Guest post: The Victims of Megaphone Posturing
This guest post is written by a journalist who works for a media organisation other than the one with which I work. And just in case you’re wondering – yes, I do know who he is, of course, but I can’t use his name.
Yesterday was a sad day for Maltese politics. The resignation of Victor Scerri from the post of PN General Council President put a spotlight on the way megaphone-posturing is perverting what should be normal politics in Malta.
Victor Scerri is not the only victim of this emerging catastrophe. The very principles which underpin democracy are going down one by one.
The rule of law
Loudspeaker-wielding lobby groups have made mincemeat of the rule of law. In this case, what was normal and legal for other citizens – to build a home on the footprint of an existing building in an ODZ – was ruled out for someone who happened to be a PN politician, by a ‘people’s court’ that is taking on disturbing similarities to something proposed by premier Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici as a substitute for due process.
This seriously undermines the rule of law. The principle that we are all equal before the law has been turned on its head here: in its attempts at ensuring that some pigs are not permitted to be more equal than others, some lobbyists have rendered them less equal.
There are no different planning rules for politicians, nor should there be. Just as it is objectionable to have discrimination in favour of politicians, so it is objectionable to have discrimination against them.
This is a completely separate issue to whether we approve of their decisions or not, and how this approval or disapproval will affect the way we vote.
Politicians are free to exercise their rights just as all others do, and we are free to approve or disapprove and to show our approval or disapproval by democratic means. But we are not free to stop them or to attempt to curtail their rights. That is anti-democratic.
The right to private property
The saga leading to Victor Scerri’s resignation will ricochet badly on perceptions of property rights. The right to enjoy one’s private property is being undermined consistently now by megaphone-driven outbursts.
Planning rules have long permitted the replacement of an existing building, even in a rural area once popularly called a green area and now called an ODZ, on the actual footprint and in certain situations with an increase on the existing footprint. What Victor Scerri is seeking to do here is not in the least bit exceptional. It is being portrayed as exceptional to those who are unfamiliar with the rules, by those who are, for reasons that can best be described as agenda-driven.
ODZ is actually a misnomer. In Bahrija itself permits have been issued for ODZ developments similar in scope and circumstance to what Victor Scerri was permitted to do in four successive permits.
Above all, we must remember that Victor Scerri’s property rights are also our property rights. Anything that impinges on his property rights impinges also on ours. The property rights currently being diluted by loudspeakers and megaphones and agendas, rather than by judicial and legislative process, are being diluted not just for Victor Scerri and past and future carefully selected victims, but for us all.
Democracy
Democracy means respect for minorities and for the rights of lobbyists to protest and to make their point freely, even forcefully.
But it does not mean rule by lobby group. Those who govern in a democracy are elected by their constituents. They sit in parliament and are accountable to parliament and to their constituents. They are not accountable to self-appointed representatives of ‘the people’ who are accountable to no one.
Those who govern should find the time to point out that they are in fact the real representatives of the people, chosen by the people to govern the country.
The policies governing ODZ development are now being selectively and retrospectively repealed not by our legislators in parliament – the true representatives of the people – but by the qrati tal-poplu and mob behaviour which authoritarian Dom Mintoff used as an effective way of directing and controlling events in defiance of the democratic norm.
One weight, one measure
Victor Scerri’s resignation puts the spotlight on another problem with politics in Malta: two weights and two measures for the two political parties.
While it’s all right for a Labour shadow minister and an AD official to apply for clients’ ODZ developments, it is a sacrilege if this is done by a PN mayor and/or a client who happens to be a PN official.
Even worse: if a PN politician applies for a permit which is then deemed to have been wrongly issued, without that politician having put any undue pressure at all, then it is the politician who must resign. This is the incomprehensible rationale.
Malta’s real priorities
While Malta proves itself unmistakably and unashamedly racist, while millions of plastic bottles blight our countryside, while women are battered and killed, while lobby groups take over government via the MCESD and expect the taxpayer to subsidise them, while a string of tragedies show how the flouting of rules by so-called ‘common men’ (they are usually men) costs lives daily, while the state wastes most of the 2,600 million euros a year (more than seven million a day) it spends on non-productive public sector wages, while unions keep their blinkered view of the world even in the worst international recession since 1929 – while all this is going on – the big issue in Malta as of July 2009 is a PN official’s application to build a house on the footprint of a ruin.
With this kind of loudspeaker threats and decision-making in response to megaphone bullying, we – yes, we ‘the people’ – are condemned to be governed in future by mediocre politicians and worse still by unelected, unrepresentative and unaccountable lobby groups driven by self interest, pet hates and willful vindictiveness.
