Some Practical suggestions for the Prime Minister about how to spend some of the National Budget:
- Maltese citizens do not need to travel free on buses. What we need are more buses – so that we do not have to wait twenty minutes or more for a bus to pass, usually ‘full up’. Get out of your chauffeured car, for once, Prime Minister, and try and catch a bus yourself, especially during the rush hours, and see for yourself how much the ordinary person has to wait on the bus stage.
- Get your minister Ian Borg to interrupt his uncontrolled building of streets in order to see how he can solve the problems of the ones that already exist. Perhaps he still has not noticed that every time it rains, every street – wide or narrow – becomes a swimming pool. In case the Minister requires a concrete example (and not the worst), ask him to walk on the Gzira seafront in the rain and try to cross the road, unless the cars wet him with dirty water from head to toe while walking or waiting for the traffic lights to change. If he does not feel like crossing, all he has to do is wait for the bus – he will get soaked by the cars anyway.
- Now that elections are nearing and that you will start employing people by the dozen, please ensure that apart from those chummy-chummy officials with dizzying salaries, you employ some who – whatever their political colour – are actually competent in their work.The disastrous roadworks that have taken place – so that even formerly dry roads are now flooded – show clearly what incompetence and corruption lead to.
- Summon those who plan roads and their repair, and warn them that before covertly putting money into their pockets, they are to plan properly all the roadwork that has to be carried out, rather than opening roads time and time again for one reason or another, in order to be able to steal more money from tenders. Ensure that they think about the real needs of the citizens, and not only their own greed.
- If you need more money for Malta’s treasury, bring out your wardens, rain or shine, and make them stop all single drivers on fast lanes, and pick up the €50 fine from each one of them. You should soon collect a tidy sum – perhaps you could use it to start thinking about how to repair the roads.
- While you are at it, oblige Minister Ian Borg to find someone in a wheelchair and take them for a walk in our streets. Do not let him imitate Alfred Sant, who sat down in a wheelchair and was pushed around while supposedly attempting to take some sort of action. Get Ian Borg himself to push. Perhaps, after such an exercise, Minister Borg may start to understand what it means to have roads full of potholes and high pavements without any slope for wheelchairs. If he finds no volunteer to push, maybe you yourself could get into the wheelchair and he can push you, so that together you can finally understand what taking out a person in a wheelchair means to families who have a member in that condition.
- If you want to save money and attract tourists, ensure that whoever is approving the ugly, horrible buildings that you are allowing to crop up everywhere, makes the developers pay hefty sums for the added drainage and extra pipes, as well as for the installation and maintenance of depurators of sea water. That way, our beaches will not continue to become polluted while nothing done about the situation. And please stop your officials from persecuting the poor individual who simply wants to build a washroom, while you let these environmental assassins get off scot free.
These are only a few practical ideas of how to spend and make money, and improve the quality of life of those citizens who try not to use a car, or who simply do not have one. Perhaps if you begin to force those who, with your consent, are ruining all natural and urban beauty in our country, to pay for all they do (including paying their taxes), then perhaps we might begin to believe that you think of us citizens. Up to now, the impression is that you have long forgotten we, normal citizens, exist, and that ultimately, couldn’t give a toss about us.