Not a bad idea after all

Mintoff

To a younger audience, the late Dom Mintoff brings few if any emotions. To those who were born in his shadow, it is a completely different story.

I relate to the latter category because in a good and bad way I also experienced the man from close.

Mintoff evokes multiple emotions and descriptions in people: Malta’s saviour, the eternal villain, a good orator, a narcissist, political genius, eccentric, philanderer, bully or simply THE Labour Party.

To me he is everything of the above.

Yet, if there is one thing that characterised him was his fixation that British military bases should close down, NATO kicked out from Malta and neutrality enshrined in its Constitution. He achieved these aims after the 1971 election.

At the time, the Nationalist Party did not embrace these political decisions and long after they were implemented there were many who lamented our break with the UK.

Now, almost 47 years later, the fact that Malta has no foreign military base here works just fine for us. Unlike Cyprus, Spain and Italy we do not host military bases, and we do not attract unnecessary attention.

At a time when an erratic US President Donald Trump declares war and drags everyone else into the chaos, the Mintoffian doctrine that we should remain neutral and not welcome military bases serves us very well.

Ġgantija

I cannot understand why the proposal for development around Ġgantija, a world-renowned heritage site, is even being considered by the Planning Authority. If Prime Minister Robert Abela considers it his job to tackle nitty gritty issues and intervene like he did in the Paola parish church rooftop café, then he should wake up and show some green credentials and take action now.

Just because he considers the construction lobby as a partner of his government does not mean he should not impose his opinion on the matter. He cannot go on ignoring the green lobby and the soul of our nation.

Our unique historical and archaeological complexes together with our natural sites should be safeguarded and the Planning Authority needs to recalibrate its principles once and for all. 

The prime minister needs to address his environmental deficit by showing some resolve when it comes to these matters.

University

It is fine to see that the university lecturers’ union wants their professors to have an annual salary of €110,000 and for lecturers to have a wage of €66,000. But it is high time that the government starts insisting that salary increases come with commitment.

Thankfully I have little experience of university life, but what I do know is that a big chunk of university academics (not all) is involved in their private interests and businesses and for them teaching is an afterthought.

There are some lecturers who are very prepared and dedicated but there are others who are ill-prepared and unsuitable to be teaching students. Over the last three years, we have seen generous pay outs to various sectors, from health, to education and even pilots. The question to ask is very simple: Has the taxpayer received added value in return.

I will not answer that question, I will leave it to others. But we should applaud Finance Minister Clyde Caruana when he stands firm when faced with moving goalposts from union representatives of all hues.

Robert Abela and Alex Borg

Today’s survey reconfirms the things we already know.  But it reaffirms the perception and reality that the Nationalist Party needs to get its act together and fast.

Most people will welcome change, but they want to be sure they can trust someone who can take over the ship of state and steer it without hiccups.

When they see the PN’s team as it stands today voters get cold shivers. It does not mean that the Labour government is doing everything right. Far from it. On planning reform and accountability there are serious concerns.

But PN leader Alex Borg is not strong enough to change things around. There is a lot of noise but little to show for it. He needs to bite the bullet and remove Adrian Delia from finance spokesperson and appoint someone to counter Clyde Caruana. A technocrat would do the job because I cannot see anyone from the Opposition benches filling that post.

Borg needs to get his stable in working condition but time is not on his side.