2024 happens to be the sixtieth anniversary of Independence. Whether you love or disparage it, that event really brought about a fundamental and historic change to the island’s political governance, one that could affect the development of society as a whole, which it did. Obviously this happened in a political sense, but just as much in the economic, social and cultural dimensions.

It is not only appropriate to reflect about these impacts. It is necessary to do so. Even as we continue to argue about what is happening around us today, in order to really get our bearings on where we have landed we need to know where we came from. What were the challenges faced by those who preceeded us? They were the first generation that had the right and the power (or almost) to take decisions about the future of the Maltese islands which previously were taken for us by outsiders.

Would they have more success in this exercise than the “outsiders”? What would be the difference between what used to happen pre-Independence and post? It is important that reflections about these issues are carried out objectively, away from all partisan interpretations. Enough time has passed to make this approach feasible. 

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PEDESTRIANISATION?

I was under the impression that the Nationalist Party stood for pedestrianisation of city and village cores so that they would be “given back” to citizens and freed from traffic. After all it had been ex-PN Minister Austin Gatt who introduced this concept in Valletta although his proposal met much scepticism. On this policy at least, he was right, even if today citizens are still being shortchanged. Instead of the urban blight imposed by traffic, they are today being subjected to the abuses of business people who take advantgage of pedestrianisation.

However if I understood correctly, now the Leader of the Opposition has spoken against the pedestrianisation of Mosta centre, in a total U-turn it seems to what had been his party’s policy. We were told that this was done in response to complaints from the business sector. How difficult it is to truly make sense of what goes on in this country!

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ONE VERSUS NET

And now to go for a partisan slant. An issue that is really worrying me about the Labour Party concerns ONE, the party’s radio and television station. Formerly it was called Super One, but compared to other stations it is no longer super. For long years, it held the second position in viewership behind the national broadcaster, with the PN’s station NET way down in third position. Now NET is at number two, including in news.

I feel personally concerned by this situation. ONE was established to prevent national news and radio-TV programmes from being dominated by the national broadcaster, which always treated Labour’s position negatively. In this, ONE succeeded marvellously. True, today supposedly the national broadcaster is loading the dice in favour of the government of the day, though I doubt whether it is really having much pull on public opinion.

If ONE does not succeed in becoming a lively and really interesting station, it will continue to lose viewership and become a deadweight, not a rocket. Labour’s new deputy leader for party affairs, whoever he/she is, will need to consider this as a priority.