Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1110343
19 LETTERS & EDITORIAL maltatoday | SUNDAY • 28 APRIL 2019 Mikiel Galea AST in Moscow IN your article 'Sceberras Trigona in Russia: Diplomats irked over Trump- Putin summit', as distinguished in the official reply, which you ignored, Dr Sceberras Trigona is the Prime Minis- ter's Special Envoy besides being Mal- ta's Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organisation. As Special Envoy he keeps the Prime Minister constantly updated about his meetings, including these. The claims that Dr Sceberras Trigo- na was "reined in" by Castille or that Castille was pressed to "rein him in" are completely rejected as unfounded. Strangely, even you don't seem to be too sure which of these two spurious and also contradictory statements you yourself back. The meeting with the Russian Depu- ty Foreign Minister was set a few weeks ago with the aim of discussing ways and means of commemorating the 30th anniversary from the Bush-Gorbachev summit in Malta in 1989 which ended the cold war. The topics already listed in the Russian Foreign Ministry com- munique' were also discussed. You ignored this statement which was given to you on Saturday 20 April prior to publication while trying to peddle an unwarranted narrative about "aggres- sive diplomacy". Undoubtedly, therefore, Dr Sceber- ras Trigona's diplomatic mission was far from your alleged "entrepreneurial diplomacy". Kurt Farrugia, PM's spokesperson Editorial Note: We reported the es- sential from the OPM's reply, and note with satisfaction that Castille's idea for a Trump-Putin summit in Malta has not been denied. Animals, some more equal LABOUR gave my parents a pension, and two siblings – exploited at the time in the private sector – a minimum wage, today continues to raise the level of equality, bringing the working class to its feet. Malta proudly sits at the top of LGBTIQ standards worldwide and continues to strive for gender equality. Today, I ask Joseph Muscat as a life- long follower, albeit by stealth in my formative years, to consider correcting another form of inequality, one less obvious, enduring for decades but per- vasive and pernicious. On the 21 March, the local press reported the approval of a permit for construction magnate J. Portelli. This project was for 120 residential units, shops, an eight-storey hotel, underground parking and garages on a vacant 3,600sq.m plot close to the Valyou supermarket. Mellieha. This was approved in spite of objections, a recommendation for refusal by the case officer and votes against by the PA chairman and the ERA. Where does the inequality lie? Had I owned this piece of land, had I ap- plied for the same permit, I am sure that I would not have been granted the same number of dwellings, the hotel, the same number of car parks, nor the same number of shops. And rightly so. In no way am I implying that Portelli managed where I, a nobody, would have failed because money changed hands. But I am saying that Portelli succeeds where I fail because of his influence, status and experience. This is nothing new, it has been going on for decades and quite frankly is not my pri- mary concern, though it is disquieting. Today, due to the demand the govern- ment's successful economic policy has engendered, the problem is more acute. My primary concern is the effect this inequality in creating, the imbalance in favour of construction and its con- sequence on Malta's environment and my wellbeing. I do not begrudge Portelli his success, I do not even subscribe to the "greedy" stereotyping attributed to construction developers. They are businessmen like all other businessmen, with their eye on the bottom line. There are greedy developers just as there are greedy lawyers and greedy importers. The PA's job is not easy. Its local plans apparently are outdated. Case officers do their job as best they can, but they need to be backed, they need to know that if they negotiate with a developer to cut down on his request for development to come into line with policy, he needs to know that he will be backed. Recommendations for refusal, if in line with policy, need to be upheld. Martin Scicluna, a few weeks ago, wrote an article wherein he listed the positive legacy we inherited as a nation from our colonial rulers. There was one he could not list unfortunately. The understanding that rules are rules, and their enforcement a given. When a civil servant, such as a PA case officer, does his job well, sticks to the rules, and gets overridden on cri- teria other than planning, apart from the deleterious effect this might have on the environment, it also engenders the culture of indiscipline and lack of enforcement; not only in the encour- agement it gives to the beneficiary (the developer) but worse, to the disillu- sioned enforcer, in this case the case officer. Please let's start at the PA, let's have the PL government trail blaze this mentality at the PA, as we have done so successfully in other areas. Steve Caruana, Mellieha Letters & Clarifications