Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar (FAA) condemns in the strongest terms the malicious attack on one of its founder members by Stephen Calleja, as published in the Independent of 21 February.
The allegation made by Stephen Calleja is that Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar coordinator Astrid Vella, should be automatically excluded from sitting on the reformed Malta Environment and Planning Authority by virtue of the fact that Astrid Vella ” has a 16.7 per cent shareholding in B.M.C. Developments Limited”.
The facts are these: Contrary to what Mr Calleja alleged, the company was not set up in 1998 but in 1965 when Ms Vella was six years old, and ceased its activity around 1975. Mrs Vella’s shares were inherited in 1975 and also acquired some time later in an attempt at liquidation. This inheritance was almost meaningless at the time it was passed on to Mrs Vella in her teens and has lain dormant ever since, during which period no attempt was ever made to build a single structure.
These vicious and unfounded attacks have been made ever since FAA established itself as a lobby group which is not afraid to speak openly about the degradation of Malta’s heritage and environment. Mr. Calleja’s futile attempts to dig up events of almost half a century ago in order to attack environmentalists like Lino Bugeja and Astrid Vella begs the question of what his agenda is.
It is to be noted that FAA has never aspired to be represented on MEPA Boards and in fact maintains that environment and heritage interests should not be represented by NGO committee members but by individuals committed to those causes.
Besides being a violation of the Aarhus Convention on harassment of environmental activists, these attacks are a sad reflection of the present climate of intolerance of the least murmur of dissent among the public and are not worthy of a so-called democracy. The public is urged to show its disapproval of such shameful tactics by turning up in support of environment groups’ call for increased legality at the rally to be held at City Gate on Saturday 13th March at 10am.
