned to eternal environmental poverty.
This Saturday we have an opportunity to help our Government understand what this nation really wants in this regard. Zonqor Point is the wake up call.
Our country needs you to stand up and be counted at this crucial moment. Remember that your absence will be your tacit consent to the government to do as it pleases with our natural heritage. So let us unite and make our presence felt in our beautiful proud capital, Valletta.
It is a case of its now or never. Believe me.