Almost three weeks have gone by and yet there is no official reaction whatsoever to the article Intriguing Public Land Issues (January 3) by Alex Vella, president of the Ramblers’ Association of Malta.
In his excellent, forceful and informed presentation he exposes serious shortcomings in land management by the government. Individuals like Mr Vella, who take up their time and energy to defend the common good outside the partisan arena of local politics, are few and far between.
At the moment, Malta is racked by the uncertainty created by Franco Debono who, like certain MPs, has not got a clue what being a represenative really means. Yet, this does not exonerate the government of the day from publicly responding to the very serious grievances raised by Mr Vella. One would have also expected the opposition spokesman to comment on this issue and clarify its position on the issues Mr Vella raised.
Malta is small and overpopulated and green areas are at a premium. Whoever is in government has a grave obligation to safeguard and protect public land in the interest of the much vaunted common good. Already too much valuable land has been lost to the public in the last 40 odd years thanks to greed, corruption and outright incompetence.
The least one expects in a democracy worthy of the name is that such serious accusations by a public-spirited individual are answered officially and explanations given. If the accusations stand, one expects to be told with clarity and clear timeframes what measures will be taken to rectify matters.