After several months of head scratching and pussy-footing, the powers that be decided to crack down on gaming arcades which have mushroomed all over the island. The Times reported that over 900 gaming machines were inspected, a few were confiscated. An urgent request for a prohibitory injunction, filed by shop owners, stopped the police from confiscating equipment in a number of amusement machine outlets that have been operating without "the necessary Gaming Authority licence". To add to insult to injury as frequently occurs, the owners got wind of the operation before it actually started hampering full police investigation.
Public concern about the social pollution arising from the government's inertia, as these arcades "multiplied next to parish churches and youth centres" (to quote from the editorial in The Times of August 9) hit the headlines several times in the past. The powers that be dithered and quibbled but took no decisive action. Things reached a stage when the Parliamentary Social Affairs Committee urged the government to take action. That was in the second half of last March.
Parliament is now expected to approve new regulations governing the gaming\gambling sector after the summer recess - which means that the existing legal lacunae and administrative shortcomings will continue to torment the social environment pending Parliament's say so. In other words, previously illegal activities will now become legal, still causing the problems which caused concern from several quarters.
And so, another "crisis" left to develop after long months of government inertia in the face of public outcries will now be solved by having a legal Casino at every corner in most towns and villages. Spin doctors would predictably describe this as "progress". In fact, it amounts to window-dressing. The problem afflicting Malta is not so much about updating the Statute Book. It is also about enforcement of the law. Why did the powers that be dilly-dally for so long before they decided to swoop on the gaming arcades? Would we have had to cope with the problem that has now ended up in unnecessary legal complications, if the government was quick on the uptake to enforce the laws relating to gaming\gambling?
When Parliament comes round to clearing up the mess after the summer recess, there will be many who will try to find the loopholes and get round the new set-up. It is enforcement, and not window-dressing, that will check them. It seems that it has become the order of the day for the authorities to allow a laissez faire attitude allowing all sorts of abuses to grow unchecked and unabated, only for action to be taken when the public outcry pours out into the press. What's more, it seems to be instituted government policy to legalise such activities instead of downright banning them.
Some examples: The government moved to tighten the legal framework with regard to under-age drinking but abuse continues to be rampant because of lack of enforcement.
The government has, at long last, moved to protect the citizen against abusive developers, and the new legal provisions are a major step forward on paper - but only if the law is rigidly observed by way of enforcement at ground level. The government has recently given notice of its intent to take a stand relating to IVF (in vitrio fertilisation). It has dilly dallied ever since - to the point that it has not, at least, intervened to the degree it did in the case of gaming arcades, i.e. stopping it completely until the procedure is regulated, and this when the government says it respects Life from the moment of conception.
Window dressing is no answer to the electorate's expectations.
The electorate hankers after an alert government which is quick on the ball and strict in law enforcement. It also expects appropriate Court sentences that reflect the severity of the crime.