Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1382687
7 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 13 JUNE 2021 OPINION IF there is one thing where dis- crimination is justified, it is in development planning. One can build five storeys in one site but only two in another site. In this case, the discrimination is between the two sites and not between the owners of the two sites. Even so, this sort of discrimi- nation is almost anathema to the Maltese psyche. All Maltese hate discrimination, except when it is in one's favour! Then all sorts of justifications are invented, some of them after the event, so that discrimination does not look like discrimination. Many moons ago, a few weeks after I was appointed Minister, I tried to explain to a fellow citi- zen that under the new admin- istration, he would not have obtained a particular building permit that had been issued by the Lorry Sant set-up. I was trying to explain my attempt at putting some sense in building permits. Some time afterwards, his architect asked me why I am openly discriminating against his client. I was shocked. I ex- plained to the architect that the discrimination was based on the site where the development took place not on who his client was. I suppose the architect eventually saw my point... but I am sure his client never did. My penchant for needlessly making enemies stuck with me during all my years with Minis- terial responsibilities - most of them because what I thought was obvious, was not obvious at all to so many. That was the result of yours truly's lack of un- derstanding of the Maltese psy- che. The current mess in planning is the result of many decisions taken over the years intended to soothe the Maltese psyche. So, instead of considering the situation in each street or part thereof, we finally ended up with a practically uniform height limitation all over the country - except for the more important exceptions such as in Urban Conservation Areas. Today, many have come to un- derstand UCA (Urban Conser- vation Areas) exception, mostly thanks to environmental NGOs. And then there are areas where a wink was all that was needed for high tower blocks to be allowed. People 'understand' this as well - but with a grudge because in this instance, it is not always the case where the siting justifies the development... and we are back to the idea of who owns the land. Old habits die hard. The old structure plan that had actually become obsolete was changed with SPED (Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development) that is not site specific and has become a lsit of good intentions that can be un- dermined easily by whoever has other intentions. The problem is that the differ- ences between planning zones do not consider the smaller are- as making up the zone. So saying that in a particular locality the development limit is four floors plus penthouse is easy to under- stand and to help lay down - at least temporarily - the eternal ghost of discrimination. It turns out that in many areas of any locality there are streets that are not in the UCA but with characteristics worthy of con- servation - such as self-imposed front gardens or a uniform sky- line. The ghost of discrimination strikes back and reminds us that a street is a street, irrespective of its characteristics... Hence the Planning Authori- ty is issuing permits according to its 'one size fits all policy', without giving itself the luxury of exercising the discretion of discriminating in favour of the existing area characteristics, and so risking being accused of dis- crimination 'ad hominem'. The PA, perhaps, is afraid of exercis- ing such discrimination, simply because it understands the Mal- tese psyche! If Johnny gets a permit for five floors, than I have a right for a permit for at least five floors. The area of the site does not seem to matter, so long as John- ny does not get any more than me. And it goes on and on. Playing with height limitations, by reducing the minimum legal height of living spaces has lured many to squeeze in an extra floor in the 'allowed' height, with the concept of number of floors - hence density - being thrown to the dogs. The responsibility for this lies squarely on the PA's shoulder. Malta's population increasing by 25% from 400,000 to half a million in a matter of a few years also contributed to the push for increasing the number of resi- dential units in the same space, with one terraced house being replaced by a block of five or six apartments. People are not building flats as a hobby, because they have nothing else to do, as if the coun- try does not need more flats. People are building flats be- cause we have no plan that en- sures a limit to our population size while most government 'economic' decisions, in fact, push towards increasing our population. Colonel Bogey The Ombudsman's report on the 'accelerated' promotion of four officers in the Armed Forc- es of Malta has shocked many. Not only because this was a case of blatant discrimination for party political reasons, but because of the bizarre brazen- ness and pretentiousness with which the responsible minister, Manuel Mallia, carried out the illegal exercise. One can now understand bet- ter Mallia's reluctance to hand over the relevant files to the Ombudsman, to the extent that the Ombudsman had to sue the ministry in Court to win the day. Even more shocking is the fact that the AFM Commander at the time, Brigadier Martin Xuer- eb, only heard of the promotions from the Malta Government Gazzette! Knowing Mallia personally, I am completely flabbergasted by his way of doing things. I need not go into the gory de- tails, but one question pops up. Was there any reason why this exercise had to be carried out so swiftly? Was there any threat of mutiny in the Armed Forces? Why the impatience, when the exercise could have been done more subtly over a decent peri- od? The current chief of our Ar- my, which, by the way, is not a Labour Party section, is Brig- adier Jeffrey Curmi who was a Major until September 2013 and sprinted to the top as a result of four fast promotions, becoming a commander in December of the same year. To put it in the Ombudsman's words, "the Minister did not bother to observe the niceties of a selection process but jumped ahead to the promotion of the favoured few." This obscene discrimina- tion reduced Labour's elector- al promise of meritocracy to shreds. And so it remains. Discrimination: the name of the game Michael Falzon micfal45@gmail.com The current mess in planning is the result of many decisions taken over the years intended to soothe the Maltese psyche