Speaking in Parliament on June 6, Franco Mercieca, a Labour MP elected for the first time in the last general election from Gozo, bluntly stated that “While Gozo will remain a single region on the regional committee, the tunnel will remove the need for a Gozo ministry as its functions will be able to fall under their respective ministries” in Malta (as reported in this newspaper).

His statement should be good food for thought for us Gozitans. We must carefully ponder upon what he said and with great caution.

By implication we are being invited to choose between a physical link with Malta and the Gozo ministry. If we choose the first, we lose the second and vice versa. Both can’t stay together, either one or the other.

Being a fervent supporter and front promoter of the physical link and having said what he said in Parliament, Mercieca, therefore, prefers the removal of the ministry for Gozo for that would be, according to him, one of the first benefits derived from the physical link.

I cannot be blamed and would surely be justified if I assume that he is implying that the ministry for Gozo has been a burden on the country since its inception. He couldn’t be more erroneous.

The ministry for Gozo made a big difference, so big that, from an island with no voice, with no political relevance except for election periods, completely absent from the national agenda and from government budgets, Gozo started to have a voice in the Cabinet of Ministers, a place in the national agenda which is set, discussed and decided upon by the same Cabinet, including the minister for Gozo, and features in government budgets too. The times when matters regarding Gozo and its citizens’ needs were treated and decided upon in their absence by the ministries in Malta ended on the day Gozo was given its ministry by a change of government in 1987.

Since then, Gozo and the Gozitans have experienced significant economic, social and cultural significant improvements that contributed to a higher standard of living for Gozitan families who now enjoy a modern infrastructure and have their demands met.

Removing the ministry for Gozo to have a physical link instead, as Mercieca is suggesting, would mean a return to the old times when Gozo’s affairs and our needs were treated and decided upon in our absence at different ministries in Malta. A return to the past, which is a guarantee of a bleak future.

Instead of choosing to remove the ministry for Gozo, Gozitans would better ponder seriously on their electoral choices come the next general election.

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