It is incredible that the PLPN cabal is still hellbent on destruction. Here, I shall concentrate on their destructive policies in Gozo.
Way back in 2011, my colleague, Ralph Cassar had written an article in the Times of Malta about the Gozo tunnel white elephant. The arguments have remained basically the same because things never change and choosing to support PL or PN barely changes anything anyway.
The fast-ferry service proposed time and again by ADPD – The Green Party was finally introduced. The next thing on the list is improving road safety across Gozo and Malta too, of course, to facilitate the use of alternative means of transport.
Some might argue that not everybody can or will take up commuting by bicycle or pedelecs or small motorcycles, for example, but they miss the point: even if, say, 10 per cent of voyages are made by e-bike, the difference will be quite visible and effective. Cheaper than any tunnel or a ridiculous airport.
Next is extending ferry services to landing places other than Valletta.
What is sad is that those who unleashed the orgy of development in 2006 and those who pressed the pedal hard, with its effects super obvious in Gozo, are still believed by some who consider themselves educated. What an education!
The PLPN cabal is still not happy and refuses to revise local plans. We propose the urgent revision of all local plans, a reversal of the 2006 ‘rationalisation’ and a moratorium on big projects. Cassar’s article described how the PN’s Chris Said, probably bending over backwards to unseat the reigning “monarch”, Giovanna Debono, had put a ridiculous price of €150 million on the tunnel white elephant. Some basic research indicates the price tag would run into the billions, not to mention the huge maintenance costs.
Labour’s Clint Camilleri and Ian Borg continue promising a useless tunnel and repeating the same ridiculously low estimates.
Bernard Grech and Robert Abela jump on the carnival float and resurrect the GonziPN airport idea. Their target audience is one and the same after all. Their excuse? That the runway will be built on derelict land.
Derelict land can and should be rehabilitated. Maybe if we lived in a normal country the dumping taking place on this land would have been prevented and, at least, the perpetrators would have been prosecuted.
Maybe we should turn our small size as a country into an advantage. Maybe people should start seeing through PLPN’s shallow propaganda. The ecological transition to a 100 per cent renewable energy-based society and economy offers huge opportunities for Gozo and Malta.
But to change the political status quo, you need to forget your family ties to the PLPN tribe. Let’s show them the broom and sweep their copycat, destructive policies away.
Each vote less for PLPN will show them that you are not beholden to them. You can have no part in all this. If you want change, vote for it. The message is in your vote.
Luke Caruana
ADPD Candidate on Districts 12 & 13
Published in The Times of Malta – Sunday 13 March 2022
