It’s 7.30am and I’m running late for my appointment at 9.30am in Gozo. Lost a few minutes getting out of Attard, a few others in Burmarrad, then a slow truck came up in front of me on the single lane to Ċirkewwa...
For most of us these are occasional incidents. For the Gozitans they’re a daily headache. Gozo’s double insularity moulds and shapes virtually all aspects of life on the island.
Lacking a land connection with Malta can be both a blessing and a curse. A blessing if insularity allows for protection from malaises afflicting the mainland and a curse if it inhibits the pursuit of quality of life, which does require sustained economic activity.
Whenever I visit Gozo, I feel the underlying tension of this dilemma virtually in every conversation.
I believe that Maltese politics has not yet afforded a place for Gozitans, as protagonists, to fully debate this question and its implications for fundamental policy decisions.
A couple of weeks ago, I met with the Association of Gozitans Working in Malta. They told of their experience with a system little concerned with their particular needs.
The Xewkija centre for remote working has, for instance, remained an empty promise. Bad weather and service interruptions by Gozo Channel pile up their stress, with little adaptability from public employers in Malta.
The fast ferry service, inaugurated with much expectation (after three failed calls to tender), lasted barely a year. From 15 trips it is now reduced to four. The connection closes shop at 4.30pm. What if I have a late afternoon work task?
The fast ferry is now hardly a reliable option for many Gozitan workers. They face the prospect of having to do ‘the long haul’ to Ċirkewwa if they miss the 4.30 trip.
A look at statistics reveals that Gozitan workers now earn on average €1,320 less than their counterparts in Malta and €1,252 less than the national average basic wage.
That may be, in part, the price of this kind of insularity. I believe it is also the price of the perverse system of political patronage in Gozo.
The Labour government set out to provide “work for Gozitans in Gozo” in 2013. It definitely kept its word but to what effect? A lot of new public jobs in Gozo are now bogus jobs for inflated needs.
One story I heard relates to a nice beach on the east side of Gozo, previously kept tip-top by one beach cleaner. The ministry issued vacancies for an extra 14 beach cleaners. Yes, you heard it – 15 beach cleaners for a 200-metre beach. Guess what? The beach is now reportedly less clean than it was before.
Fifteen beach cleaners for a 200-metre beach… and the beach is now less clean than it was before- Peter Agius
Meanwhile, factories and hotels in Gozo tell the same story – the government is killing the job market by providing a way out of it with its culture of dependency on public sector employment.
The outcome of Labour’s Gozo policy is an economy dependent on precarious minimum wage jobs and a growing black market.
The people of Gozo have the potential to turn their island into an economic powerhouse offering an alternative product to Malta’s while protecting it as an authentic cultural and environmental haven. To do that, the Gozitans themselves must cut the umbilical cord of nepotistic political patronage while fighting for their due role in determining their own fate.
In between conversations on the dismal state at the Gozo General Hospital and the unreliable sea connection, the discussion in Victoria occasionally touches on the question of Gozo’s status as a region in the EU.
In the past, the PN stated unequivocally that Gozo’s status as a region would be secured through constitutional provisions. I join that commitment. I also underline the potential of achieving effective regional autonomy for Gozo through concrete decision-making and implementation of EU-funded projects on the island.
The ‘low-yield’ government jobs we are seeing proliferating right now can be replaced with ‘high-yield’ better paid jobs linked to EU projects in Gozo. For these projects to leave an added value for the whole of Gozitan society, however, the choice of projects and their effective deployment has to be decided in an open and transparent manner by representatives of Gozitan society.
The above seems to be a simple objective and, yet, despite public declarations by labour politicians in this direction, it remains a chimera. Apart for the odd conference with formal talk by a few ministers, the Gozo Regional Development Authority set up in 2020 is yet to deliver a tangible difference to tackle the above challenges.
This authority was meant to take up concrete projects and see to their effective implementation. It is high time this is integrated also with EU funding which in the coming year foresees significant opportunities in a myriad of areas where Gozo can excel, including the digital revolution and the green agenda where Gozo has formally been chosen as a region targeted to achieve climate neutrality by 2030.
Peter Agius is an EU expert and prospective MEP candidate.
kellimni@peteragius.eu