Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/939870
maltatoday SUNDAY 11 FEBRUARY 2018 19 Opinion I have yet to experience a debate that never was: the decision to award 16-year-olds with a vote. A decision supported by the two major parties, and one which I am completely against. Those who support it argue about giving youngsters a voice as part of the grand design of things to make this country great. Those who want to ram this down our throats argue that they have a mandate to execute, that youngsters have their own minds and that this is progress in action. All the politicians or pundits who support it tell me of the first time they advocated such a proposal. As if that in itself is a good enough reason to introduce it. Joseph Muscat says he mentioned it in 2008 and David Agius, the deputy leader of the PN, also said that sometime in 2015 he proposed a vote for 16-year-olds. So bloody what?! Most parents – and there is little doubt in my mind – are against such a measure. They know what their 16-year-olds stand for: their understanding of politics is limited to peer pressure and their immediate family. The more sombre parents avoid discussing politics. Andrew Azzopardi on Xtra argued that it was not true that sons and daughters will replicate what their parents believed in, and as an example he cited the fact that he supported one football club and his son another. Well, that could be true, but there is little doubt in my mind that nine out of 10 people will follow the voting pattern of their parents. Apart from the fact that politics is supposed to be somewhat different from a sport which engages 22 men running after a ball. 16-year-olds are usually (and this is to be expected) focused on three considerations: growing up, their studies, and of course sex. But not all fall in the same category. It is a time when parents have to deal with a divisive atmosphere, where their kids think they know better. They are not exactly a piece of cake in this phase of life. It ain't always nice. Needless to say there is also the fact that 16-year- olds have restrictions in the face of the law, on notarial deeds, consensual sex. and other considerations such as plonking a tattoo on one's ankle, all of which do not seem to bother the political parties. The proponents of the 16+ vote have conveniently forgotten the turmoil family members face when it comes to decide for whom to vote, apart from the ugly tribalism of being either with the two big parties or with any of the small parties. In my opinion the longer youngsters stay out of politics and learn something about life, the better for all of us and for them. The absolute majority of all 16-year-olds depend on their parents for literally everything. Some of them are still cocooned within an upbringing which, for good or for bad, is highly protective. Should we keep it that way? If I were given a choice I would advise them to run a mile from Maltese politicians. I will argue and fight till the end of time for my sixteen-year-olds not to engage with political parties, which are run by individuals who have no policies but only dreams of being in power and in government. I have been there and I know how much time I wasted. When I interviewed Julia Farrugia on Xtra this week, she argued that the government had a mandate. But she knows like everyone else that the people who voted for Labour did not do so for the 16-year-old vote proposition. They did so for the economy and feel- good factor, they had not yet forgotten what the PN in government stood for, they did not believe the Egrant allegations, and they simply did not like Simon Busuttil and Marlene Farrugia. Policies, I am afraid, did not really affect those decisions. When I pushed Farrugia about the idea of a referendum she argued that in politics there was always a time for politicians to take the lead and make the necessary reforms. Ok, granted, but this was a decision which if put to the public would be shot down across party lines. Because parents, unlike politicians, have much more sense. Farrugia said there been consultation. But then again, I really must emphasise that many organisations and agencies are far from representative of the general public. In many aspects Muscat is an amazing chess player. Many proposals that appear radical have been introduced because they can only win votes and not lose them. So, for example, the civil unions reform was introduced in spite of polls indicating that most people opposed it. Muscat knew that the reform would not lose him votes but those people directly benefitting from the reform would vote for his party while those opposing it would look the other way. I guess the best example of Muscat's political astuteness is illustrated in the hunting issue. If Muscat were to take more severe steps against hunting, he knows that he would lose the hunters' vote but not gain the environmentalists' vote. He knows that environmentalists are not one-issue voters, most are Nationalists, a few Green and fewer Labourites. But the decision to simply bulldoze with the introduction of the 16-year-old vote smacks of a Talibanesque approach and the feeling I get is that any voice objecting to this kind of reform is considered to be some troglodyte. Troglodyte or not the truth is that reforms should not be carried out if there is opposition at ground level. Muscat will argue that Malta will be the second country in the European Union to introduce such a measure. He will be doing so against the will of the majority of people who he knows did not vote him into power because of this clause. Some days ago, when slapped with a Council of Europe report that chastised Malta for being one of the very few nations in the Western world not to have abortion, Muscat answered he did not have a mandate. Truth be said abortion is a sticky issue which has never been debated and many who dared raise a voice to discuss it have suffered the consequences. But neither did he have a mandate in 2013 for numerous measures, including the citizenship scheme. Politics is a game of chess with