Enforcement: here’s a good starting point
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat yesterday had many fine and laudable words about increasing enforcement across the land. He mentioned driving, public order, encroachments by restaurants and drugs.
His words were music to the ears of many, while others were of the ‘believe-it-when-I-see-it’ attitude. His comments may have been inspired by the situation in Marsa, his pledge to relocate the open centre’s residents to Ħal Far and at quelling the potential uproar from the nearby residents of Birżebbuġa.
But, whatever the case, he should be taken at his word. That is because the Prime Minister is, for better or for worse, a man of his word and when he says that enforcement will be increased, there is little reason to doubt him.
For the Prime Minister to have singled out the area of ensuring that the regulations and the laws of the land are crystal clear and unambiguous in such a wide-ranging speech marking the first 100 days of the legislature, so that no one can complain when the pledged crackdown comes, is welcome considering the fact that there are so many out there who live in complete flagrance of those rules and regulations of which he speaks.
A lack of respect of the laws of the land in just about any area once can name is nearly endemic.
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To kick-start this new drive on enforcement, a good suggestion would be to start with the currently open autumn hunting season. So far this season, there have been six protected birds shot out of the skies, with the first protected bird of prey having been shot down just yesterday – and those are just the birds that were found and delivered to BirdLife by Samaritans.
Such illegalities are unacceptable on so many levels, yet there has not even been a single warning from the government or the powers that be, despite their previous harsh words and demands of nothing short of strict compliance, and warnings that infringements will not be tolerated.
It is high time that the powers that be implement a zero tolerance policy toward illegal hunting once and for all, and to back their words up with concrete action.
That is because quite apart from the ecological threat stemming from the slaughter of protected birds over Malta each autumn and spring, there is a wider issue at hand – that of respect for the law of the land. And while all those concerned – the government and hunting lobbies included – have called for zero tolerance to illegal hunting, as they do each year to little avail, concrete action in such cases will speak far stronger than mere words.
The government must, once and for all, strictly implement the zero tolerance policy that it preaches to all forms of illegal hunting. Fines need to be increased further still and more examples need to be made of those indulging in illegal hunting practices. The law is the law, full stop.
One of this season’s protected birds was shot down over a school in Cottonera, and still not a word despite the fact that when a bird was shot down over a school just up the road from that one in 2015 had led the Prime Minister to close that year’s spring hunting season.
Different times, it is assumed, require different measures.
BirdLife yesterday called on the Prime Minister to intervene and ’stop this massacre’, and the least the government could do is to send out some kind of a warning shot but so far none has been heard.
If the Prime Minister wants to put his figurative money where his mouth is, he should start with this seasonal practice of allowing so many lawbreakers to get away with their crimes with impunity. Yes, enforcement needs to be increased and the regulations that he says need to be made crystal clear, as well as the consequences, should be spelt out clearly by him or at least by his government, immediately.