What colour are Malta’s trees? Blue or red?
Last Sunday, several hundred people took to the streets of Attard to protest against the uprooting of trees to make way for the controversial Central Link project. The atmosphere was light and energetic with people cheering and chanting in favour of the trees.
People lounged on the ground, sweated their way through a clean-up or were just simply happy to be part of something that could make a difference. It was a moment that takes you back in time to when people cared and fought hard for what they believed in. The unity could be felt in the air and no mention of politics was uttered. People were simply there for the trees.
Politics is a central part of a democratic society and people should be educated and knowledgeable about political issues, but this was not about that. Malta is highly partisan on any issue the country faces but the environment should not be one of them.
If the political parties care about the environment, then they should not make it about them. They should not try to use the environment to win votes and they should certainly not use the environment to make a mockery out of people standing up for the environment.
All the media were at the protest and reported the event, but the Labour Party’s media branch decided to take a different angle from the rest: the Simon Busuttil angle. The Labour Party’s ONE News produced one line about the protest and another about how the Central Link project will make Maltese citizens’ lives better. All good and fair till then. But next, we get a jibe at the Nationalist Party for having left this project on the shelf for 13 years.
Then they made it a truly partisan issue by highlighting the fact that Simon Busuttil was at the protest. Their main photo also shows him smiling at the protest as if he was the main protagonist of the event.
This in itself is putting out the message that the protest was a partisan one. There was no mention of any other aspect of the protest and the report was mostly taken up by a statement issued by Transport Malta.
It is expected that the governing party’s media would be in favour of the Central Link project, but the way the event was covered was not fair and even could be seen as ridiculing those present.
The environment should not be made a blue or red issue; it cannot be about us and them, but needs to be about Malta. The people at the protest could have been Labourite or Nationalist, but whoever they choose to vote for should not define their presence.
The Maltese are known to have an ‘us and them’ mentality in everything they do. Take the band clubs, football and politics - it is just part of who we are. But for the sake of future generations, the environment cannot be treated as such, and political parties should neither encourage nor be allowed to exploit such a mentality.
More protests are expected around the corner in Santa Luċija following news of yet more uprooting and tree chopping. This time around, let’s not turn this into a political football. Contrary to what politicians may think, this is about the environment and the posterity of this country, not about them. So unless they are going to help with constructive input, hands off please.