Preserving Gozo's unity

The leader of the Labour Party and of the opposition, Alfred Sant, is on record as stating that "the latest set of districts proposed by the Electoral Commission were the fairest in the past 30 years". He then asked why Lawrence Gonzi and Joe Saliba were trying to change them (May 3).

It is appropriate to ask: Fairest for whom? Certainly not fair for Gozo as a whole political and social entity and for the people of Ghajnsielem in particular.

Is it fair to destroy Gozo's political unity for the sake of a few thousand votes, which everyone knows are inflated by the number of Maltese who are registered as voters in Gozo?

Is it fair to create a situation where members of Parliament elected from the 12th district (and, possibly, from the 13th) will have a constituency which will not be served easily as it will be split by a boat's journey?

The more one thinks of the consequences of the Electoral Commission's decision to hive off Ghajnsielem from the 13th district and join it to Mellieha, St Paul's Bay and Naxxar, the more surreal the whole thing becomes. An MP elected from Naxxar, not known at all by the people of Ghajnsielem, will have to provide all his/her services in Gozo to serve part of the constituency. Prospective candidates for the 12th and 13th districts will have to campaign on both sides of the channel. Can you imagine the debate on the budget when the Gozo vote is discussed with 10 MPs having a political interest to speak?

There is nothing fair in all this. Gozo has enough problems due to its double insularity. Why complicate them even further? Gozo's political unity is being sacrificed to a numbers game. The human factor has been kept out of the solution put forward by the Electoral Commission.

But there is another important factor. Since our membership of the European Union, Gozo is being administered as a region, thus receiving a set percentage of funds allocated to Malta from the EU.

The successful negotiations between Malta and the EU stipulated that the Maltese islands will be classified together as level 1 and 2 for statistical purposes, but Gozo will be classified as a separate region fitting into a level 3 Nuts agreement.

The adhesion treaty carried a declaration that Gozo will be given a special assessment before the expiration of a budgetary period. The European Commission will have to report about the economic and social situation of Gozo to see whether Gozo has attained the same social and economic development reached by the mainland. Dividing Gozo now will send the wrong message to the EU and will do nothing to foster the regionality of Gozo, both at home and abroad. There is also the whole question of representation of the island, both at home and abroad. At present, whoever occupies the post of Minister for Gozo represents the whole island as one political entity. It is highly unlikely that this post will ever be occupied by an MP elected from the mainland.

By taking part of Gozo and lumping it with a district on the mainland, the Minister for Gozo will have his/her status diminished in practice. The Ministry for Gozo is defined by the regionality of Gozo. And the people of Gozo, irrespective of their political allegiance, have embraced the ministry as an institution which belongs to the whole of Gozo, no longer a matter of controversy.

I can see a lot of reasons why Dr Gonzi and Mr Saliba want to change this unfair situation with one that gives all Gozitans the assurance that the gains they have made from the regionality acquired through EU membership will be safeguarded for the foreseeable future.

Might I suggest that if the Labour Party, which, of course, takes no credit at all for the status of regionality gained by Gozo, fails to support the government in its bid to restore Gozo as a separate electoral district by putting unacceptable conditions, then a referendum be held in Gozo as soon as possible to allow the Gozitans to sort out the issue themselves?