Stemming the erosion of values

Way back in September 1997 - on September 10 to be exact - The Times carried a leading article under the heading Stemming The Erosion Of Values. It was provoked by some social statistics I had quoted in an article a few days earlier and which were deemed by The Times "as an eye opener on hitherto unknown facts".

The Times then lamented that "criminality is up, values are going, families are breaking up" and took the view that the issue I had raised was "very worrying".

In the whole of 10 years before 1997, no one had been prosecuted in the Paceville area for selling alcoholic drinks to persons under 16. During the same 10 years, two persons died from drug abuse in the civil prisons, there were several overdose cases and no fewer than 227 prisoners were found to be under the influence of drugs between 1994 and 1997.

Criminality was on the rise. Whereas in 1987, the number of persons handed prison sentences totalled 225, the comparative figure had escalated to 662 by 1996. Over the 10-year span between 1987 and 1997, no fewer than 5,300 persons had been sent to prison.

There were only 1,726 single parent families with 2,565 children in 1988. This figure had risen to 3,118 single parent families with 3,500 children in 1996.

During the same 10-year span, 156 girls under 16 had to leave school because they had become pregnant.

No fewer than 4,000 persons applied for AIDS tests in 1996. The number of free syringes distributed from health centres to drug users in 1996 totalled 145,000.

Sad to say, that gruesome picture has not been frozen in time. Things have worsened. If anything, they are deteriorating fast.

The number of babies born out of wedlock increased from 425 in 1999 to 704 last year. The total number of babies born to single mothers during this five-year period adds up to 8,381.

The number of syringes handed out to drug addicts last year escalated to 349,707 (100,300 distributed from the Paola health centre).

A total of 26,949 HIV tests were held over the past five years, of which 90 were "positive". And 278 persons were admitted to hospital last year suffering from an overdose.

Permissiveness is furiously competing with unscrupulous commercial exploitation of the younger generation and the social fabric is disintegrating at a rapid rate before our eyes. The above figures, quoted from parliamentary replies, are far more eloquent than anything I could say. Yet, there has been no apparent strategic decision to contain this situation through tighter supervision and control.

Rave parties continue to be authorised even on weekdays. Paceville claims more and more youths of all ages at all hours of the night. Criminality is assuming alarming proportions.

This problem has its social, economic and more aspects. It is no wonder that the courts found 4,867 persons guilty of criminal offences last year and 796 cars were stolen.

How many of the 230,223 sickness certificates, claiming benefits from the Social Security Department last year, originated from persons who were unfit for work due to drug abuse or to excessive drinking and partying the night before?

All social institutions, including the Church, have to assume responsibility for Malta's survival in a world where the forces of evil are plainly on the ascendancy.

This issue is not political and much less partisan.

As The Times pointed out in 1997, the problem of social morality is not above political concern. It is the duty of politicians to play a role in safeguarding values and in promoting social cohesion.

Teaching and persuasion may be in the hands of the Church and civil society.

Physical power is in the hands of politicians. Those who cherish family values have a duty to be on the alert and speak out. But it is the politicians in the cockpit of power who must take the bull by the horns and get things moving positively.

The stark evidence of the past 15 years proves that the prevailing policy of laissez faire is burning the young generation at an alarming rate.

The outcry raised by The Times in September 1997 pleading for urgent measures to "stem the erosion of values" is, today, more valid than ever before.

Dr Vassallo is a Labour MP.