It is not surprising that Maurice Mizzi passed some unfair comments about Mark Anthony Falzon (The Sunday Times of Malta, May 10). However, he seems to be very ill-informed about Falzon’s integrity.

I have spent years on the Ornis Committee together with Falzon (then a committee member) and I have known him to be very constructive in his arguments.

More often than not, our reasoning used to differ because he is not the type to be talked into a compromise unless he is convinced that there will be a balance in the outcome of the argument.

It is precisely because of his intentions to strike a balance that Mizzi seems to want to criticise Falzon. The Ornis Committee holds regular meetings with the police and decisions taken within Ornis are based on what is officially reported by the police and not by hearsay or what Mizzi speculates.

May I now ask Mizzi, what in your opinion is a balance? I agree that enforcement has to be implemented and the culprits brought to justice, but collective punishment is not logical and acceptable. Some years back, nationals from the Far East visited Malta to study English and ended up living in Europe. This justified the suspension of certain individuals involved in the issuing of visas in that particular country. However, the local English schools were not penalised for the wrong doing of others.

It is not true that 11,000 hunters prevent 400,000 Maltese and 1,500,000 tourists from walking safely in the countryside as the electorate voted in a referendum to maintain spring hunting.

I believe that the environment is being ruined by speculators, which Mizzi does not seem to object to. Just have a look at Tigné Point from the entrance of the tunnel and you can view a concrete jungle. Take a quick look on the other side of Mellieħa Bay Hotel and one can see an incomplete development which has been like that for years.

It would be appreciated if Mizzi points his comments in the direction of these speculators who are ruining our best localities. I hope I will not live to witness the same developments at Manoel Island.

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