Editorial • 22 September 2002

Eliminating the aliens in our life

Dragging your children to a historical site and telling them something about their cultural heritage is an illegal act. This is what Malta discovered on Friday morning by reading The Times. A teacher was fined Lm500 for having done just that. Yes, a junior college lecturer was fined Lm500 for providing his students with information about the Goddess of Fertility statue during an outing to Valletta. The lecturer was accompanying 10 students on the outing. He was fined two months ago by the enforcement directorate of the Malta Tourism Authority, which said that only licensed tourist guides were permitted to lead ‘organised excursions’.

This is starting to sound more like Singapore. Confused minds and an effort to eradicate the better things in life are making this country unbearable.

If the Minister of Tourism fails to intervene, then we should truly set this country on automatic pilot and send all the ministers on a trip to Spitzbergen in the Artic Circle.

The same approach has been taken by the Medical Council who have been presented with a number of complaints by the health authorities involving Labour MP Prof Louis Buhagiar and others.

The Medical Council have opted not to act because they cannot decipher a clause in their legal statute that allows them to rap the medical specialist for his habit of overcharging.

The council is chaired by retired Judge Victor Caruana Colombo.

Another authority which is in dire need of a facelift is the Broadcasting Authority, chaired by the former Chief Justice, Joseph Said Pullicino.

To support him in his deliberations, he has the able support of a chief executive, also originating from the courts. This is a former registrar of courts.

What we really need is some flexibility.

The flexibility that makes life less of a straitjacket and society more responsible and accountable.

This country has too many lawyers administering the country, too many individuals obsessed with the interpretation of the clauses and subparagraphs and procedural matters.

On a daily basis we read about court judgements based on procedure and newspeak.

What we need is a detachment from this infatuation with words and punctuation and an emphasis on the deeds that make things happen.

The tutor who was fined for lecturing history to students is a perfectly normal person. The enforcement procedure imposed on the teacher is the alien that needs elimination. It represents an immorality and arrogance that is shortsighted and restrictive. It is conservative, bizarre and anti-social.

The Medical Council that entrenches itself in legal jargon is detached from the responsibilities facing the medical profession. It has little purpose and should be disbanded.

And the BA that focuses its attention on seeking an equilibrium between facts and fiction is living a lie since there is no such thing as balanced reportage. There is only news, fullstop.