Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/313770
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 18 MAY 2014 20 Letters Send your letters to: The Editor, MaltaToday, MediaToday Ltd. Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 | Fax: (356) 21 385075 E-mail: newsroom@mediatoday.com.mt. Letters to the Editor should be concise. No pen names are accepted. When the fastest growth possibility remains the increase in tourism revenues, the sudden cut in the MTA and Heritage Malta budget came as a nasty surprise. Tourism has a multiplier effect that is sure to be felt immediately and directly in the economy. Further investment in tourism especially in product upgrading and in marketing are sure to yield immediate returns and results. So this may not be the time and place for cost cutting. Premier Lawrence Gonzi is well advised to carry on placing the reduction of the national fiscal deficit as his top priority. Our present deficit of nine point seven percent of our gross domestic product clearly breaches the three percent threshold outlined in the European Union's Maastricht criteria. Is Lawrence Gonzi going to raise revenue by introducing further taxes, by increasing the present rate of taxation or is Government to cut its expenditure without resorting to increased taxation? All members of the executive are collectively responsible to ensure that the economy is well managed. This carries responsibilities of accountability on the part of all ministers and parliamentary secretaries to ensure that they reach targets and goals set at Cabinet level. This has not generally been the case. The office of the public auditor should be beefed up. This senior officer should ensure that government departments are run efficiently and that value for money is given whenever government offers a service. The report he presents to Parliament should be upgraded and all the necessary tools he requires to ensure that he scrutinises all government spending professionally should be put at his disposal. All Government foundations and entities must be made more accountable. Government's decision to set up a special unit to oversee spending is a step in the right direction. We understand that collectively, the foundations and entities overspent by Lm10 million in the last years. Who is responsible for this excess spending? Who is to be made accountable? Can government present a report in Parliament once this unit finalises its findings? It is crucial that all tender contracts and consultancies qualify as reaching the necessary levels in terms of value for money. This includes using under-utilised workers productively. It is the responsibility of the government of the day as the manager of the economy. The public should also be informed of the spending to date and what is projected relating to the building of the new hospital which risks becoming an albatross lying round the neck of each taxpayer. Lawrence Gonzi should consider selling idle assets. Provided environmental safeguards are put in place, acres of agricultural land and immovable properties can be sold to sitting tenants including farmers. The selling of these properties will ignite further spending in improving the properties with the inevitable generation of work that will be highly beneficial to the economy. Bottom line: government must think out of the box. It must think creatively to promote growth and not limit itself exclusively to cost cutting exercises, which if limited to the slashing of non essential spending and controlling discretionary expenditure, will lessen the deficit but may not be enough to stimulate the economy. The government may indeed have to resort to the unpopular measure of increasing taxation. We remain convinced that the way forward is to ensure that all society, most especially the professional class and the persons providing services especially in private homes, pay their taxation dues. Rampant tax evasion continues unabated. The audit trail ensuring that all pay VAT dues should be further strengthened. The ultimate fiscal aim should be that of reducing taxation to the bona fide taxpayers. This is in keeping with the fairest system whereby people are taxed less on what they earn and taxed reasonably on what they buy. This will augment spending power. One thing is for sure: we cannot simply wait for the economy to grow in the hope of a higher tax yield. We cannot just wait, for in the meantime something is sure to give! Solutions to the black hole Editorial • May 23 2004 Leave the birds alone I can agree with Phillip Sword that Chris Packham was a bit over the top, but he seems unaware or ignorant of the science of bird migration, like the shooting lobby in Malta. During the spring migration from the South to the North, the birds are at their weakest, and any reduction in their numbers affects their breed- ing in Northern Europe. When they return south in the autumn they are in a much stronger in numbers and health. As for the few birds that breed in Malta in the spring, they –like all birds – should be left alone to produce their young unharmed. I refer to all breeds of bird because there are still a few barbaric rene- gade shooters who will kill anything that flies, even at night, when they are roosting: as what happened to the Montegue Harriers again this year. Every year, protected species are killed regardless of the law, which thankfully has stamped on those caught with commendable zeal, al- though some of the fines have been much more than for crimes against "the person". It is not true that few shots are fired. Down in Marsaxlokk, from 6am it sounds like a battle – most of it from Delimara, where I've seen raptors shot at. I understand the Police were a bit miffed with Packham since he didn't highlight their increased efforts to counter illegalities. I've been coming to Malta for way over 20 years, and things have improved hell of a lot over that time – being in the EU has helped of course. Although the majority of the Maltese would prefer there to be no bird shooting at all. David Castle Lincoln, UK Ad nauseum Mr Guillaumier's letter under the heading 'Papal