On April 11, 2015 the people of Floriana – along with 33 other localities in Malta and Gozo – will have the opportunity to elect people who will be running the local government for the next four years.
My experience as a PN local councilor and deputy mayor during the last three years can be described in various ways. When I look back, I realise that these years were fruitful from a locality point of view but at the same time I may also describe them as frustrating.
When you are aware about a particular problem and you are confident that there is a reasonable solution but you cannot effectively take the necessary remedies, either because of a shortage of funds or, worse still, because the powers that be will not cooperate, it is very demoralising.
If we let such circumstances take over our will to act, in time and decisively, then we would not need any local council because it stands to reason that adversity is part and parcel of its daily life.
To my mind, we at Floriana had our highs and lows since the local councils were first established by a Nationalist government in 1993.
Now, after having had a firsthand experience, I would be the first to acknowledge that our local council needs to be very much more proactive than it had lately been.
There was a time when we, as a council, were considered to be front runners and creative.
Let’s resolve that, all together, we move towards a shake-up, which Floriana badly needs
To mention but two examples, I would choose the organisation for the first time in Malta of a ‘national’ activity in connection with the New Year’s Eve celebration in St Anne’s Street and also the yearly National Fireworks Festival on the Floriana Granaries, the eve of the feast of St Publius.
Those were two events where our council was a pioneer, a quality trade-mark which used to be strongly associated with Floriana.
As a matter of fact, Floriana was one of the earliest localities to have a ‘civic council’ which may be described as forerunner to our present-day local councils.
Sadly, I have to say that this spirit of innovation and initiative were conspicuously absent in recent years and this may have something to do with the general situation at our locality and with its aging population, posing a number of new and urgent problems which ought to be faced.
I have decided once more that there is an alternative to merely criticising and doing no more; I have decided that I will contest again as a PN candidate in this local election and at the same time do my very best so that, if elected, I will work even harder for the benefit of our locality and its people.
Being a hub for most of the national – and sometimes not so national – events in Malta, Floriana deserves to receive its fair share from the central administration and all other entities and organisations that regularly use this locality.
We don’t expect ‘manna from heaven’ but, on the other hand, I believe wholeheartedly that the people of Floriana deserve and expect some sort of compensation for being, for so many years, so accommodating and cooperative with organisations of all shades and colours.
On the home front, the people of Floriana will be doing themselves and their locality a great favour if, on April 11, they all avail themselves of their right to vote and elect solid and valid councillors so that they may be in a position to halt this negative tendency which, I am afraid, has lately overwhelmed the general situation in our locality.
Thus it is with great satisfaction that I learned that in the coming weeks, and only a few days before the local election, three true Floriana gentlemen will be launching a new volume about St Publius Church which took a number of years to compile.
I am informed that it constitutes truly an ‘encyclopedia’ about this church, which is universally acknowledged in all respects as one of the most remarkable churches on the island.
That is the true spirit which in my opinion should characterise the people of Floriana.
Let’s resolve that, all together, we move towards a veritable shake-up that Floriana badly needs. The road along this path starts on April 11, 2015.
Matthew Paris is deputy mayor of Floriana and a PN candidate for the local council elections.