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18 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR Matthew Vella MANAGING EDITOR Saviour Balzan Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 29 SEPTEMBER 2019 27 September, 2009 Government, Labour lock horns over 'Fairmount' multi-million fiasco GOVERNMENT and the Labour Party traded salvos yesterday over the findings of a Pricewa- terhouseCoopers report that revealed a shock- ing €37 million in losses incurred by the ship- yards on two conversion projects. While the Labour Party demanded the im- mediate resignation of infrastructure minister Austin Gatt, who should shoulder the political responsibility for the losses, a ministry state- ment replied by asking the PL who within the party would shoulder the losses incurred by the same shipyards during the two years of Labour in government between 1996 and 1998. According to the ministry, the dockyard lost some €35 million in each of the two years Labour was in government, meaning that the amount which was scandalising the PL now had happened in every year that it was in gov- ernment. The losses had accumulated from a number of small projects, but no one assumed responsibility. Speaking during a press conference yesterday, PL deputy leader Anglu Farrugia and parlia- mentarian Helena Dalli insisted that Austin Gatt should not only shoulder his political re- sponsibility for the losses incurred by the ship- yards that fall under his direct administration, but also for what they defined as "anomalies" that come out of the PricewaterhouseCoopers report on the same losses. In their attack, Anglu Farrugia and Helena Dalli said that the PWC report uncovered gross failures in administration by the shipyards ex- ecutive management, and that it was shameful how, at the time the losses were becoming rath- er evident, government was giving the impres- sion that the company was faring well. They both reacted to a PN statement is- sued earlier in the day on the same matter, and stressed that the PN and government should be ashamed to blame the shipyard workers for the losses, and rebuked the allegation that the losses were the responsibility of the PL's and GWU's interference in the company. Helena Dalli asked why the report was issued now when Minister Austin Gatt had said a year ago that it was at an advanced stage, and it was compiled at a time when the shipyard's chief ex- ecutive's contract had expired, and left without being held to account. The company's marketing manager – known to be a central figure in the whole issue – "had been allowed to flee and could not be traced for comments by the auditors." ... In its reply to the claims made during the PL's press conference, the Infrastructure min- istry said that it was a Labour-run government which insisted that the dockyard needed to diversify from ship repair... MaltaToday 10 years ago Quote of the Week The Farrugias' fateful legacy Editorial "This is like grafting a tissue onto an already existing body; The grafting will only be successful if the community is ready to accept it. If the community does not welcome it, there will be a rejection." PA Chairman Victor Axiak's medical analogy for the American University extension THE sudden resignation of MPs Marlene and Godfrey Farrugia from the Partit Demokra- tiku has left the fledgling party both leaderless and rudderless, merely two years after it was formed. It has also plunged Malta's already frag- mented parliamentary Opposition into fur- ther disarray: indirectly strengthening the Labour Party's grip on power, at a time when it already enjoys a staggering 58% approval rating. To describe the announcement as a 'bomb- shell' would indeed be an understatement. The Farrugias have unexpectedly dropped an atom bomb on the PD: so much so that party officials emerged from Wednesday's annual general meeting without any plans for its own immediate future. From this perspective it cannot be ignored that the Farrugias' decision to call it quits at this delicate 'mid-term' stage of the party's representation in the legislature, can only inflict maximum damage to the party. If so, one has to truly question the brusqueness of this timing. Almost a week after the event, not a single PD exponent has commented about the state of the party right now: other than to crypti- cally 'thank the Farrugias' for a 'contribution' they have no particular reason to feel thank- ful for. For all the PD's past insistence of 'transpar- ency' and 'openness', its members have so far avoided giving comments and interviews to the press themselves; and there has been no satisfactory explanation for the twin res- ignations themselves, nor any indication of how – or even whether – the party intends to regroup. Under the circumstances, it is debatable whether the PD can even be said to exist any longer, as a political force in this country. And apart from being a great pity in its own right, this is also ultimately a disservice to the voters who elected two PD officials (albeit on the PN ticket) in the last election; if not to the democratic process as a whole. The Farrugias in particular, have disap- pointed voters who saw in PD an alternative to the PN: even to the point of sacrificing the PN's own vote, rewarding them with two seats in parliament (one of them granted by former PN leader Simon Busuttil himself, by allowing a casual election on a district where Godfrey Farrugia was next in line to be elected). Now, the Farrugias are leaving the PD mid-way through their second legislature, without even allow- ing the party the chance to have their MPs in the House up un- til the end of the legislature. Even that simple cour- tesy has been denied. This can only cement the existing perception – mostly among PN die-hards – that the PD had simply hitched a free ride on the PN's back. If so, however, their subsequent resignation raises questions as to why Marlene and Godfrey Farrugia were even interested in getting elected in the first place. It may, however, shed some light on the motives behind their resignation. With Adrian Delia shooting down any prospect of a future coalition with PD, it must have dawned on the Farrugias that their chances of re-election in 2020 were practically zero. But if that was indeed the motive, it can only mean that they both viewed electoral success merely as an end in itself. Clearly, something is wrong in the way the Farrugias view politics: they have talked the talk, with promises of honesty in politics, and yet they have fallen at the first hurdle by refusing to trudge along with the party they themselves set up. This is hardly an iota of the spirit that has motivated other minority parties like Alter- nattiva Demokratika: which, despite its lack of electoral success, has nonetheless moved forward in its political journey with its steady stream of long-time volunteers and new faces. All in all, it is a disappointing legacy for any politician to leave behind. Hope needs to be encouraged, not extinguished It speaks volumes about the state of the world right now, that so much would be said and written about Greta Thunberg – the 16-year-old Swedish climate change activist who is making waves across the world – and so little about the issue she is actually cam- paigning about. Clearly, it is a lot easier to mock and criticise a 16-year-old schoolgirl, than to do something about the global threat caused by climate change. But that is no excuse for ignoring the writing on the wall. Whatever one makes of the messenger, the message itself is surely not one to be dismissed. And Greta Thunberg's message is deceptively simple: on one level she (quite rightly) chides world powers for their inac- tion on this critical issue; but on another, she argues – with equal conviction – that not all hope is lost. We can still take action to save our planet from disaster, if we only stopped burying our heads in the sand and pretending that the problem doesn't exist. That is a message of hope that deserves to be applauded, not derided. If anything, we should be thankful that the younger generation (unlike their elders, it seems) still believe that 'saving our planet' is a cause worth fighting for. Above all, Greta Thunberg's tenac- ity only amplifies the importance of her role in providing much needed rhetoric that puts forward the harrowing reality of the climate emergency. Mocking her for her age, or the disorder she suffers from, does not address the urgency of that message.