hypocrisy' (11 May 2014), is actually a vitriolic coda to his 'An art auction at the Vatican' (16 March 2014) and 'The Church should sell its rich art', which appeared in another paper. The man sadly persists, ad infini- tum and ad nauseam, in attacking the Heads of the Catholic Church, in what is apparently a vain and desperate attempt to drive home his sinister hatred of all things holy. Apparently, a reply to his allegations in the letter entitled 'Wrong perceptions' (30 March 2014) did not satisfy him. Well, in an attempt to some- how get him to touch ground and appease his angst, I'd suggest we contact either Fr Xuereb or Mr Joseph F.X. Zahra, on their next stop in Malta, and ask them about the Holy's See's commitment towards poverty and people in need. These two dedicated men are both overseeing the reforms about the Vatican's 'scandal plagued ac- counts', and I assure Mr Guillaum- ier that he will be awfully struck by the information provided. In the meantime, he is always cobbling together pathetic and use- less degrading remarks. I believe it is time for him to put a silencer on his rattling machine, for he is certainly behaving worse than a petulant child. John Azzopardi Zabbar Traditionally with the coming of summer, political issues recede from the centre of public atten- tion and give way to village and town festas and relaxation on the beaches and at the sea side. For some years, this has not been the full story of the Maltese summer, since apart from holidays and merry-making June, July and Au- gust do also witness the landing of small boats filled with would- be migrants seeking a better future for themselves in Europe. Malta and Gozo are over-pop- ulated islands and unfortunately cannot possibly accommodate these would-be migrants in this country and so although we assume responsibility for these persons saved at sea on humani- tarian grounds, we look forward to an early resolution of this problem by the institutions of the European Union, after the renew- ing of their mandate following the Parliamentary elections later on this month. The reason for this human traffic is the disparity in so- cial conditions prevalent in the developing world when compared to that enjoyed in the advanced countries. The 'Western' world intelligentsia and political parties have over the past century revo- lutionised the political science by which these countries are gov- erned, by applying to the concept of worker full civil rights – as a result of the granting of citizen- ship. The establishing of this principle has opened the way to the ending of discrimination and persecution in society based on sex, gender, age, race or religious affiliation. Another important innovation is the welfare state or welfare so- ciety that have become accepted norms in the advanced countries, although still being contested in several regions of the developing world in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Due to pressure from several lobby groups, the workers in sev- eral countries of the developing world are still subject to precari- ous economic conditions which were prevalent in Europe in the 19th century and are subject to political discrimination prohib- ited in the advanced countries. In the advanced countries in Europe, North America, Aus- tralasia and the Far East, workers have now been organised in trade unions and in political parties for decades. Consequently, they can partake of benefits which were beyond the dreams of their fore-fathers cen- turies ago. Housing Estates have been built to cater for the needs of workers' families and social services have been introduced like social security, education for all and generalised health care, making up a welfare system fit- ting the dignity of man. Alas, this state of affairs is now being chal- lenged and changed for the worst even in the advanced countries with the introduction of precari- ous work on a much larger scale than hitherto. The disparity in social condi- tions between the advanced and developing countries has become more evident with the spread of the communication media. Thus since travel – even inter- continental travel – has become commonplace, workers in Africa, Asia and Latin America are on the move in their hundreds of thousands, if not in millions as economic migrants. Apart from these economic migrants there are those who because they have been engaged in political struggle have been forced to leave their countries as political refugees. Internal contradictions within individual countries have become international problems with movement of capital, goods, serv- ices and labour across continents on a level not seen before. In our case as Maltese, this affects us in two ways: first, it makes our membership of the European Union a necessit y since our country is too small to face such problems on our own. In the second case, since we are on the frontier of Europe we are affected disproportionately to our size by the numbers of migrants landing on our shores. Thus it should be clear to one and all that all those migrants who do not qualif y for refugee or humanitarian assistance are to be repatriated to their country of or- igin. The European Union should provide us with the necessary assistance, so that we may com- plete this process in a speedy and humanitarian manner, so that all the economic migrants landing on our shores may be sent back to their country of origin and Malta would only have to domicile the refugees and those migrants who qualif y for humanitarian assist- ance on a quota basis commensu- rate with our population. Integrating these with the local population will in the course of time enable these newly-arrived to benefit from travel arrange- ments, possible to the Maltese within the European Union. The most important factor is that we understand the rules that we need to follow and act transpar- ently and that the Internal Rules of the EU – in particular Dublin 2 – are changed as promised to the Maltese public by the two main contenders to the post of President of the European Union during their recent visits to Malta. Mario Mifsud Hamrun Cold hard look at irregular migration