“Yet another clear case of lack of cooperation,” the Ombudsman commented about the Lands Authority in his recent report. “Lack of cooperation” was putting it mildly. This was active obstruction of the Ombudsman by a government entity, several government entities actually.
Apart from the Lands Authority, the Malta Tourism Authority, the Planning Authority and Transport Malta were also asked for their input by the Ombudsman. All four simply ignored him. None of them bothered to reply.
This wasn’t “lack of cooperation”. This was determined, coordinated sabotaging of the Ombudsman’s work by four different government authorities. It was orchestrated denial of the public’s right to information. It was organised wilful negation of every basic principle of democracy. It was the disgraceful trampling of the European Convention of Human Rights.
The Ombudsman’s Office attempted to conduct an investigation into “constant further incursions on the public road and/or pavement from establishments with structures for tables and chairs”.
The Ombudsman was trying to figure out how it was even possible for numerous establishments to simply hijack public land for their own profit without repercussions. The Ombudsman was trying to establish why commercial outlets were allowed to take over pavements and roads, making the lives of residents hell and those of disabled persons, who could barely get into their property, a living misery.
The Lands Authority is responsible for fixing steel markers to delineate outdoor catering areas in public spaces for those establishments given permission to do so. Yet, the complainants noted that no such steel markers had even been laid down. Those markers are intended to make it clear to the establishment and to the public where tables, chairs and other catering outdoor furniture can and cannot be placed.
The Ombudsman politely asked the Lands Authority, the Planning Authority, the Malta Tourism Authority and Transport Malta for their comments about the issue. All four completely ignored the Ombudsman. Even the usually circumspect Ombudsman was incensed. He lambasted the Lands Authority, which “again does not even collaborate with the Ombudsman institution in finding a proper way forward to enhance its administrative role”.
Despite the determined obstructionism by Labour’s authorities, the Ombudsman still reached his conclusions. And they were disturbing. The responsible authorities showed “a complete and utter disregard” for the policy to delineate outside catering areas.
This was no oversight. This was Labour’s political appointees wilfully ignoring policies intended to protect the public and allowing unfettered abuse of public land by greedy businessmen. Instead of protecting citizens, the government’s public authorities enabled businesses to take over public land they had no right to.
Those authorities provided businesses carte blanche to hive off public spaces for their own profit. Labour’s public authorities actively implement a policy of shielding transgressors. In the process, the lives of ordinary citizens, especially disabled citizens, are turned into nightmares – access to their properties is impeded – and the problems of noise, traffic and parking are amplified in places not licensed for outdoor commercial activities.
That there is an unwritten free-for-all rule for catering establishments has long been suspected. Now we know it for a fact. The Lands Authority and the Planning Authority, which should be regulating outdoor catering facilities, have completely abrogated their responsibility by design. Those authorities not only intentionally and blatantly disregard the law but also actively obstruct the Ombudsman from fulfilling his role.
Labour’s political appointees wilfully ignore policies intended to protect the public- Kevin Cassar
While these public authorities routinely condone these illegalities and contraventions, the police conveniently look away. And the people pay the price. That’s Labour being Labour. Whenever faced with the easy choice of protecting the people or its own business cronies, Labour always chooses business.
They did warn us they were ‘business friendly’ but hid the fact that in seeking to implement that policy of business friendliness they would brazenly and persistently trample on the public’s interest.
Now they’ve gone one step further.
In order to conceal their shameful breach of our right to enjoy public spaces, they actively collude to deprive us of another of our basic human rights: the right to information.
In 2015, the Ombudsman’s Office published a report entitled ‘Truth, transparency and accountability ‒ the state’s duty to inform’. In it, the Ombudsman highlighted the core guiding principles underpinning the state’s responsibility to provide information to its citizens. “Transparency cannot be achieved unless the facts are known in the public domain,” the Ombudsman commented.
Judge Giovanni Bonello was quoted in that report. He insisted that the European Convention of Human Rights established an almost absolute right of the public to information. The Sirbu judgment in Strasbourg determined that the only information the state can withhold from its people are secret documents and information concerning its military, intelligence services and its police. For all other areas, the public has a right to complete free access to information.
Labour not only fails its duty to inform the public but doggedly conceals information even from the parliamentary institution of the Ombudsman. Labour’s public authorities have the sheer audacity not just to hide information but to completely swat off the Ombudsman like an annoying mosquito, completely disregarding his requests.
We have a right to that information. And so does the Ombudsman. Those authorities and our government should be accountable to us, the public. That is what democracy is all about. It’s about truth, transparency and accountability.
Instead, Labour operates a siege strategy of perennial secrecy and concealment from its own people. It actively subverts the proper functioning of national institutions, like the Ombudsman’s Office, through a rigid refusal to even engage with those institutions and by withholding information that should rightfully be in the public domain.
Labour is compelled to hide the truth from its people because the truth is entirely unpalatable and threatens Labour’s stranglehold on power. That’s why Labour routinely expends huge amounts of time, energy and our taxes to conceal the truth from its own people.
That is not democracy, it is the very negation of democracy.
Kevin Cassar is a professor of surgery.