Giving Gozitans the importance they deserve
The news that the Nationalist Party has a separate electoral manifesto for Gozo is very positive.
While Gozo’s population (or should we say its voting population) is much smaller than that of Malta’s, it is high time that politicians started making a bigger effort with regard to our sister island, and not just dedicate to it a small chapter in the electoral manifesto, because this is what is expected of them.
Simon Busuttil is proposing a change in the Constitution so that Gozo is declared as a region. This, he says, will allow Gozo to tap into an additional €200m+ in EU funds. Gozo, with its double insularity, could surely do with some extra cash.
This pledge will also entail the setting up of a Regional Committee which, Busuttil says, would also serve as a watchdog over the Gozo Ministry. Gozo has long been regarded as a separate political ‘kingdom’ where the rulers do as they please, and more scrutiny over what happens across the channel is always welcome.
The PN leader has also pledged to give €10,000 to families that settle in Gozo or move back from Malta to Gozo. But Busuttil needs to give more details on this scheme, such as whether the applicants will be bound to stay in
Editor’s pick
Gozo for a certain number of years. Or will they be able to take the cheque and leave after a year or two?
Then there is the issue of the Malta-Gozo link, a topic of hot debate that has remained just that, debate. The PN leader is pledging to launch studies within his first 100 days in office and that, if the studies find that the tunnel option is viable, works will start soon after. That the Opposition leader is binding himself to carry this out in such a short timeframe is commendable. He has rightly stated that the current administration wasted four years in this regard so no more delays should be accepted. However, Dr Busuttil has to be careful not to make promises that cannot be kept. He should not repeat Joseph Muscat and Konrad Mizzi’s power station mistake. And the tunnel project is much more expensive and complicated than the power station.
Busuttil has also pledged to introduce the fast-ferry service, which has also remained on paper, despite being promised to Gozitans in budget speech after budget speech.
Perhaps the PN leader’s most controversial pledge is that of “returning” the Gozo General Hospital to the Gozitan people. We trust that Busuttil is not just shooting from the hip and is comforted by some solid legal advice, for contracts of this magnitude are not easily rescinded. The fact that the deal was negotiated by Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri might not give him enough reason to tear up the contract. And telling VGH that their multi-million arrangement has gone up in flames might cost the taxpayer a pretty penny.
Furthermore, Simon Busuttil needs to tell us what Gozitans will get in the place of the VGH project, which is yet to materialise. We have all seen the pictures, flashed around by Health Minister Chris Fearne, showing the sorry state the Gozo hospital had found itself in. This is surely not what Gozitans deserve. And if Busuttil really goes down this road, and goes to war with VGH, he must make sure that Gozitans still get their state-of-theart hospital.
Joseph Muscat will also go to Gozo in the coming days to present his own electoral promises. One hopes that, as Muscat fights to retain a majority in Gozo, and Busuttil tries to steal it away, Gozitans are not used as pawns in the ongoing war and, most importantly, that the coming legislature will not be another disappointing one for them.