Reward for good behaviour

I completely agree with the letters of David Carrington (‘Gozo beware’, January 16) and Revel Barker (‘Coming to kill us’, January 18) .

I did not see my children and grandchildren for a year now. Locked away in Gozo unable to travel. Keeping to the advice of the ministry.

We get rewarded now for doing that by the same ministry. Hundreds of Maltese allowed to come over for the non-existing carnival. They will be occupying the farmhouses with families, leaving their garbage all over Gozo, driving like lunatics. The don’t care about anything, including our health.

An irresponsible minister of Gozo. This should not happen to us who obeyed the rules.

Where is the coordination on how to administer the jab? They had months to prepare and it is a disgrace.We will wait and see but I foresee a bleak spring for myself. Hopefully, I will not get sick.

I wish the healthcare workers a lot of strength, they will need it.

Malta be wise: we are an island and we have to look after each other, young and old.

Anna van Breemen – Sannat

Stop the power grab

The Maltese have shown a total willingness to elect women to parliament. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

The idea to boost the number of women parliamentarians is commendable. The gender-balancing bill being rushed through parliament with little opposition is not.

Malta’s overly large parliament is about to become supersized. Expect even bigger cabinets with all the expenses that go with that. In these trying times, the government should be seeking to reduce the burden on taxpayers (like Italy has done), not increase it.

The mechanism will increase biological diversity but not the ideological kind. A third-party candidate (even a woman) who wins more votes than a Labour or Nationalist female candidate will still be overlooked for the latter, unless the third-party candidate is elected the hard, traditional way.

The new system will allow for a wider use of the democratically questionable co-option method, in which people of the major parties’ choosing are parachuted into parliament despite having not contested the election or won a single vote.

Ultimately, this is an undemocratic, major-party power grab cloaked in feminist rhetoric. It will further entrench the PN/PL duopoly (more “Yes, Minister” MPs riding the gravy train and spreading their partisan tentacles across the islands) while doing little to amplify truly under-represented voices in society.

The sensible, democratic and inexpensive way to increase the number of women parliamentarians would be to have more of them contest elections.

The Maltese have shown a total willingness to elect women. By some estimates, women are actually more successful at getting elected than their male counterparts. The problem, though, has been few women to give ‘the number one’ to. 

If the major political parties were to commit themselves to having a roughly equal number of male and female candidates on their ballots (maybe, initially, even 60 per cent female to achieve quicker results), the parliamentary gender situation would surely change dramatically in a couple of electoral cycles. Why go for a nuclear option when the democratic one has not been tried yet?

Malta’s third parties should look at legal and all other avenues to stop the power grab from happening.

Patrick Zammit – Żabbar

FIAU obligations

I refer to the article ‘FIAU will not cut fines despite ruling by court’ (January 22).

FIAU respects and fully abides by any court decisions.

In contrast to what the newspaper article tries to imply, the FIAU was never directed by the law courts to “cut fines” on sanctions already imposed by the unit.

Furthermore, the FIAU categorically denies that fines are being dished out because the unit is seeking to become financially independent. The primary objective of the FIAU, as Malta's AML/CFT regulator, is to ensure that subject persons comply with their anti-money laundering obligations.

Kenneth Farrugia, director, FIAU – Birkirkara

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