Swept aside by the winds of change

While cameras and microphones have been unrelentingly pointed towards Libya – especially so in Malta, the southernmost EU member state and the staging platform for the mass exodus of foreigners located in Libya – other ongoing issues were all but forgotten.

In the midst of the unfolding violence, the divorce debate – arguably the islands’ hottest bone of contention prior to speculation whether Muammar Gaddafi would retaliate against Malta for not relinquishing the two Mirage fighter planes – nevertheless trudged forward.

On Thursday 24 February, the nine-session parliamentary debate on the Private Members Bill proposing the introduction of divorce was kicked off with Labour MP and divorce bill co-presenter Evarist Bartolo maintaining that the referendum question is “crucial” to the referendum as a whole.

The question that will be presented in the referendum – the date of which has been set for 28 May – is a point of contention over which Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and Opposition Leader Joseph Muscat recently clashed. The latter argues that it should be tied to the conditions laid out in the bill, while the former is insisting on a simple yes/no blanket question.

Despite once touted as one of the issues that could determine the outcome of the coming election, the Public Account’s Committee controversial investigation into the power station extension tender awarded to BSWC suffered a similar fate.

In the latest PAC’s session on 22 February, yet another ruling was requested by Speaker Michael Frendo following calls on by the opposition MPs for Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt to abstain from the committee for the duration of the investigation. The ruling is, as yet, still pending.

Similarly, the upcoming Air Malta emergency restructuring plan has dropped off the radar – replaced by spotlights on ongoing evacuations of foreign workers stationed in Libya as each government scrambles to get nationals out before the destabilised country collapses entirely.

Despite how the action plan was expected to be finalised by the end ofJanuary, no news of the plan has been forthcoming to date - aside from cautions by government and unions alike how media speculations could harm the restructuring process.

The restructuring, prompted by EU conditions that approval for government’s €50 million loan would hinge upon a six-month restructuring plan, could result in the airline shedding as much as half of its 1,200-strong workforce.

Those waiting with baited breath for the Libyan chaos to pass for a return to normalcy could be in for a long wait however, as other North African countries such as Algiera, Iran, Yemen, Bahrain, and Oman are bracing themselves to follow suit.