A betrayal of our Constitution, our values and our way of life

Amid all the arguments made to justify the direction Malta is headed in, one of the most fundamental things we should be taking into consideration is our well-being.

For those with money pouring in, who have a stake in overdevelopment and a rising population, it may be easy to overlook what everybody else is feeling. I have also come to realise that these sort of people are disconnected from reality. They can literally buy their way out of the struggle they are forcing upon others, by buying property in the countryside or by having a second home abroad. It is not fair for Malta´s businessmen or politicians to judge Malta´s success by the luxuries they can afford and enjoy. That is not true progress. Economic arguments overshadow an entire world through which we define our quality of life.

Some of my happiest memories take me back to the house my grandfather built, a house in Swieqi that went by the name of Sandalwood. It was home to my mother and two uncles, it had a workshop where I fumbled about under my grandfather´s supervision, and was home to a garden with tortoises I used to feed. From the roof, one could enjoy a view of fields and other twostorey buildings, and it was within walking distance of Wied Għomor and my own house on Triq Is-Sidra, and that of my cousins on Triq IsSwieqi. My great uncle to still lives on Triq Is-Sirk, and I have often visited friends on Triq Is-Sejjieh.

This personalised account of the early days of my youth comes with a very particular purpose. Recently, much attention was focused on one of the many threats to Wied Għomor. Fortunately, the old people´s home which would have sliced the green corridor in half was refused at the Appeals stage, though this was only one of many successive attempts to build on that plot of land, and will surely not be the last. Yet the fanfare over that one victory overshadows the greater tragedy happening in Wied Għomor, in Swieqi itself and of course across the entire country. As places change beyond recognition, it is not surprising that the sense of Maltese friendliness and hospitality that was once part of our national identity may quickly change.

I have always been very close to my grandparents, and my roots have always provided me with a sense of peace, purpose and continuity. My grandmother passed away last year, and while change is inevitable, I have found myself losing my connection to all the things which remind me of her. Her very memory is under assault. That includes Sandalwood, which was demolished to make way for flats. Overdevelopment, for all those who oppose it, is personal as well as practical, for reasons of well-being as much as health.

My fight to protect Malta´s environment, heritage and the well-being of its people, as Deputy Leader of Partit Demokratiku, comes from a deep sense of connection and communal ownership of our landscape as well as its ‘historic and artistic patrimony’, quoting the Constitution. Seeing the country changed beyond recognition in every way for the benefit of a few businessmen, politicians and their families, strikes me as a fundamental betrayal not only of our Constitution, but also our values, our way of life and of our peace of mind. I believe that we have a right to live in peace, a right to a sense of well-being, and it is these that have been betrayed most cruelly.

It is for this reason and more that I joined an environmental NGO, and later took up the call to stand as a candidate for PD in 2017. From where I am standing, Malta has been stabbed in the back. No statistics, no development models, no excuses can sweep away the suffering of seeing your country taken away from you, against your consent and your wishes, and finding yourself powerless to turn the tide. The cry for people to do whatever they want with their private property falls on deaf ears, when the loopholes, policy revisions and planning abuses are a result of lobbies bribing politicians to create those issues in the first place.

In a time when the world´s increasing population is set to exacerbate devastating environmental problems, the economic gospel of eternal, unrestrained growth must be challenged, and not left to its own devices. When the developers tell us “Uwejja, it´s progress”, I find the answer forming quickly on my lips before I even have time to think. We, the people, will not go gently into the night, and we will not give up on Malta or Gozo without one heck of a fight.