It is already happening, but after yesterday it will get even worse.
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Astrid Vella doesn’t target individuals, she says. No, instead she winds up the mob until they do it themselves. I distinctly remember an entire newspaper building being set alight with its employees inside as a result of somebody doing something similar.
timesofmalta.com Astrid Vella
“At no point have the NGOs targeted Dr Victor Scerri.Although we have stated that people in public office should lead by example(which also goes for the architect involved),we have never once alleged that Dr.Scerri exerted undue pressure.We never referred to his family other than to mention that the permit was in his wife’s name,so the allegation of pressure is totally unfounded.
Even in the case of speculative developers(which Dr Scerri clearly is not),NGOs always address themselves at MEPA,the regulatory body.The DCC boards,who have forgotten their role as Development CONTROL Commissions,need to answer for permits which they have issued which violate MEPA’s own regulations.In this case the DCC in question approved not one but four permits which were all recommended for refusal by the officials of the MEPA Directorate.
Dr. Scerri’s references to ‘mob rule’ are out of place;likening the peaceful protest of 300 citizens calling for respect of regulations to the rampaging mobs pre-1987 begs the question of whether Dr Scerri shares this desire for law-abiding dealings.
We furthermore point out that the NGOs’ claims have been confirmed by the MEPA Auditor who has pointed to serious irregularities in all the permits in the Bahrija case.”
One of the other ‘defences’ repeated in defence of FAA is that permission ‘biex ibiddlu bieb ma’ tieqa’ (or words to that effect) was refused in the same area. At the time, I wondered whether FAA was campaigning for fair rules which would mean the issuance of a permit that had been refused.
So far, there’ve been loud protests about permits that have been issued. Surely, if fairness is FAA’s game, there should be equally loud protests about permits that have been refused if these decisions are deemed to be unfair?
If we are all so liberal, Astrid Vella has the right to protest and do whatever she wants. It is up to the authorities not to be bullied by her antics, or maybe they should unleash the SAG to make her and her misguided followers see reason. Why don’t we do an Iran.
[Daphne – I agree that she has every right to protest. But with power – even self-assumed power – comes responsibility. That’s why I compared her tactics to Alfred Sant’s. He ignored his responsibility to truth and accuracy, too, choosing instead to reason that the means justified his personal ends, going even further in reasoning that his personal ends were those of The People.]
Daphne, why not publish the name of the journalist? Such an objective piece of writing! An oasis of rationality in a desert of a[st]ridness, both this article and your blog.
[Daphne – He asked me not to use his name and I have to respect his wishes.]
“Unelected representatives”? I hope thet is not a reference to ……
Is it?
[Daphne – No, it’s not a reference to the leader of the opposition, who still has another four years to go before he can claim to be the people’s elected representative.]
That might have ben true of KMB. It cannot be said of Muscat who was elected MEP with huge backing.
[Daphne – Muscat is not an MEP now. He sits in the Maltese parliament – in a filched seat and without a single vote. Hence, he is not the elected representative of the people of Malta. These niceties may pass you by, but that’s the way it is.]
Common practice in Maltese politics, remember a certain village lawyer, as you called him once, filling a seat without a single vote, in 1969. But that does not count as filching I suppose as the mp vacating the seat had died.
[Daphne – No, I don’t remember. I was four years old at the time. What I do remember is that he turned out to be the greatest prime minister we ever had – cometh the hour, cometh the man.]
Apologies, I should have written, ‘have you read or have you heard of’. As to how the small village lawyer turned out to be, it is a case of ‘wara kullhadd gharef’. I do not think that there were many in 1969 that were foreseeing the greatness to come.
[Daphne – I think we can safely say that there is no greatness in store for Joseph Muscat. He will be a pedestrian prime minister at best. The situation does not call for greatness – which is just as well, given that he does not have the qualities for greatness. Cometh the hour, cometh the man – now as then.]
Pedestrian he is, but you are still being unfair in judging and sentencing the man before he has even started.
[Daphne – I have become a pretty good judge of character over the years. Most women are by the time they’ve reached this age. It’s just one of the reasons why Muscat has more appeal among men than he does among women – just one of the reasons. Another reason is that he gives off no ‘testosterone’ signals. Women don’t mind having an unmasculine man as a friend and confidante – not that we would trust Muscat as a confidante because he strikes us as too vain and self-absorbed and the sort of person who would rush off to repeat what we’ve told him – but we don’t want an unmasculine man as leader. Even women leaders have to be masculine – and when I say ‘masculine’ I mean the traits one would normally associate with men, but which in reality are more common among women, though lots of us choose to disguise the fact.]
