Everything comes with a price. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Malta had a central government which could be defined as austere, staunch socialist and near communist. All those Maltese who like me had their freedom of expression, thought and movement threatened lived in fear. Our future looked bleak and most of us fantasised on a better life outside Malta. In 1987, the Nationalist Party was elected to govern Malta and since then it has transformed Malta from a near communist state to a fully democratic and independent country.

In the process of giving back the power to the people, the PN came up with a brilliant idea, that of local governance. With the creation of local councils and their democratically elected mayors, the locals started participating fully in taking care of their village or city. The central government trusted the democratic principal of decentralisation so much that it transferred major political and fiscal decisions to the local council. Key areas like street cleaning, street maintenance and construction, ensuring a healthy environment in the village and the lighting up of streets were transferred to the local government.

In principle, this is remarkable because who better than the people of the locality can determine what is best for their village or city? One question arises, however. Has this process of decentralisation lived up to its expectations? Is it time that we embark on a national and serious independent audit of whether local governance does in fact pose major flaws in some areas... Now that would be a good theme for Xarabank, Bondiplus or The Sunday Times survey to explore!

What prompts me to affirm this? Over the past months, I have been encountering a lot of people saddened by a number of genuine and at times grave problems in their locality. Most of them project a sense of impotence in resolving issues which seem ridiculous at face value but serious when one comes to analyse the real significance behind the legitimate claim.

Visiting an old lady in one of these localities made me look at the bigger picture. She has been living in a street which for months on end has been without sufficient lighting. She burst into tears, stating that she can't even see the keyhole because of a vision problem she suffers. On countless times, she tried to contact her local council to no avail. I put a parliamentary question and was given an evident answer... this is a local council issue; please refer the question to the local council.

Where does it end? I can fully empathise with this frail old lady because even I feel impotent in front of a very simple request.

The same happened with an urban area outside my village where the local farming community had to do without street lights in this remote area for weeks on end. This time I did spare the minister a parliamentary question.

Furthermore, what can one say when confronted with the innumerable comments of tourists who question the cleanliness of our environment? When they write their grievance on newspapers they rarely hold local councils responsible. They just go straight to blaming Malta as a country (the central government by default then). Don't get me wrong, because I do feel cleanliness in our locality is the responsibility of each and everyone of us. There has to be someone who oversees the smooth running of such a task, nevertheless.

Malta's polarity can cause major problems when it comes to a local government headed by a mayor of an opposite party. Even if goodwill prevails, an opposing party (Labour in this present time) mayor will of course have some conflict of interest when coming to take decisions in making the locality look more beautiful.

It is easier when it comes to the local council headed by an opposing party mayor, not being able to provide, to blame the central government. One such mayor was very prompt in sending the local people a letter saying that unfortunately some outdated projects could not be done because the central government had cut the budget to local councils... What audacity!

Unfortunately, not everyone understands that in some instances the central government is really not in a position to help out when it comes to decisions that fall under the governance of the local government. It is not fair to blame the central government for those local problems that fall under the local council's responsibility. I think the time has come to re-examine some of these issues.

I fully believe in decentralisation but only when this has no hidden political agendas.

Dr Cassar is a Nationalist member of Parliament.