Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/216204
18 Opinion maltatoday, SUNDAY, 24 NOVEMBER 2013 Saviour Balzan Come on boys, come on girls! I t is a shame – a big shame – that the European Commission and the EU Commissioner on the Environment are such a hopeless lot. They have decided to look the other way. They know that Malta has blatantly ignored the spirit of the birds' directive, and yet they refuse to do anything about the clear and unquestionable disregard for it. They have left the future of birds in spring to the Maltese public, who are now signing in droves to call for a referendum in spring. If they think the Maltese cannot decide for themselves, they are bloody wrong. I have no doubt that the required number will be collected Now I speak not only as an opinion writer and a media man, but as a former chairman and a founder of Ornis, and someone who knows how the government of Malta literally misled the European Commission. Yes I choose my words very carefully: misled the commission. So Martin Bugelli, please clip this sentence and send it off to the Commission. Perhaps they will make a note of it between their coffee break and one of their many lunch meetings. I know this because I was then a consultant to the chief negotiator Richard Cachia Caruana, and I'm fully aware of what the Maltese government was supposed And yet, the government – and previous governments, for that matter – have continued to foment the impression that everything is under control when it is not. It is as controlled as the government's frenzy to only appoint blue-eyed boys and girls to crucial jobs. But back to hunting. If Joseph Muscat chickens out of denying 34,000 signatures – or shall we say 36,000 – the right to vote in conjunction with the European parliamentary election, then I will be the first to remind him of his democratic obligations. Electoral commissioner Saviour Gauci is duty-bound to ensure It is one way of determining and showing the political class – both Muscat and Busuttil – that their politics of appeasement do not work in today's society anymore. The hunters will of course complain that their members will spiral into a depression and drive themselves to suicide. I honestly believe nobody should bother with these silly arguments. They should learn to read… or better still, recite poetry or pick wild asparagus or even better still, read the weather. Nothing can justify the fact that our hunters – who have held the political class to ransom – run amok in the countryside and shoot anything that moves. By signing the petition you can help... ... Stop illegal killing Thousands of protected birds are killed in Malta each spring, by illegal hunters using the spring hunting season as cover for shooting. ... Give birds a chance to breed In the spring, birds are flying to Europe to breed. Killing them in Malta before they get there kills the next generation of un-hatched birds too. Don't let the killing continue, sign the petition today. Photography: David Tipling/Nature Picture Library Referenda Act : Declaration for the holding of a Referendum by mid-December, and the to accomplish (and more that the process is swift, and that It is a pity that the referendum electoral commissioner will have importantly, abide to). no problems are created to block does not call for a ban on hunting to ensure that the referendum I also know that the carnet de this process. as a whole. is held to coincide withpersons, being registered as voters for the election of members of the House of Representatives, demand that andquestion whether are chasse reports are lies, based This is a first for Malta. This As more the more signatures We the undersigned the next elections of note (the European on fictitious entries that are is a referendum which is being coming in, the news is alive with the following provision parliamentary elections). of law, that is to say Framework for Allowing a Derogation Opening a Spring Hunting Season for Turtledove and Quail tolerated by MEPA. called by the people, not by more appointments. "Come on boys,(Subsidiary Legislation 504.94 - Legal Notice 221 of 2010) the political parties.in force, shall be putPeter Davies is out, but at least The recent reports of carnet Regulations come on girls…" should not continue It is a to those entitled to vote in a let's referendum under hunters out Referendum Act. spring in hunting vote and get the Part V of the de chasse for referendum that will open the he was not a political appointee of our spring calendar. And let in Malta are a joke and should way to popular democracy from (he was head hunted by Ernst us send a message to the political be taken for what they are: an the bottom up, and not the other and Young and offered a wage FULL NAME AND SURNAME SIGNATURE ADDRESS class that we mean business. exercise in ID CARD fraud. way round. commensurate with the going rate). That half a million did not seem to bother the government of the day. But now, with the wages being offered to all these yuppie young Labourite ex-candidates, I really think that Davies's wage was worth it. Davies was rude and stubborn but ultimately resolute, and his replacement will have to face the unions and the pilots if he wants to lift Air Malta into the skies. And more importantly: he will learn not to listen to politicians. It will be difficult of course… given that he was appointed by politicians in the first place, it'll be hard to resist their 'advice'. It is just like the judiciary: they are all appointed by the political class and are very conscious of the implications of their decisions. That, I'm sure, is a tall order, and though I wish him well, I have to say that if he does succeed, I will be very surprised indeed. And this news comes as we learn that a former Labour councillor Frederick Azzopardi becomes Enemalta chief, and another Labour candidate – John Mary Abela, the son of Wistin Abela – becomes CEO of Water Services. Really, the only reason that Joseph Muscat does not lose his supremacy is because Simon Busuttil fails to inspire and will be remembered for what he is. And more importantly, because everyone cannot quite forget how meritocracy was treated under Fenech Adami and Gonzi. One cannot forget that when the Nationalists accuse Muscat of taking everyone for a ride, they remind me of a prostitute lecturing about promiscuity. Muscat is wrong. But I am not willing to take any lectures from Simon, or Beppe or Mario de Marco. I have no problem sitting down listening to some new faces like Ryan Callus, but I cannot live with the double standards of the Opposition. Under Muscat's watch, there has not been a single call for a bloody chief executive and really, all this talk of "Malta Tagħna Llkoll" is turning out to be downright offensive: a sick joke that won't go away. It is sad that Muscat believes he can get away with murder. But he really shouldn't push his luck too far.