News | Sunday, 15 February 2009

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Ex PN minister slams double standards on public land squatters

Former Nationalist minister Michael Falzon, who was responsible for setting up the Planning Authority, reveals today how Cabinet had shot down his plans to evacuate Armier squatters from their infamous boathouses which Lawrence Gonzi now wants to legalise.
Writing in his opinion column today, Falzon takes a dig at parliamentary secretary Jason Azzopardi for his “petty persecution” of inconsequential squatters on public land, taking him to task for the double standards that allow for much worse illegalities.
“Not allowing some space for the culture that pervades the mentality of the Maltese people is a silly mistake on Jason’s part… Acting in a way that is obviously ‘strong with the weak’ and ‘weak with the strong’ makes it even worse,” Falzon writes.
“How can he justify his petty persecution of canopies on public pavements while he closes both eyes to the situation in the zone of Little Armier where people have for years broken the law with impunity by using public land to build their summer shacks, with some making a business out of the whole shenanigan? I know what I am saying as when I tried to do something about it, I was left alone to burn my fingers alone, nay my palms, arms and body. The lack of support from my then Cabinet colleagues – let alone the then backbench – was overwhelming. I could almost hear them chant: ‘Burn, Michael, burn!’”
Falzon also warns Azzopardi that he is in for a surprise.
“A surprise so big that, I am sure, it will keep on haunting him for the rest of his life,” he writes, referring to the political consequences he will suffer come election day.
“This country refuses to be a humdrum place where everywhere runs by clockwork, whatever Jason Azzopardi says and does. Over 30 years of communist rule have not persuaded Saigon (sorry, Ho Chi Minh City) to behave like Hanoi.
“Five years of Jason Azzopardi will leave Malta exactly where it was.”

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