Malta: Taking Stock after Fifty Years. Where to now? - Jeremy Boissevain

Introduction

I first arrived in Malta exactly fifty years ago, and, have worked and visited here in various capacities for years. Our family now has long roots here: Two of our daughters and two grandchildren were born in Malta. Since I first arrived so much has changed on the islands. Anka jien rajt Malta tinbidel!

My plan for the next half hour or so is to explore some of these changes. I'll also pin-point some facets of Maltese society that have not changed and look at some of the things that have got out of hand and suggest why that has occurred. I'll then offer some tentative suggestions about what might be done to remedy some of the problems, but only for a few of them.

Plenty of problems remain.

Some of the things I say may be painful to hear, especially coming from an outsider, even from one who is a long-standing friend of Malta and means well. Besides, most of what I have to say has been said many times before by insiders. But in your hyper-charged political climate, their remarks have too often been dismissed as partisan, and so disregarded. But I am neutral, pro-Malta, cannot vote, and, dare I say it?, include fervent Nationalists, die hard Labourites and colourful Greens among my best friends.

What has Changed Since 1956?

So much has changed since 1956 that it is difficult to know where to begin. I'll list a few, in fact some twenty changes. Malta finally ceased to be a colony and has become an independent country and a member of the European Union. The once ubiquitous British presence has faded into a memory of those my age and is unknown to the younger generation. Much more English is being spoken. You have become comparatively prosperous. We have village friends who fifty years ago lived in a three-room house with eight children, who slept three to a bed and who cooked on a spiritiera and who could only travel about by bus or bicycle. Each of these children today owns a large house with an ultra modern kitchen and bathroom and each owns at least one car.

The population has increased from 320,000 to 400,000, yet the birthrate has gone down. Now the average family has just two, not five to six children. Your already severe population pressure now is increased by a yearly influx of some 1.2 million tourists. These new visitors have brought important wealth to the Islands, but they have also increased the pressure on your already strained land, water and energy resources. There has been a frenetic building boom that is still taking place. To quote Richard England, who quoted someone else: Malta has become a building site on heat. Much of Valletta's population has shifted to the suburbs and taken with it your capitol's liveliness. It is no longer the country's sparkling meeting and entertainment centre.

The residential pattern of your villages has changed. Younger villagers have abandoned the village cores and moved to the periphery. Their traditional houses ("Character" houses in housing agentese) have been modernized and occupied by wannabe natives, foreigners and middle class refugees from Malta's urban areas in search of a mythical anonymity, tranquility and rural authenticity. Many more women now work away from home than in the 1960s, and they have acquired more legal rights. But Malta still has the lowest proportion of working women in the European Union, and women still tend to let the men do most of the talking in public. There has been an explosion in possibilities of communication and news media. Multiple radio and television channels, now increasingly broadcasting in Maltese, have replaced Rediffusion. All households now have access to telephones and/or mobile phones. People no longer rely on the police telephone, a wealthy neighbour or the red telephone booth.

However, there is no longer an independent daily Maltese language paper. Church, Union and political parties now control the news passed on to those who prefer to read it in their native language. This feeds the intense political factionalism. Since independence there has been a slow but steadily increasing interest in the your literary, artistic, cultural, historical heritage and -- despite its continued destruction -- landscape and nature. The steady decline in mass attendance, priestly vocations and the inability of the church to prevent the increase in external celebration of festi signal a weakening of the traditional power of the church. With the end of British control, the power of local politicians has greatly increased. Ministers have become the new super saints, often dispensing patronage to the detriment of democracy and the long-term interest of your cultural and physical environment.

Partly as a reaction to the negative impact of this political development on the social and physical environment, civil society is emerging as a new political force. NGOs, and ad hoc citizen action groups increasingly are able successfully to challenge poorly conceived government and private development projects. The recently established local councils have also given voice to local communities and so taken over many of the responsibilities and powers formerly exercised by government, political party and parish priest. Fuelled by bank loans, affluence and driven by runaway competitive consumerism, oversized buildings, cars, buses and yachts are consuming more scare land and clogging Malta's roads and harbours. The tourist and building industries, encouraged by government, have urbanized much of our countryside and skyline.

Finally, the islands' strategic location has in the past ten years been responsible for a swelling stream of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers en-route from Africa and the Middle East to a better life in continental Europe. They have profoundly disturbed the country's ethnic homogeneity and exposed its latent racism. In short, there have been many profound changes during the time I have been in touch with Malta. I'm sure you can add more. But I must move on. Some things, however, have not changed.

Some things that have not changed

Malta's small scale and high population density are constants that influence social interaction and perceptions. Family is still the most important point of reference and people still pride themselves on the strength of the family. Loyalty to the family is a fundamental and cherished value. This leads to what some have called amoral familism, although many would call it a highly moral form of behaviour. It is the existence of a set of values that hold that any action undertaken to benefit one's family is justifiable, and that other people behave similarly. This set of values is widespread in Malta and in southern Europe. It leads to a disregard of the effects on others -- on your neighbours, strangers, and future generations -- of your action to further the interests of your family.

