TMID Editorial: The President’s speech revealed the excuse of Malta’s utopia
Republic Day is the day most synonymous with the President, and is the day the office is set up.
Among the ceremonies and parades we see on this national holiday, the President also gives what is generally considered to be his most important address – something that has been seen as a kind of state-of-the-art speech. nation in itself.
President George Vella’s speech this year touched on a number of very significant points, and in many cases he discovered certain aspects of the utopia that some people seem to think – or want us to think – under which Malta operates.
The first is about the rule of law. “No one is above the law,” the president said.
In practice, however, the phrase “no one is above the law” does not apply to Malta.
Many of those mentioned and ashamed – including politicians – in corruption scandals still roam free, politicians caught in misbehavior and breach of ethics remain on the benches, public funds continue to be used tactically to bring in favor specific parts of the mass. We have even seen government agencies break the law in the way they operate.
And this is only in the political sphere. We have seen how the justice system looks kindly to some, and not so kindly to others (particularly foreigners); We have seen how many large traders are the convenient beneficiaries of one or two closed eyes, thus allowing them to do quite as they please with little or no consequence. And there are a number of other examples.
As George Orwell famously wrote in his book Animal Farm, some animals are indeed more equal than others in today’s Malta, and this is not something that will happen if the rule of law is working properly.
President Vella also mentioned the environment – something he, on his merits, has done on several occasions – said that “the extensive building and construction work that is taking up more and more space than agricultural land and virgin has become a threat ”and that balance. it must be sought between the built and the natural environment.
The threat has been there. Indeed, it is no longer a threat: Malta’s over-leadership of the concrete monster is at its peak, and very little is being done by our country’s authorities to stop it.
In recent months the government has said a lot – after perhaps realizing that the public has had enough and that votes can now be in line – that it wants to protect the environment.
However for all the nice words and the beautiful green walls that are being erected on the streets of Malta (if they were enough to make up for the rural land that those same streets took), the action to protect what was left was scarce, if not. non-existent.
Of course this goes back to the point of the rule of law as well. Which government party will put itself in mind against developments led by major companies that are likely to have given them tens of thousands of euros over many years?
And what about the politicians themselves! “My call is to respect the intelligence of the people and to put in front of them clear and equivocal work programs that will be implemented if he is chosen to lead,” Vella told them in the run-up to the upcoming general election.
But in truth, we all know that the policy of coffee mornings, buffet dinners, political spin through the media of each party, and a promise of working with the government here and there in return for a vote will continues without attention in the world.
These are just three points. The President mentioned other areas where the country has shown itself to be lacking.
His speech was, if correlated with the country in which we now live, one of significance.
Was it intended as a critique of the current government? Or as a request for someone, somewhere to listen and make the country better? Or maybe a little of both?
We will leave it to you to decide.