crooked rules. Politics is all about power, money and lies. Politics is about promises, fake policies and half-truths. Politics is about spin and more often than not, the aim of being re- elected at all costs. I am sure that most parents would want their adolescent children to stay as far away as possible from the ugly world of politics. With the decision to drag youngsters into this arena with two major parties that have similar electoral manifestos and visions, many fear that the troubles they face as normal families will only be exacerbated. What's more, the reform itself also sends the wrong message: that society should be looking to the younger generation for direction, and not to elderly folk. Because at this point in time anyone against this view is herded with the 60+ voters, a colony of dinosaurs who have little or nothing to offer. @saviourbalzan Saviour Balzan is Managing Editor of the Me- diatoday Group Saviour Balzan Ram it down our throats Name & Surname .................................................................. Telephone: ........................................ Address ...................................................................................... E-mail: ........................................ YOU CAN RECEIVE THE MALTATODAY ON SUNDAY OR MALTATODAY MIDWEEK, FOR A PERIOD OF ONE YEAR. NEWSPAPER BY POST Send a cheque payable to MediaToday to: Subscriptions, MediaToday, Vjal il-Rihan, San Gwann, SGN 9016 NEWSPAPER BY POST TIA RELJIC THE Ministry of Education failed to publicly announce the findings of a national report on literacy rates published this week, which revealed that Mal- tese students fared significantly worse in 2016 when compared to 2011. The report placed Malta in 40th place out of 50 participating countries, as the very worst per- forming among European coun- tries. The Progress in International Reading Study (PIRLS) 2016 re- port showed that the reading score of students in the Maltese language – 452 – was lower than 2011's score of 457. In 2011, the test was adminis- tered to 10-year-olds in Maltese as a benchmark exercise but the main test was administered in English reading, resulting in a score of 477. In 2016, the main test was administered in Maltese only. Malta remained under the in- ternational average score of 500. The reading attainment of Mal- tese students was comparable to students from United Arab Emirates but was higher than only nine countries: Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Oman, Kuwait, Morocco, Egypt, and South Africa. The PIRLS report is a com- parative study of the reading attainment of ten-year-olds, conducted under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). When asked why the findings were not publicly announced, the ministry failed to respond. But asked to comment about the findings themselves, a spokesper- son for minister Evarist Bartolo explained that the study does not take bilingualism into consid- eration, and does not account for the fact that small countries have relatively smaller num- bers. Maltese pupils slip further down in global reading study Newspaper post PAGE 2 have relatively PGS 4-5 Education ministry does not announce PIRLS report highlighting regression in literacy among children THIS IS NO C.S.I Criminologist Saviour Formosa €1.75 YOUR FIRST READ AND CLICK OF THE DAY WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT maltatoday today today SUNDAY • 10 DECEMBER 2017 • ISSUE 944 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY Phone data on Msida car bomb could hold link to suspects MATTHEW VELLA POLICE investigators buoyed by the arrests of a criminal gang sus- pected of having carried out the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, are working on new linkages to previously unsolved car bomb executions. The extraction of some eight mo- bile phones – all of them 2G phones in a bid to evade data triangulation – from the seabed in the Grand Harbour close to the criminal den in Marsa where the arrests were carried out, could well hold the clue to who commissioned the heinous murder. Suspects George Degiorgio 'ic- Ciniz', his brother Alfred Degiorgio 'il-Fulu', and Vincent Muscat 'il- Kohhu' were arrested on Monday but have refused to utter a single world during questioning, and con- tacted no lawyer to assist them in court during their arraignment – a sign that the hardened criminals are clearly well briefed on their legal situation as things stand. MaltaToday is informed that po- lice believe the accused did not even create the bomb itself, but were re- sponsible for procuring and carry- ing out the execution. Additionally, the evidence at hand is suggesting a strong link to previ- ous bomb attempts, namely with the car bomb that permanently maimed Romeo Bone in Msida, back on 17 February. The attack, carried out in broad daylight on the busy Msida thoroughfare, left the Floriana man severely injured, having lost both legs in the attack. SUSPECT'S STINGRAY Corvette snapped inside criminal den The familiar rusty gates of the Marsa sheds where the Degiorgio brothers were arrested last week serve as a background to this Corvette Stingray, which eyewitnesses working in the port area said they had already seen "To picture Malta as a crime haven, when it is one of the safest countries in the EU... to me, that's inexcusable" 14 15 YOUR FIRST READ AND CLICK OF THE DAY WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT maltatoday Which toys will fly off the shelf this Christmas? 6 Death of a Soho gangster Behind the legend of 'Big Frank' Mifsud, the story of a vice-lord who ran the Soho skin trade 10 11 I would like to receive the newspaper for a period of one year. MaltaToday on Sunday - €94.59 MaltaToday Midweek - €59 The newspapers are delivered by post and therefore subject to the usual postal timings. Normally, MaltaToday on Sunday should arrive on Monday and the MaltaToday Midweek should arrive on the same day (Wednesday). I'm sure that most parents would want their adolescent children to stay as far away as possible from the ugly world of politics