Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/497863
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 19 APRIL 2015 24 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. The hunting referendum After the referendum BirdLife Malta launch nationwide membership drive The first issue of a local newspaper, after the referendum result, carried on its front page a sickening pho- tograph of a 5-6 year old child, and presumably his father, celebrating the hunters' victory, with a hunter's belt full of cartridges, in public. This situation embarrasses one to say one is Maltese. They say that a referendum is the most democratic tool, when one wants to decide something in a democracy. I say that too, but in my opinion not always. Rainwater is the cleanest water one can get, but not for long – seconds after it hits the ground it becomes the most dirty, and sometimes poisonous, so that it can kill you. In my view, referendums here in Malta, perhaps abroad as well, remain clean only until politics creep in. A few years ago we had a referen- dum on the introduction of divorce. I always believed that the No divorce camp would win. Political parties at first said that they were not going to interfere, then a short time after they made a crusade for divorce. I voted No to divorce, only because I was sure that divorce would open the floodgates of other evils. This time the same happened, week after week the polls showed that the anti-hunting group had a ma- jority, but then the political parties crept in, with the Prime Minister saying that everybody was free to vote how he/she thinks, but that he, Joseph Muscat the Prime Minister, was going to vote yes. From that moment I said that the No hunting camp had no chance to win. This time also Simon Busittil, leader of the opposition, declared in public that he was for hunting in spring (if it is regulated). Let me make myself clear. These two gentlemen had every right to vote as they wanted, but they are not ordinary citizens like I am. They have a load of weight behind them, big herds who unfortunately follow them. Joseph Muscat Mosta Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici's opposition to the public endorsement of the European Constitution by the Malta Labour Party, and John Dalli's public condemnation at the way the party administration is run- ning the Nationalist Party have placed a hornet's nest at the heart of both parties. The MLP's and PN's intolerance, privately and not so privately, risks as a minimum tearing apart the publicly declared com- mitment to allowing different views within the parties. To date the culture of one-size-fits-all has been the way both parties have operated. In this respect they are identical, the one a mirror of the other. Few ever dared dissent, and even fewer ever dared object to any policy endorsed by the leader. Party policy has always been the view of the leader who expects total loyalty from his parliamentarians and elder statesmen within the party. Well, all of this risks blowing away with the wind as KMB's opposition starts gain- ing support within a party whose member- ship is still confused following the volte face on the EU issue. The MLP's decision to endorse a Con- stitution it has been tearing to shreds for years claiming amongst other things that it makes a mockery of our neutrality status should be discussed openly in the party structures and certainly in the party clubs too. To stifle dissent is in total contradiction to the very spirit of the European Consti- tution. Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici may in fact be voicing the views of more than one or two confused labourites. His support, albeit privately, may be wider spread than acknowledged by the party leadership. Similarly the warning shots being sent in the direction of the party administration by John Dalli may ring a bell and be music to the ears of a wider number of national- ists than the PN administration may be acknowledging. This is most unlikely to be evident in this weekend's party administration voting, but it will be the wider country as a whole to be supportive. It may well be that these two politicians are winning more support outside the party structures than within. The reason is that the parties risk being behind the mood in the country where a growing number of people feel that dif- ferent views and opinions make up for a healthy political party. The democratic way forward is to allow currents of opinion with different views be- ing debated in as fully a transparent man- ner as possible. This amounts to a healthy democracy where policy is arrived at after an open party debate and where policy is no longer, as has been the case over a number of years, the personal opinion of the leader. Both parties are well-advised to take note of this dissent which may be appear- ing very insignificant at this moment in time but will most likely to grow unless the dissent is allowed to be voiced and openly discussed in the country as a whole, in the media and no longer in the serenity and comfort of party headquarters. Banning spring hunting A press conference by the head of the nature unit of the European Commission reveals the vast extent of the European Commission's failure to comprehend the Maltese hunting and trapping situation. The head's unit Mr Hanley was reported to have said that the Commission was con- tent with the level of enforcement on the Islands. He proved beyond doubt that Brus- sels technocrats make their conclusions by reading reports and data filed rather than fieldwork and hard evidence. The salient issue is the stark reality that a free-for-all in the hunting in Malta will not be changing in the very near future. Hunting in spring in Malta is a misnomer. It takes place on the premise that the hunt- ing of two species, the turtle dove (gam- iema) and quail (sumiena), are shot because these are the only species that can be shot in Malta. In reality the vast majority of Maltese and Gozitan hunters with little exception shoot at anything that flies. A day in the coun- tryside helps one understand the culture of Maltese hunting. Bona fide hunters are such a rare en- counter that they are as common as the extinct Dodo. The countryside is home to hundreds of trigger-happy young and adult hunters who blast away at migrating swallows, swifts and kestrels – birds which under no stretch of one's imagination can be considered as game birds. Worse still, endangered species such as the peregrine falcon which in the mid- eighties bred on the Gozitan cliffs of Ta' Cenc have been exterminated together with other birds. Although there is no doubt that there has been an improvement in enforcement the truth is that it is impossible to check on each and every hunter and trapper. The only solution is banning spring hunting. The Maltese countryside would finally breathe some relief. Environment Minister George Pullicino should not wait for the Commission to con- strain him to take this action. He should read the writing on the wall and act. He will probably have the general public on his side but some party cronies against him. Sooner or later, the technocrats in Brus- sels will have to be sidelined and the Euro- pean Parliament, with not much help from the Maltese representatives, will oblige the Commission to ask Malta remove its derogation and ban Spring hunting. When dissent is important Editorial • 17 April 2005 MATTHEW AGIUS PRECISELY one week after the spring hunting referendum, which saw 124,214 Maltese citizens vote for the abolition of the season, BirdLife Malta has launched a nationwide membership drive, exhorting those who had voted against spring hunt- ing to join. BirdLife Malta president Geoffrey Saliba asked those who still wanted to see a hunting-free spring to make their voices heard by joining the or- ganisation as members. The conser- vation group encouraged those who had voted against the opening of the season to "seize the moment and not waste the momentum created by the referendum" by strengthening their support for the group. Last week saw the pro-hunting camp succeed in keeping the spring season open, after scraping through the referendum by a mere 2,200 votes. Soon after the result was an- nounced, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat warned the hunting com- munity that he would not hesitate to close the season if illegalities were flagrant. In the week since the season opened, two hunters have been prosecuted for killing protected spe- cies. Saliba focused on the positive out- comes of the referendum, however. "BirdLife is greatly encouraged by the large number of people who sup- ported the No vote," he said, adding that the conservation group was even more determined to halt illegal hunting and ensure that lawbreakers are caught and made to face justice. Saliba announced that leaflets will be distributed to the public to fa- cilitate their becoming members of BirdLife. "When you become a member, you will be demonstrating a com- mitment beyond marking the box captioned "no" last Saturday. Your membership will demonstrate that nature and the environment are truly important to you." The group is currently holding its annual Spring Watch Camp, where volunteers are spread across the countryside to observe the migra- tion of birds as well as to uncover hunting abuses. Saliba said that this year's Spring Watch Camp was already proving effective and that its effectiveness could only increase with greater numbers of volunteers. He advised prospective members could join by sending in the forms, which will be published on the Sun- day papers, or by sending an email to office@birdlifemalta.org. A Blue Rock Thrush, Malta's national bird