The Prime Minister has proposed to have a national discussion on recreational marijuana. He declared he is in favour of such recreational marijuana. He has made up his mind. But he wants us to discuss.
On the other hand, through the proposal for a car racetrack at Ta’ Qali, the Prime Minister does not care to safeguard the large recreational open space at Ta’ Qali where thousands of Maltese families enjoy some breath of fresh air, peace and quiet. His position is ‘yes’ to recreational marijuana but ‘no’ to safeguarding the Ta’ Qali’s character for the enjoyment of families.
The Parliamentary Secretary for Sport looked enthusiastic when he declared to the media the Ta’ Qali site was the one that scored most points when compared to others.
Did it score any negative points when thousands of families with young children were considered in the decision? Or were they completely forgotten?
The Prime Minister is constantly attacking the PN-PD coalition because, according to him, it will lead to an ‘unstable’ government. The experience of the last four years has taught me that a ‘stable’ government does not necessarily lead to social and political stability based on the rule of law where the law applies to everyone.
The last four years have shown me that if there are weak or non-existent institutional checks and balances then politics not only departs from being the art of just the possible but it crosses a red line and becomes the art of the unthinkable.
Ta’ Qali has been for many years protected from a car-racing major project through the relevant action plan that has gone through a series of public consultations over the years. The government does not seem to believe in upholding this status for the national park. It has decided to run roughshod over proper planning and the interests of thousands of families. Sugar-coating the racetrack project with ‘educational’ aspects does not make it less abominable at Ta’ Qali.
The Prime Minister is against the PN-PD coalition by calling it ‘unstable’. But he does not mind going into coalition with specific interest groups that blackmail him before an election with calls for ‘no track, no vote’.