Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1389773
11 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 4 JULY 2021 OPINION the Labour's broken promises grants'… just like Daniel Holmes was only a 'Welsh expat involved in (at most) petty crime'. They were certainly NOT Mal- tese members of a highly respect- ed profession, that also happen to be plugged into the single most untouchable of all Malta's indus- tries. Construction… Aye, there's the rub. For let's be honest here: bizarre though Joe Mifsud's 'exceptionalism' may ap- pear, to the uninitiated… the dou- ble standards represented by his ruling are hardly 'unique' or 'un- precedented' in construction-cra- zy Malta. Nor, for that matter, was the ac- cident that caused Miriam Pace's ghastly death in the first place. It may be more than 20 years ago, now: but I happen to remember quite clearly how another house had collapsed, under remarkably similar circumstances, in Cathe- dral Street, Sliema, way back in April 2000. Then as now, the law-courts es- tablished that the accident had been caused by criminal negli- gence on the part of the contrac- tors; then as now, the outcome was a woman (aged 84, in this case) buried under the rubble of her own home; and – then as now, once again – nobody has ever spent a single, solitary day in pris- on over that particular crime. And in any case: it is not just 'architects, contractors and devel- opers' who always end up being subjected to what looks like an en- tirely different legal system, from the one applied to everybody else. Nowadays, the same sort of contradiction is painfully visi- ble almost everywhere you look: for instance, whenever the Plan- ning Authority comes down like a tonne of bricks on some hap- less nobody who built an illegal structure somewhere … while, at the same time, also 'sanctioning' other, much bigger ODZ devel- opments that bear the signature of all the major power-brokers in the construction industry. Ultimately, then, the leniency shown to those two architects – who, incidentally, were not even stripped of their professional war- rant (even though Mifsud him- self ruled that they had "betrayed their oath of appointment as ar- chitects") – has to be filed away with all the other known cases, where the construction industry has, time and again, been given the rough equivalent of a 'Get Out Of Jail Free' card. So if there is any sort of 'mes- sage', aimed at society at large, that can possibly be gleaned from the umpteenth bizarre ruling brought to us by Magistrate Joe Mifsud… as well as all the other 'discrepancies', that just happen to always work out to the advan- tage of the construction sector (at the expense of pretty much every- one else)… … well, what can I say? It's right there in the headline… AS another election approaches, wait for the Labour Party to come up with another long list of bold promises for Gozo. All well and good, that's what political parties do. But notice how many of them will be promises being made for the third election in a row, assuming Gozitans wouldn't notice. Let's start with healthcare. Labour had promised Gozitans a brand-new hospital with 450 beds, almost dou- ble the current capacity of the Gozo General Hospital. The hospital had to welcome its first patients by June 2018. Three years down the line, we are still waiting for the first stone to be laid. What's more astonishing? Vi- tals got the Gozo General Hospital for the price of an apartment in shell form: €157,000. In return, it's re- ceiving €80 million a year in taxpay- ers' money. Labour didn't work for Gozitans, but did wonders for Vitals. Come election time, Labour will promise once again a cruise liner ter- minal in Gozo. They've been promis- ing it for over ten years, with designs surfacing every time they are forced to try and divert attention from some awkward conversation. Same goes for a new yacht marina that Labour has been promising since its days in opposition. Let's see where they will promise to place it now. Labour will promise once again the completion of a recreational park for Gozitan families on the site of what used to be the Gozo landfill in Xagh- ra, which a Nationalist Government had got rid of and started transform- ing it into a park. Labour had prom- ised to see the project to the end. The result? Total abandon. Same with the plans to provide Gozo with a fit-for-purpose and ac- cessible building to host the Courts of Justice. Architectural designs had been published and tenders issued. But everything came to an abrupt halt in 2017, with no word uttered since. So much for a government that pri- oritizes the quality of life of Gozitans and the rights of people with disabil- ity. The list goes on. Labour will soon promise that Gozo will have a brand-new home for the elderly. We were told eight years ago, with lots of fanfare and drone footage of the surrounding countryside, that the house in Ghajnsielem would be ready to host its first residents in just 18 months. It's now an abandoned construction site. We will soon be told that Labour will address the parking nightmare in Victoria, particularly during the busy summer months, and the in- creasingly difficult situation in Mgarr harbour. They had promised a park- and-ride service, with ample parking space, and delivered zilch. Same goes for the breakwater in Marsalforn. Lots of press conferences, designs, commitments, and timeframes. Eight years down the line, the breakwater is still a promise. Wait for Labour to promise once again more learning opportunities in Gozo, with more courses to be made available at the Gozo University Cen- tre. Here Labour did worse than do- ing nothing. It decreased the list of courses available and the Centre now has far fewer students than it did in 2012. But the cherry on the cake will be Labour's promise, for the third elec- tion in a row, to create good quality jobs for Gozitans in Gozo. After nine years of Labour in government, the number of Gozitans crossing to Mal- ta for work has more than doubled. A total of 3,750 Gozitans, one out of every three Gozitans in employment, still have to cross to Malta each day for work as the good quality jobs in Gozo that Labour kept promising were never delivered. Robert Abela will also tell us that we should vote Labour to make sure we bridge the wage gap that discrim- inates those working in Gozo. The gap in the average salary amounted to €300 back in 2012. Nine years down the line, that gap has multiplied by eleven. An average worker in Gozo earns €3,300 less a year than someone working in Malta. The average annual income of a Gozitan family is €5,500 less than that of the average family in Malta. So much for Labour promising to eliminate the gap with good-pay- ing jobs for Gozitans in Gozo. Mind my words – all these prom- ises will be resurfacing the closer we get to the election. Robert Abela will make it sound as if Labour has been in opposition all along. It's time to call Labour's bluff on Gozo. It's time to remind everyone how Labour has been taking Gozitans for a ride for nine years, and the ride can't end soon enough. Chris Said Dr Chris Said is the Nationalist Party's spokesperson for Gozo