@Daphne: “Even women leaders have to be masculine – and when I say ‘masculine’ I mean the traits one would normally associate with men, but which in reality are more common among women”.
What traits are masculine, but more common among women?
Meditate gente, meditate.
In the very near future, the above article will be back to haunt us.
Excellent post………………sadly all so true.
The section under “Malta’s real priorities” sums up the situation perfectly.
Unbelievable! Astrid should be given gieh ir repiubblika- instead she is portrayed in bad light- so not fair
It is not fair for those who have been vilified and attacked personally by Astrid and her toy soldiers because they expressed an opinion or participated in a decision which is not to her liking. Grow up!
“In this case, what was normal and legal for other citizens – to build a home on the footprint of an existing building in an ODZ – was ruled out for someone who happened to be a PN politician…”
So few words yet so riddled with contradictions or inaccuracies.
1. For the umpteenth time, ODZ means just that, Outside Development Zone.
2. If building in an ODZ has become “normal”, then the system has really gone to the dogs.
3. The footprint of the structure for which the permit was granted is by far bigger than the dilapidated farmer’s building that was demolished.
4. The person concerned was the president of the party in government, which is duty bound to ensure that the laws of the country are respected.
No, Sandro, ODZ does not mean Outside Development Zone. ODZ means whatever the relevant Structure Plan (and other) policies say. If and when the Structure Plan is reviewed, ODZ will mean whatever the new policies say.
Typical FAA bulls**t. Just because they can speak English, they think they know planning policy inside out.
What an excellent article this is – it hits the nail on the head wonderfully. Things really are getting out of hand. The type of lobbying being resorted to is making a travesty of democracy and the rule of law. Whatever next – marches and megaphones and public pillorying?
It is these excessive and often irrational property rights that have destroyed and are continuing to destroy what is left of the Maltese countryside. Saner societies who incidentally might have more land per capita than us implement laws and taxes which make it next to impossible for a person to own 2, 3, 4 empty properties as is common here. We continue to build up every nook and cranny when we have thousands of empty buildings. It is simply scandalous.
[Daphne – No, what is simply scandalous is the socialist thinking that is innately opposed to people owning a lot of property. Property is just something else that people own, like cars and jewellery and famous paintings. I don’t think it should be treated any differently. The fact that it is treated differently is rooted in French revolutionary thinking. It has nothing to do with the ‘environment’.]
So you think that in a small country like ours we should still keep on building all over the place just so we do not appear to be socialist? Interesting. I can understand that kind of thinking from some money-hungry speculator, but coming from you its quite disappointing.
[Daphne – I am a liberal. I believe in minimum interference in people’s lives, property and business.]
Do we keep on building or not?
[Daphne – Of course. The state can and should set the parameters for building, but it can’t ban development. For a start, and this is something many people don’t seem to understand, the immediate and ongoing consequence of a ban on development would be escalation of the market price of all existing property.
I would never choose to return to the days when Malta looked like a remote Greek island with a bit of Naples attached while most people lived in squalor, just because I wouldn’t have been one of those living in squalor. That’s the flaw in FAA’s thinking: they reason from the point of view of people who would have been privileged and with a house to themselves even 70 years ago. Perhaps they weren’t exposed to the reality of Valletta tenements with 15 people to a room, as I was – my parents did not protect me from this information – or newly married couples living in one room in their parents’ rented house, or the children of peasants – and I use that word in its literal meaning – sleeping with horses on bales of hay in a damp shed, or homes like the one our live-in help came from when I was five years old: one room with nothing but a table in it, in which the entire extended family slept on the floor crammed head to toe.]
I am glad that you agree that there should be parameters. What worries me is that more often than not these parameters are very fluid and easy to circumvent.
Did you hear the latest joke? James Tyrell calls for “adult” and “polite” comment. This is what he says in timesofmalta.com when commenting on FAA’s position on the city gate project.
“Of course there are going to be people who disagree with what FAA are doing and those people have every right to leave comments but I’m sure it would be appreciated by all concerned if they could comment in an adult and polite way.”
I find it very amusing coming from one of Astrid’s toy soldiers; the people who have turned personal attacks into an art form.
And here’s a second joke. James Tyrell accuses Antoine Vella of being unreasonable and intolerant. This comes from someone whose writings are in most cases unreasonable and intolerant.
Vera kaz li ma jarawx it-travu li ghandhom f’ ghajnejhom.
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