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Saviour Balzan travels north to the wild lands of the Gozitan republic and ponders on Giovanna’s world We await the cabinet reshuffle but life will go on for the others. One corner of the country that lives on and does little in changing is Gozo.
This Island painted as quaint, serene and a Republic on its own is in all fairness, home to the worst form of nepotism, unlawful behaviour, tax avoidance, environmental deficit and illegal construction of uncertain magnitude.
Talk about a VAT receipt; declaring one’s income; building with a permit, or renting out with a permit or taking public land and declaring it Riservato is one way of looking at Gozo and the Gozitans.
And the holier they look, the worse they get.
The people who purport to be the staunchest Roman Catholics south of Rome are the biggest sinners when it comes to respecting the rule of law.
When the leadership contenders for the Nationalist party visited Nationalist councillors in Gozo, the foremost complaint they recorded was about MEPA.
Now, MEPA could be described as a government department with an under obliging staff that enjoy the great privilege of retaining better wages. But to question the raison d’etre for MEPA’s actions only points to one silly direction, a general desire to build, develop and construct as one pleases.
It is no big secret that the people who have complaints to make against MEPA, knock not on MEPA’s door, but on the mahogany door of the Minister for Gozo, the honourable Giovanna Debono.
Mrs Debono may be the most successful vote catcher Gozo has seen, but she is simply a politician with one ideal, to serve her constituents, whenever and wherever. Indeed that is why there are so many changes in voter patterns in Gozo: because voters vote according to how responsive their politicians are to their specific needs. So when it comes to elections, even Labourites vote for Giovanna.
Talk to fellow Nationalist candidates and parliamentarians and they will tell you what they think of Giovanna, okay some of it is envy, but as the Maltese saying goes, il-qasba ma ccaqcaqx ghal xejn (there is no smoke without fire).
Giovanna Debono breeds on a political system that I detest, but which most Gozitans embrace. Not all I must say, but most Gozitans.
Minister Debono’s persistence may be described as a duty to the voter; in truth it has continued to nail Gozitan politics to a culture of ‘I serve to serve you as long as you think of me in the next election.’
Politicians who cannot answer requests for favours with an explicit ‘no’ are difficult to come by in Malta and Gozo alike.
Which brings me to why I think that Lawrence Gonzi should emulate Alfred Sant and do away with a Minister for Gozo.
Alfred Sant had a darn good idea when he refused to appoint a minister for Gozo.
Why should Gozo have a different law abiding regime to Malta, and why are the Gozitans, in undeclared GDP terms richer and better off than the Maltese, awarded special status and portrayed as some deprived variant.
But it will not be as every politician has a price and Giovanna Debono is in a position to tell the party she serves to do exactly what she desires – because she has the electorate behind her.
Giovanna Debono’s political style is not to be blamed on her alone, responsibility lies with the Prime Minister who appointed her and saw fit never to query her way of doing things.
Will Dr Gonzi be different?
Issa naraw!
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