Last Saturday, merely a few weeks after Mrieħel, we took to Burmarrad for yet another press conference denouncing another instalment of Frederick Azzopardi’s sustained war on farmers.
Infrastructure Malta, a mechanised division at the service of Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg, plans to destroy more arable land and a 500-year-old water mill to build a roundabout which the agency shamelessly described as a “traffic calming measure”.
The need for calming Burmarrad’s slow-moving traffic stems from the ODZ fuel station built further up or from an ODZ commercial establishment that has mushroomed instead of what used to be a winery. But a quick look at planning applications in the area will highlight another ODZ massacre in the offing: this time, a supermarket.
The name behind the supermarket (PA/08024/18) is that of Gilbert Bonnici, of Bonnici Brothers, a leading contractor headquartered in Burmarrad who is also planning to redevelop a batching plant, realign some roads and develop more residential properties.
Bonnici Brothers came to the limelight in recent years as net recipients of various direct orders and contracts from Infrastructure Malta. In 2020 alone, Bonnici invoiced IM in the region of €7.7m for various works, including those on Borg’s promenade in Għeriexem (Rabat), which, between contracts and direct orders, exceed €4.4m. Other highlights include the works on Burmarrad Road itself, worth over €1.8m.
This, of course, is only what Borg tabled in parliament earlier this year.
Halfway through said roadworks (including a treacherous roundabout and a separate rebuke from the Civil Protection Department), the supermarket application was resumed after being frozen since 2018.
Sums it up: shoddy works at the expense of drivers, shady works at the expense of farmers who have tilled land in that area for years.
The balance in Burmarrad is very fragile. Farmers will tell you how even the smallest of realignments will result in the loss of access to water all the way to Salina. Miriam Dalli, the new Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Sustainable Development, might wish to intervene if she’s willing to offer farmers more than the usual round of lip service.
But this is also a story of communities, of residents, families, ways of life and livelihoods, all of which face destruction or slow death. It’s the same for the families of Qormi, Mrieħel and Dingli and, very soon, it will be Luqa and Msida. In Gozo, the picturesque road to Marsalforn will be widened with more tarmac and less trees.
The attack is two-pronged. Azzopardi does what he knows best: bullying farmers into silence and depicting opponents in a bad light; hopefully, things he didn’t learn during his time at Enemalta and the ill-fated Electrogas expedition.
Borg, on the other hand, has the dubious honour of being the face of his own projects. He lives up to the role by carrying out callous televised attacks on farmers and critics alike, knowing they have no voice in the media and even less political clout.
Indeed, new lows are reached every week. As part of their investment in televised scaremongering and fact-twisting, the most recent song is about a PN official who leaked the plans for Mrieħel.
This is a dirty tactic aimed at discrediting opposition to their monstrosities as ‘Nationalist’. No PN official ever intervened in the Mrieħel issue. The plans were wrested from IM’s murky grip by the farmers, who then announced them before Christmas. A few days later, Moviment Graffitti also received a leaked copy of the plans; we got them from the horse’s mouth itself.
It is now clear to all that the political ambitions of this young politician (and tarmac fetishist) necessitate the destruction of fields and livelihoods, communities and their well-being.
There is no option for us but to step up our actions. It’s not the way we wanted to start 2021. We’d rather not be on the warpath, indeed, we’d rather live in a society where a group like ours doesn’t need to exist.
However, this is not simply a road building spree. It goes well beyond that.
We won’t shy away from this fight, just as we have in our 27 years of activism. The Robert Abela administration has – RIU intervention notwithstanding – justified our actions of 2018 and 2019 against the perfidious fuel policy which Borg refused to reform (Aaron Farrugia did it in his stead, within months of taking over at the PA).
Borg has been lapping up media exposure, showing off a novel brand of arrogance displayed by his unministerial choice of semantics, in friendly TV studios bereft of a decent counterweight. Maybe Borg should go face to face with civil society, members of whom have been fighting his onslaught for years. Only then we’ll know how well he can control his tongue.
Surely, TV appearances won’t solve the issue. As a self-funded, voluntary activist group, our struggle will need all the help that can be mustered against these egomaniacs who have, for far too long, been given too much money, too much equipment and too much power.
The independent media is one of our biggest hopes in this struggle against greed and omertà, as is the all-important support of communities, local councils and residents across Malta.
Standing by idly is no longer a choice.
Let one thing be very clear. Borg and Azzopardi have to defeat us first.
By “us”, I mean a wide coalition of farmers, residents, activists and citizens who have had enough of bullying and who have shed the fear they’ve tried to instil in all of us.
They shall not pass. Not this time.
Wayne Flask, member, Moviment Graffitti