After loyalty to the family comes loyalty to partit and to political party. Political relations are still characterized by intense and destructive factionalism that effectively inhibits any form of cooperative long-term planning. The twin loyalties to family and party effectively obstruct loyalty to the state. Family and party loyalty also feed another characteristic of Maltese life, the endemic patronage, clientelism, nepotism and the real and imagined network of friends-of-friends that can be mobilized to solve the problems of daily life.

Finally, still present, though somewhat weaker than it was, is the fear of reprisal, retribution for criticism of family, of party or of government. This blanket of fear rests heavily on the shoulders of so many. It inhibits persons from standing up and disagreeing with, or even just questioning, someone who is more influential or powerful. This fear has for long muzzled the voice of civil society, but, very slowly, it is growing weaker. Apart from examples of retribution, of which all of you can cite real or imagined examples, this fear also stems from an inculcated belief in what I would like to call the "hierarchy of infallibility". This is the belief that combines fear of established authorities with a passive acceptance of their decisions and, above all, avoidance of open confrontation. It is a world view inculcated by the unquestioning obedience exacted by both the Church and your various colonial regimes. For centuries they dominated you and demanded loyalty as the two dominant political parties do now.

These then are some of the social characteristics that don't seem to have changed much these past fifty years.

Problems: Some Things have Gone Wrong

A number of problems have also emerged in the past decades. These are the result of the interaction between the persistent social characteristics I just discussed and the rapid changes that have occurred as Malta modernized. One problem in particular has struck me most forcefully. This is the massive destruction of the environment. Since you became independent your countryside and architectural heritage, your coastal zone, the sea surrounding you, even the your underground water supply and the air you breathe, quite literally have been and are still being raped, to put it harshly. Moreover, they are being raped for private gain.

Most people, but fortunately not quite all, until very recently have stood by, perhaps grumbling a bit, but doing nothing substantial to halt the growing desecration. Year by year it has become more pronounced. Malta, because of its small size, affluence and lackadaisical attitude to littering, has become, and I regret to have to say it, probably the dirtiest country in Europe. Many first-time visitors, the tourists on whom your livelihood depends, are shocked by the way you treat your countryside. Yet most of you do not seem to mind the filth. You have learned to live with it.

The recent "State of the Environment Report for 2005" said it all. A few choice passages:

[The] landscape is threatened by increasing built-up area, industrial and coastal development, taller buildings on urban fringes obstructing views of historical centres, modern agricultural practices, increasing vehicular access, littering, poor standards of design and lack of maintenance.

The rising number of motor vehicles has serious implications for the environment, human health and the economy in terms of air pollution, land take-up, noise, and fuel consumption.

Nitrogen oxide pollution remains high in certain urban areas. The principal health effects are linked to respiratory system change, read asthma.

Malta's ground waters are seriously at risk from over exploitation and pollution, risking the loss of Malta's only renewable fresh water source.

And so on and so on, and on. You can all add to the list.

The State of the Environment Report for 2005 makes grim reading.

Why have Things Got out of Hand?

Basically what happened is this. In the period following independence there was and initial lack of adequate planning and a laissez-faire attitude to development. During the latter days of the Labour Government a fairly blatant flouting of such planning regulations as existed took place in exchange for political and private advantage. Following the change of government in the late 1980s free market principles were uncritically introduced. This speeded up the privatisation of the environment. The increasingly powerful building industry successfully applied pressure to be allowed to construct more and bigger hotels. Public impatience with the planning chaos obliged government to do something. By 1992 an environmental protection act, a development planning act, a planning authority and a structure plan were in place. These measures somewhat slowed down this private encroachment, but it still continues.

The policy of the government and Planning Authority appeared to support the generally held notion that "more is better", more building, more tourist arrivals, more hotels, more houses, more cars and more and more things.

In the course of this expansion, regulations were and still are being flouted, bent and ignored. Illegal quarrying, building, and land occupation persists. Moreover, as the debris, and the litter of affluence increases, it is dumped all over the island: in the periphery of villages , along the shore, at the side of major highways and along deserted country lanes in the heart of what is left of the island's once glorious nature.

Why was and still is this still taking place?

I attribute this to at least nine factors. I'm sure you can point to others. My list keeps on growing!

1. The widespread south European ingrained habit of regarding all public space as a no-mans land.

2. The family centred orientation - the amoral familisim - that is so much a part of the fabric of daily life in Malta condones the indiscriminate dumping of rubbish beyond one's front door, in public spaces. It also accepts the illegal construction of buildings with total disregard for the laws and regulations established to protect the quality of life of others and the nation's environment. Amoral familism is opposed to the notion that individual rights and interests must sometimes be sacrificed for the common good. In short, it contradicts the principle that the state's building ordinances and zoning regulations should be obeyed because they are right and just.

