Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/871892
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 10 SEPTEMBER 2017 15 Interview Former PD deputy leader (and leadership contestant) DR ANTHONY BUTTIGIEG outlines the way forward for a party whose inception has been a little shaky, to say the least been called yet, other people might step forward. All the same, I think that the PD should start building its own identity as a sep- arate party anyway. We started running before we could walk. We formed the party in October; we signed the coalition agreement six months later... within nine days, we were in an election campaign. So we didn't really have time to build ourselves from the ground up. I think we should, as a party, take a step back, form ourselves properly... then go out for Euro- pean and local council elections as a separate entity – generally, smaller parties do much better in those elections than general elec- tions anyway – and build up our profile through those elections. But in the meantime, Marlene and Godfrey were elected on the mandate of a coalition with the PN. I think they should honour that. If the PN wishes to continue honouring it, the coalition should continue. But my question was really about that coalition agreement itself. From the perspective of voters, the PD and the PN were technically the same party – they were on the same party-list on the ballot sheet. We could debate endlessly about whether those two MPs actually repre- sent the PD or the PN, but the real issue is: were Marlene and Godfrey elected because they represented an interesting and exciting new party... or simply as part of a Nationalist strategy to win an election against Labour? I think the best way to answer it is what people told me them- selves. Even though I ran on two districts, I concentrated my ef- forts on the 10th: where Marlene got elected. I did quite a few house visits. Most of the people I spoke to wanted the PN to win the elec- tion... but they also wanted the third party in Parliament. They wanted those checks and balanc- es. They admitted it themselves: the PN had not renewed itself as they had hoped... there were still all the old faces there... and their dream situation would have been: the coalition wins the election – meaning Labour would be out... but there would be one or two PD candidates within the new gov- ernment, to put the brakes on it. They actually came out with that wish themselves: they told me they would give their number one vote to the PN, and number two to the PD. And that is what hap- pened: Marlene was not the third candidate on the PN list at the first count... she was around the seventh. She started overtaking the others on the later counts... Coming to the declared objec- tive of 'giving power back to the people': could you give any practical examples? Let's take the environment, one of the PD's pet concerns. We live in an age where all political par- ties claim to have 'environmen- talist' credentials: what makes the PD any different? Let's start with ODZ. To us, ODZ means ODZ. It has to be enshrined in our Constitution. The only exception I think there should be is if there is a national need for some structure... for example, a new reverse-osmosis plant... and there is no other practicable place to build it. We should not give out ODZ land for private companies to make money... which is what is hap- pening at the moment. At present, about 60% of our land is unbuilt. At the rate it is being eaten up at the moment, in 10 years' time it will reach in- verse proportion. What we de- stroy today will never be given back. I know it's a hackneyed term... but we have this coun- try in tenancy. Our children and their children will look on us in future with a very dim eye. We will become another Singapore, or another Dubai, or another Bahrain... one great big concrete block. The irony is that Malta is doing well partly because of what we are: companies don't come to Mata just because of the tax re- gime. There are plenty of other countries that offer the same tax incentives. They look for quality of life for their employees. And we are beginning to lose that. Funnily enough, the Ex-Patriate Index came out just a few days ago, and Malta dropped six plac- es. The main drop was in quality of life. We are losing ground. If we don't look after the environ- ment, we will be the losers... This is all well and good, but what is also expected from a political party is a set of poli- cies to address specific envi- ronmental issues. How does the PD intend to implement its environmental vision, beyond amending the Constitution here and there? What needs to be done is to get all the stakeholders togeth- er, take a breather, and do that thing that has been promised but never done... a National Master- plan. Let's get down to it, and do it. Before it's done, no major projects will be approved. That will focus minds: we can't afford not to have any major projects, because the economy will slow down too fast. So if we actually make that a real condition – and say, 'listen, we need to bunker down for six months; lock our- selves in a room, if necessary... shout at each other, argue, fight, whatever...' but we must find a workable solution whereby the environment is protected, and businesses can still flour- ish. Because they have to: we can't be extremists, and oppose everything. The economy needs to grow, we all know that. But it needs to grow according to a plan. So we need to settle down, and come up with that master- plan once and for all. Only then can things move forward...