Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/955503
Opinion 25 maltatoday SUNDAY 18 MARCH 2018 re-education by the Ministry of Manners. Meanwhile, let's take another look at what happened. From various eye-witness accounts, it transpires that a certain Robert-Louis Fenech – fairly well-known for online environmentalist activism, and a long-standing critic of PA policies – was a little rude during question-time at that PA hearing. He said 'Oi!' – 'Oi!', no less – when trying to get the attention of a board that was doggedly refusing to listen to his objections; he then called Vic... I mean, PROFESSOR Victor Axiak (phew, almost forgot) by his name, instead of by his ancestral title... and he even told the Great Googly- Moogly Himself to 'mind his own business'. To his face, I might add. Oh, and he also refused to leave the room when given his marching orders. (I'll leave you to guess by whom, as I might get the designation wrong, and... you know...) Meanwhile, the entire meeting had to be suspended for around half an hour... or however long it took for around one-third of Malta's entire law enforcement capability to be mobilised to the scene of the crime... which also means that nobody else got to ask any questions in all that time, either. And what do you know? Question time is eventually over, and the board gets to the part it's been anxiously awaiting so long: the part where it votes to approve the development of a hotel on the Delimara coastline... and which just happens to be precisely what Robert-Louis Fenech – along with PROFESSOR Victor Axiak 's own Environmental Resources Authority, as well as all the civil society NGOs at that meeting – was trying to stop from happening. Hmm. It all seems to have worked out spectacularly to the advantage of the people who were pushing for approval, don't you think? The developers, naturally (who can blame them?)... but also the overwhelming majority of the Planning Authority Board itself (the project was approved by 10 votes to three). Interestingly, among the most vociferous supporters was the Planning Authority's CEO, Mr/Dr/Prof./Grand Mufti/ whatever Johann Buttigieg, who downplayed the visual impact of the hotel on the beach and surroundings; as well as Government representative [choose appropriate title] Clayton Bartolo... who, somewhat bizarrely, described the project as a 'good investment' (!). Small wonder the PA was so keen to avoid any... um... 'rudeness'. Would it have been 'disrespectful ' to ask why the Government's representative on the PA board seemed so concerned with protecting investments of an entirely private nature – whose dividends will be enjoyed only by the developers – and so oblivious to the development's environmental impact... which affects everybody? (Reason I ask is... Government has a Constitutional obligation for only one of those two considerations. And it sure ain't 'protecting private wealth '...) I thought I'd point that last part out, because it places all this 'rudeness' business into some form of context. It may well be a fact that Robert (I'll assume he won't take offence at the first-name basis) might have indeed been 'rude' and 'disrespectful ' at that meeting. But it is also a fact that he was forcibly prevented from speaking at a public meeting, which a) is designed specifically to allow the public to comment, and b) is also his inalienable, fundamental human right, according to the Universal Charter enshrined in the Maltese Constitution. Against Robert's 'rudeness', we therefore have to weigh the hamfistedness with which a public official simply quashed a citizen's right to express an opinion, on what looks like an entirely vexatious pretext. I'm no international human rights law yer... but I do know how I'd bet on a possible future ECHR court ruling on this particular case. What I found even more intriguing, though, was that among the three board members who voted against was none other than PROF. Axiak himself – you know, the one on whose behalf the chairman of the PA board got so upset, that he silenced one of the voices that was actually agreeing with PROF. Axiak (and therefore disagreeing with himself ) at that meeting. Because of 'disrespect', naturally. Not because Robert- Louis Fenech was raising valid objections to the project; or asking questions that the board might find difficult to answer... and certainly not because he was expressing a very widespread public exasperation with YET ANOTHER foregone PA approval, f lying in the face of genuine environmental concerns. No, his eviction by at least three separate units of the Malta Police Force was occasioned by his 'rudeness'... at a public PA meeting that is, of course, always characterised by the very maximum 'politeness' and 'deference' imaginable. Is there a polite, respectful way of saying 'pull the other one', I wonder? Is it 'rude' to even ask the question? Hang on, are those sirens I hear approaching in the distance? Why is everything f lashing red and blue all of a sudden? And who the heck would be kicking my front door in at this unearthly hour...? Hey, what... who... wait... Aaaargh! Among the most vociferous supporters was the Planning Authority's CEO, Mr/Dr/Prof./Grand Mufti/ whatever Johann Buttigieg, who downplayed the visual impact of the hotel on the beach and surroundings