Saviour Balzan | Sunday, 12 July 2009

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What a bloody mess!

I am rather convinced that I am beginning to sound like some melancholic writer from the past who cannot run away from history. Yet, this time round I feel I more than justified in referring to the past.
When the MEPA reform plans were purposely leaked to The Times by the usual gang of news spinners at the Office of the Prime Minister, I could not help noting that the Prime Minister is either permanently surrounded by a bunch of incompetents, or has no appreciation for the PN’s holy crusade against political interference in building policy and construction before 1987.
I will not go into the technicalities of the MEPA reform: the comments by Michael Falzon in this Sunday’s interview are sufficient to amplify the misgivings of all those who deal with MEPA.
However, I will focus specifically on the decision to transfer MEPA policy to the Prime Minister’s office.
It is this decision that should worry all of those who wasted precious time fighting and confronting Labour thuggery in the mid-eighties.
Policy is all about which permits get the green light, and which do not.
If the Prime Minister, through his right hand man Edgar Galea Curmi, decides that the policy should happen to be development at Ramla bay, then the policy will serve to direct MEPA to basically rubber-stamp any proposed development there.
When the Prime Minister secretively signed an accord with the green slums at Armier bay, recognising all the illegal developments, he did not even announce the policy. Instead, the holier-than-thou Edgar Galea Curmi kept it a secret.
The PM’s MEPA policy will be engineered, not according to some grand vision, but according to the electoral demands and pressures of ‘lobby groups.’
Years back, Eddie Fenech Adami and his gladiators fought the politics of the late Lorry Sant. As a corrupt public works minister, Sant was responsible for taking solo decisions that transformed Malta and Gozo into a cancerous growth of concrete and structures.
Gonzi, in his failing wisdom, has taken planning back to the political arena. For the last years, Gonzi has come up with projects and has ignored local planning policy.
He has allowed the local plans and structure plan that were construed to serve as a clear guideline for development to be blatantly ignored.
And now in a feeble attempt to give the impression that under his captaincy things will be guided by the goodness of Gonzi, he has proposed taking planning policy to Castille.
But who can trust Lawrence and Kate Gonzi not to be overtaken by electoral considerations? And I make special reference to Kate Gonzi because it is more than evident that the First Lady is taking a very active role in listening to angry voters, and passing on their complaints to the right authorities. Nothing criminal or corrupt in that, but surely not befitting for a First Lady.
Before 2008, Gonzi’s right hand man Edgar Galea Curmi was instrumental in blessing the issuing of direct orders worth millions of euros at Mater Dei. Direct orders that Gonzi has said he would issue again, given half a chance; even though the Auditor General has chastised the politics of ignoring procurement procedures.
But now we know from the letters page that Austin Gatt et al believe they can do what they like, so long as it is not criminal.
Well, issuing policies to satisfy the wishes of developers and speculators and other lobby groups is not criminal or corrupt, but it is downright wrong.

In 1985, when Lawrence Gonzi was busy with his Azzjoni Kattolika and Edgar Galea Curmi taken up with his Spanish guitar, dozens of young people were out in the streets confronting Lorry Sant’s politics.
At the time, the battlecry was for a town and country Planning Act that would restore some normality to Malta and Gozo.
Of all the politicians that were petitioned, only two politicians responded to campaign for such an Act. These were PN stalwarts Noel Buttigieg Scicluna and Michael Falzon.
Weeks later Lorry Sant thugs, led by the infamous Piju Camilleri, beat up young protesters including some very prominent PN activists. It was the beginning of the end of Lorry Sant.
Some 25 years later, Lawrence Gonzi has reacted to a mismanaged MEPA, which derails its own Structure Plan and policies, by taking policy back to the reign of politicians.
Gonzi is of course unaware that he is not going to be the Prime Minister forever. Not that it matters.
But once he signs the legal protocol that reverts policy back to the politician, then any future Prime Minister will be cannon fodder to the lobbyists: that is the big money spenders who have always made millions from the rape of the countryside and our towns. And Gonzi and the boys are no different from other politicians.
By looking at the smaller things, we can immediately deduce that the Prime Minister has little respect for the bigger picture.
Only this week, when the adverts for MEPA reform were being issued, the same preferential and conceited decision making was taking place for the smallest of decisions.
For example, the leak to The Times about MEPA reform was orchestrated by none other than the Office of the Prime Minister; as was the decision to use an advertising company called Content House owned by Jesmond Bonello – a Richard Cachia Caruana yes man and well known Gonzi boy – and the decision to boycott some newspapers from the MEPA marketing campaign. Yet another Office of the Prime Minister decision.
And this kind of thinking, petty as it appears, is indicative of how the Office of the Prime Minister will act when dealing with lobbyists.
The Prime Minister has led everyone to believe that under his wings there is goodness and wisdom in every decision. Bollocks!
For the last years the Office of the Prime Minister has had a representative on the MEPA boards; other ministers have had their own representatives, and the Chairman has been personally selected by the Prime Minister. The present Chairman, Austin Walker, is a case in point.
Look around the island and ask yourself who the hell issued all the permits. It wasn’t Bob Marley and the Wailers, but the political appointees on these boards.
When the controversial Charles Polidano wanted a Lidl supermarket on the edge of Malta’s national airport and in the flight path of the runway, the Planning Directorate, the Civil Aviation department and all the relevant authorities objected. But government decided to overrule policy and the reps on MEPA voted for this construction. Reps appointed by the same Prime Minister by the name of Lawrence Gonzi had suddenly created their own policy!
Gonzi wants us to believe that things will change. The only thing that will change is the people’s faith in Gonzi.

There is of course a counter argument: that I find nothing positive to say about the PM.
I have to admit I find it very difficult to see the light. And if there is one man who surely has no sunshine shining out of his backside, it is Gonzi.
But surely, with all this adulation in The Times, The Independent, TVM, il-Mument and in-Nazzjon, and with no effective opposition and the Labour party on permanent vacation, I do not see why I should be nice to the establishment.
And while we are on the subject of the establishment: a word on Renzo Piano’s development farce.
Yes, a farce. No two ways about it.
Sister newspaper Illum, which is boycotted by the Office of the Prime Minister, carries a front page story which reveals that it was budgetary constraints (and not artistic considerations) that led Renzo Piano to give this nation a national theatre without a roof.
Illum goes on to reveal that Piano was told to give preference to the Parliamentary building.
Well, the next time you decide to change house and are short by a few thousand euros, do not really worry if you end up without a roof over your head. I am sure your loving partner will understand.
Be sure to carry an umbrella for the occasional drizzle or downpour and instead of duvets use impermeable sleeping bags.
And do not forget your wellies when walking off to the bathroom. And in case of electronic equipment such as TV, DVD and computer please ask your dealer if they can provide you with the underwater versions.
And in the case of those with newborn infants, please do not fret. Mothercare have a specially designed Renzo Piano cot with a water screen and life jacket kit, just in case.
Finally, since the Renzo Piano plans were passed onto The Times before the official press conference, (the newspaper that will soon be changing its name to Pravda) may I humbly suggest that Piano design a special connecting bridge from Auberge de Castille to the offices of The Times.
That will save Edgar and Gordon Pisani on countless telephone calls and allow them to discuss openly with the enlightened editors who have made it their mission to serve the State.

Due to the unexpected impact of the MEPA reforms on Saviour Balzan, the column dedicated to The Cardinal will be postponed to next Sunday. Apologies to The Cardinal who chose to wake up at 5am to collect a special copy of MaltaToday, before our photographer could catch him sneaking out in his yellow silk pyjamas!

sbalzan@mediatoday.com.mt

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