Filth, hunting and the rule of law

The Times published an admirable editorial on October 21 advocating a steep increase in fines for littering. This echoed the statements which the Prime Minister has repeatedly expressed over the last few months, though we have yet to see the changes to the legislation actually enacted.

The leader of The Times came a day after the publication of a stomach-churning report, also in The Times by two young Swedish bird-watchers, who had spent eight weeks studying Maltese hunting and trapping patterns at just three places: Delimara, Migra l-Ferha and a site close to Luqa airport.

At considerable physical risk to themselves, they meticulously recorded every instance of illegal hunting they witnessed in these three small areas of Malta. The report makes depressing reading. It is doubly shocking for the flagrant absence which it reveals of any law enforcement officers in these areas.

What this report by Blomqvist and Kihlberg of October 20 and the leader of October 21 so starkly illustrate is the propensity of a sizeable minority of our population to flout the rule of law - and to do so with impunity.

This so-called "traditional sport", practised only by a vocal and, in reality, inconsequential minority in our society, is uncivilised and unacceptable. While the majority of Maltese felt a small glow of satisfaction at the prison sentences handed down to two hunters who were caught red-handed shooting the mute swans a year or two ago, we also felt traduced by a legal process which took so long for justice to be dispensed and which netted and imprisoned but two of the hundreds of hunters and trappers known to be acting illegally.

The filth and litter which besmirch our country - not simply in the so-called "tourist areas" (as though we can afford to make a distinction in a country as small as ours) but throughout Malta and Gozo - have long been an affront and a national disgrace. They are a cultural characteristic which both betray our European aspirations and expose our North African roots.

It is no good the government legislating to increase the level of fines on people who litter unless the law is backed by the political will and the human resources to apprehend and punish those caught doing so. To do one without the other smacks of the political game of providing all the semblance of activity short of actual action.

The rule of law is fundamental to a civilised society. Respect for the rule of law will only be achieved if laws enacted are enforced. Those who abuse and transgress the law by spreading filth, dumping litter or hunting illegally must be brought up sharply against the full force of the law.

But for this to happen the government must, first, exercise the political will to ensure that those whose job it is to enforce the law do so. And, secondly, the government must have the will to ensure that human and financial resources are provided so that the forces of law and order can do their job effectively.

This is something for which Din l-Art Helwa and others have called on countless occasions. Shall we, at last, see an increase in Administrative Law Enforcement (ALE) and "Green Wardens" - a blatant omission in successive recent budgets - created in the forthcoming budget?

This is not a matter of finding some sort of national consensus to deal with people who litter or hunt illegally. There is already consensus on the need to do something. It is a matter of the government doing the job for which it was elected. It will require the government to make a conscious act of political will to redirect resources to this area of its business and to apply the political back-bone, which has hitherto been lacking, to the enforcement of the law.

Mr Scicluna is executive president, Din l-Art Helwa.