Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1101649
24 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 7 APRIL 2019 OPINION Raphael Vassallo Divisions cannot be healed by meaningless, empty rhetoric ONE of the things I liked about Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, as President, was that she rarely ever held back from speaking her mind. Not, mind you, that 'speaking one's mind' is always the wisest thing to do under any circum- stance. The human brain does, after all, have a tendency to get itself stuffed full of all sorts of unmitigated nonsense… to get an idea what I mean, try having a five-minute conversation with any old anti-vaxxer on Facebook. This, by the way, is true for all people at all times (includ- ing myself, naturally); let alone, for those who also fulfil all the Constitutional obligations of a President. And Coleiro Preca was not entirely immune to letting her loquacity sometimes get in the way of basic common sense. I, for one, always found it patronising – and more than a little inconsistent – that she would use her annual Christmas address to lambast Maltese society for the 'ero- sion of its moral compass', and its collective failure to ever take responsibility for its many shortcomings… when the same President refused to ever shoulder responsibility for her own Office's part in the 2015 'Paqpaqli Ghall-Istrina' incident, which left around two dozen people seriously injured. Personally, I was unaware that there were two sets of moral expectations in this country: one which holds that we are all responsible for our actions – or, in this case, for our failure to properly organ- ise the kind of event that, by definition, always entails the risk of a serious accident; and the other which holds that the 'accountability rule' simply doesn't apply to the President of Malta. All the same, however: it would be a bit unrealistic to expect to agree with absolutely everything a president ever says or does. And closing an eye at that one anomaly, it must be said that Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca did use her position to spotlight a num- ber of important issues in this country. Racism, for instance. As some- one who is deeply concerned about the increasingly fascist attitudes I encounter all the time on the social media, it was reassuring to hear the Head of my State voice my own inner anxieties so accurately, and with so little fear or favour. The environment is another example: though here, Coleiro Preca's remonstrations – beautifully worded though they were – could have come ac- companied by actual pressure to stop the wholesale destruc- tion of our natural heritage for the purposes of greed and speculation. After all, President Marie- Louise Coleiro Preca was very quick to tell us that she would refuse to sign an abortion bill if it was ever put before her. Yet she had no qualms whatsoever when it came to enacting all sorts of other legislation which made an open mockery of her own, stated environmental concerns. If she was worried about the lack of open space for recrea- tion, for instance… and above all, the mental health impact on children who are being brought up without ever seeing a tree, or a bird, or any other aspect of the natural world… why did she approve so many laws that resulted in the direct destruction of what little remains of Malta's environ- ment? Why did she consent to a 'reform' of the Planning Au- thority, which robbed the State regulator of all its environmen- tal commitments? How could she agree to a package of laws that effectively reduced the PA to a glorified spokesperson for the Malta Development As- sociation: constantly sidelining all environmental issues, all objections by all residents, all concerns about safeguarding Malta's cultural and archaeo- logical heritage, and all that… and always caving in to the construction lobby's every sin- gle outrageous demand, every single time? And especially given that the same Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca was at the forefront of the 2005/6 protests against the ODZ extension schemes… how on earth could she not object to new policies – coming from her own government, this time – which allow for more petrol stations in ODZ areas? The answer should be straightforward enough to anyone who has actually bothered listening to a single word any Maltese President has ever said. Talk is cheap. It is very easy to climb on a moral, self-publicising pro-life bandwagon on the subject of abortion… when you know full well that your government has absolutely no intention of ever introducing abortion anyway, so your resolve will never be put to the test. It is a whole different ball- game to actually use the real powers invested in you by the Constitution to stop environ- mental damage from actually being done, when you have both the power and opportu- nity to do so. Like all Presidents before her, Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca could very easily have thrown a spanner into the works of the corporate demolition machine that is currently bulldozing this country to oblivion. She could have blocked legislation citing Article 2.9 of the Constitution, which decrees that "the State shall protect and conserve the environment and its resources for the benefit of the present and future generations and shall take measures to address any form of environmental degradation in Malta, includ- ing that of air, water and land, and any sort of pollution prob- lem and to promote, nurture and support the right of action in favour of the environment." I guess the question asks itself, really. Why only now? Why did George Vella never express any similar concern at any point during the three or so decades he was a member of the Labour Party parliamentary group? Like, when he was deputy leader of that party, for instance?