Mark Anthony Sammut

This was my letter published in the Times issue of Friday 29th June 2012 I proudly declare that I am one of the 24,000 ignored signatories of the petition to revoke the permit for the development of apartments at the edge of Wied il-Għasel in Mosta. This decision, and others before it, should lead us to ask whether it makes sense to give up further pristine land for construction, considering we live on a rock of barely 316 square kilometres where 76,000 properties lie vacant. An article in this newspaper on April 13 penned by Mario de Marco had given us a glimmer of hope: a political will to direct the construction industry away from the construction of further blocks of apartments, especially on pristine land, and towards the rehabilitation of old and vacant buildings to rehabilitate and give life to our village cores. That political will though still needs to be put into action. It seems that the Malta Environment and Planning Authority still lacks policies w

A year after the public transport reform, the Times is inviting people to submit their views on the reform. James Debono has also written a very interesting blog-post on the subject, and I share most of his sentiments. I am here sharing also my personal experience in using this service. I have used public transport daily for work for around two months while our local council was discussing improvements with Transport Malta, so that I could be in a better position to understand the residents' complaints and propose any possible improvements. The situation in Gudja, where I live, was in fact quite problematic up to a few months ago. Residents had to either walk to the Malta International Airport, crossing a very dangerous arterial road (where Transport Malta have now promised to install pelican lights by early 2013), or wait for an hourly bus which passed through Gudja on the way to the airport. While not much of a problem for those who are able to walk a few minutes (since

They believe a diplomat should resign because he did not inform Parliament on his strategy in granting Malta access to NATO documents and meetings without re-negotiating a new Security Agreement, as directed to do by Cabinet, while basing a motion on the completely unrelated issue of re-activating Partnership for Peace membership without involving Parliament four years later. They said a diplomat should be held accountable, but like Lino Spiteri , many think that "it would be a fine mess indeed if the country’s ambassadors were personally held to account before the House of Representatives in censure motions. It is the executive politicians who make and are responsible for policy. They are accountable." They spoke about the need of strengthening libel laws, but never about removing the greatest loophole in our libel laws: their privilege to slander and lie about anyone they want under the much abused parliamentary immunity. They said the country should

In an article on the Times  last February, I had shared my views as to why I think that 'hate laws' introduce inequalities before the law while appearing to promote equality, and actually create more problems while doing nothing at tackling the causes of inequality. And proof of that is ironically the judgement of the case that has actually prompted the amendments to our hate legislation. Because the attack was not proven to be motivated by hate due to discrimination of the type defined by law (i.e. sexually oriented, gender, racial, religious, or whatever else the legislators decide to add), then you're fine with a slap on the wrist. You can beat people up for as low as €500. What about doing the obvious thing to do, and raise penalties for any physical violence on anyone and for any reason, without requiring the court to enter into the merit of whatever prompted it: whether it was hate, envy, anger, or merely love? In my opinion, motives and emotions should only

My article published in the Times of Malta issue of Saturday 9th June 2012. I followed with interest the articles that appeared in The Times regarding pensions, one reporting the European Commission’s warning that the pension system needs further reform for it to become sustainable and the other reporting the government-appointed working group’s warning about the unsustainable pension trap for over-30s. It is now becoming obvious to everyone that the “pay-as-you-go” two-thirds pension scheme introduced in 1979 was an unsustainable pyramid scheme, devised as a short-term political ploy with no long-term consideration of its future consequences. A pyramid scheme because, as devised, on average it requires three to four workers to contribute for the pension of one retired person and who, when they themselves retire, will require nine to 16 workers to contribute for their own pension. The only way such a scheme could be sustained was through an ever-growing exponenti

Dan kien id-diskors tiegħi fil-Kunsill Ġenerali tal-Partit Nazzjonalista, Mejju 2012:    

Ministerial resignations in this country are few and far between. So it stands to reason that Mifsud Bonnici's resignation is no small matter. I think it's also the first time in Malta, at least as long as I can remember, that a Minister has been forced to resign by a parliamentary vote of no confidence. One would therefore expect Mifsud Bonnici to have committed some grave sin. But what sort of wrong-doing has he been involved in? Mismanagement of public funds? Misleading Parliament? Corruption? Embezzlement? Nepotism? Nay, none of the above. The reason it seems is that he should assume responsibility for problems existing in Malta's justice system for as long as I can remember, surely before his appointment to the post in 2008. Was he expected to solve all of them in four years, when the average court case currently takes three years to conclude? Another accusation was that the Reparative Justice Act is being implemented too slowly. This act introduces parole, a