3. A weak sense of heritage at the grass roots level furthers the destruction of national patrimony. Though it is beginning to change, the notions of heritage and patrimony were foreign to most Maltese and Gozitans. Many -- if not most -- still look upon much of the country's monumental heritage as having to do with others -- the Knights, the British, il-Gvern, the tourists, with 'them', not with 'us'.

4. The Friends-of-Friends syndrome already mentioned reinforces the firm belief that friends in high places in return for political support, favours or cash, can regularise abusive building and other contraventions. The very fact that illegal construction activities are so widespread, and that so few persons are successfully prosecuted and severely and publicly punished for this, validates this belief and encourages potential offenders to proceed.

5. Your somewhat muddled and archaic legal system makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for MEPA successfully to prosecute building offences and to remove illegal constructions, even if it had the resources to do so. The inability -- or unwillingness -- of the state to enforce its own building regulations encourages people to disregard them.

6. Fear of retaliation for reporting or testifying against illegal activity leads to the Maltese version of Sicilian omertà, collusion through silence. Such fear also reflects the lack of confidence in the ability of the state to protect the rights of its citizens, and thus it underlines the need to cultivate influential protectors. Given the widespread ethic of amoral familism, there may even be empathy with the offender: Halli lil kulhadd jimxi ghal rasu! (Let everyone go his own way).

7. Your electoral system also furthers the friends-of-friends syndrome. The small multi-member constituencies generate intense pressure on politicians competing in the same small area to secure the votes of the same limited number of constituents. One way they can obtain votes is by personally intervening with authorities on behalf of favoured or powerful constituents when the latter run into difficulties. Friends working in MEPA have told me that political pressure on them at times is severe.

8. Your various governments, whether left or right, or blue or red, have invariably favoured the interests of the building and tourist industries over the interests of the people. These industries prioritise profit making, if needs be at the cost of the quality of life and heritage of fellow Maltese.

9. Finally, the Maltese habit of short-term planning and the related demand for quick profit is a basic cause of the rampant destruction of your environment. I suggest that this habit, in turn, is a consequence of your colonial legacy of looking to more powerful others to take care of your long-term problems, of the greed generated by amoral familism, and government's short planning span dictated by the electoral cycle, of which more later.

What can be done about this?

Not much I'm afraid in the short-run. Much of the difficulty is rooted in your culture and your legal and electoral system. But make a start by seriously enforcing existing laws, severely punish offenders and clean up your countryside. That you are still not doing so is evident. Illegal structures still stand and much of your countryside is truly filthy.

To clean up your landscape is an enormous task. Is it because so few politicians venture into the countryside that they do not realize the extent of the mess there is and the scale of the task? Have they just got used to the mess? Serious funds and personnel must be made available to do this. A clean up will require hundreds of thousand liri and a large task force. Could not the able bodied unemployed, and asylum seekers be employed and volunteers be mobilized? Once the job is done, you will see that littering and dumping will decline.

Remove, without exception, all advertising billboards outside built up areas. They urbanise, cheapen and pollute the countryside. They give Malta the image of a nation of hucksters selling off its family silver. Recently you have made an excellent beginning, but more remains to be done. For example, there are still eight offensive billboards blotting our view of the landscape and traditional farmhouses on the road between San Gwann and Naxxar, four between Qormi and Rabat and one on the coast roads below Mount Maghtab. They too need to be removed.

Be more serious, consistent and strict about enforcing your building regulations and your new littering penalties. This will require more funds, manpower and cooperation from the courts. A good start has been made. Enforce it.

Ruthlessly destroy all illegally built or modified structures whether in or outside development zones (ODZ) and enforce the polluter pays principle. Illegally built constructions are clearly illegal, and should be removed. Not just the boat houses of the little people. The illegal structures of the rich and prominent should be taken down, and with high media coverage to set an example. This too will require more manpower and equipment, and possibly adjusting the laws to facilitate it. Above all it will require courage and determination. Surely this is not beyond the power of a government serious about cleaning up its countryside?

Unless there are truly serious considerations of health and public safety, MEPA should reject out of hand and without further consideration any application for developments outside development zones (ODZ). This would save itself and the applicants much time, frustration and a great deal of money. Think of the incredible amount time and funds already wasted on the various ill-conceived golf course and villa schemes. All were or are ODZ.

Enlarge the MEPA Boards to accommodate civil society interests by appointing a representative of the Environmental Non-Governmental Organisations.

Act seriously to eliminate the illegal use of ground water.

Take serious measures to control polluting vehicles.

The measures taken to date are farcical. Everywhere you can see and smell their failure. Fine all polluters consistently and heavily.

Finally, actively support and participate in the activity of the ENGOs and citizens action groups opposing irresponsible and or illegal developments.

Need I go on? So much comes down to enforcing your existing laws. This requires more police and more will to do so.

All this has been reported and recommended before, numerous times. Most recently in the Open Letter by the new Malta and Gozo Citizens Committee signed by over 400 persons who urged fellow citizens to pressure government and local councils to address their concerns about the environment and not just the concerns of the developers.