Promising a fully fledged motor racetrack bang in the middle of one of our national parks on an island the size of Malta is a symbol like no other of the manner in which the main political parties are ready to ride roughshod over the environment in their quest to promise everything to everyone. The arrogance of it all takes your breath away.

It seems that the Labour Party is brazenly proposing to destroy a national open space in Ta’ Qali where thousands of families picnic, teach their children to ride their bikes, jog, walk and spend lazy Sunday afternoons in one of the few remaining open areas in the centre  of our island.

Even worse, thousands of residents, in Mosta and Attard in particular, are now threatened by an added source of noise pollution to their already present problems, as the karting, summer nightclubs and other sound pollutants will be joined by the added cacophony of motor racing revving.

Imagine the joys of future summer nights for the people of Mosta and Attard living in the areas surrounding Ta’ Qali.

Simon Busuttil’s answer to all this is a racetrack in Ħal Far, thus shifting the noise and air pollution problems onto the residents of Kirkop and Safi.

While supporting the development of motor sports in a realistic manner is important, promising an unsustainable white elephant bang in the middle of Ta’ Qali or any other area near to residents smacks of political opportunism of the worst kind.

General election fever has meant that any semblance of rational analysis of whether it is even possible to have the type of racing track being proposed on an island the size of Malta and, if yes, which site would leave the least impact, has been thrown to the dogs.

Let’s use our vote to send a clear message to the main political parties, who have let the environment down with tragic regularity

Pandering to a lobby group which has openly threatened to use its vote to get what it wants has taken precedence over rational, mature and responsible debate, laying bare the inadequacies of our political system.

These types of situations repeat themselves with monotonous regularity, administration after administration. The loudest and richest lobbies get their own way as the main political parties clamber over one another to vie for their votes.

Ta’ Qali needs to become a symbol for our nation.

A stark reminder that the main political parties wax lyrical about the environment when in opposition, only to let the environment and the rights of residents down when in government.

The time has come for us, ordinary citizens with no Panama accounts or Dubai Easter breaks, to reclaim our right to use our vote to protect our own basic right to live in a healthy and clean natural environment.

Let’s use our vote to give a voice to our nation’s rapidly disappearing natural environment.

Let’s use our vote to send a clear message to the main political parties, who have let the environment down with tragic regularity every time they are asked to translate their lofty rhetoric when in opposition into the harsh necessity of taking courageous decisions when in power.

‘Vote Green, vote clean’ is our chance to break this vicious circle of environmental degradation the two- party political system has systematically led this country into.

Vote Green, vote clean, for Ta’ Qali and for our nation.

arnoldcassola@gmail.com

Arnold Cassola is the chairman of Alternattiva Demokratika.

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