Today’s Editors take to their leading opinion article to express their anger at yet another tragedy – one too many – resulting from collapsing homes, adjacent to construction sites.
Maltatoday disagrees that this should be a moment of reflection, but rather a moment of civil awakening from our collective slumber. If people do not rise up to this situation, such tragedies will be normalised making the situation even worse.
The Times describes this tragedy a chronicle of a death foretold, with understandable fear as people get buried under their homes. Tweaking the rules will not solve the problems, and significant changes are required. The Editorial also calls for people to speak up and stop bullies from running riot on our country.
The Independent takes cue from Foreign Minister Evarist Bartolo’s description of a culture of greed, reflected in the monster which the construction industry has become. The Editor appeals that Miriam Pace’s death be one final eye-opener. Amending the rules will not suffice, but a complete overhaul of the way authorities functioned.
In-Nazzjon reflects the general sentiment of the public, based on a mixture of sadness and anger. It expresses disappointment at Minister Ian Borg’s comments with regard to the St. Venera tragedy, especially in view of the fact that he himself had assured the population that changes in building regulations were ensuring peace of mind for citizens.
L-Orizzont leads with a timely and provoking editorial headline: “We will soon forget”. Unfortunately, similar incidents in the recent past, led to a flurry of comments, protests and arguments, only to dissipate within a few weeks. The Editor insists that now that there a life has been lost, words alone are useless, and serious actions were required to ensure that no such fatality ever takes place again.
Newsbook’s Editor in Chief writes “we live in a country, a society, with a plethora of authorities. The biggest problem is identifying “who carries the can, ultimately?” The article adds “Will they carry the responsibility they were ostensibly set up to carry? For example: will the Planning Authority’s enforcement section be taken to task? Will it now be questioned why a vital aspect of the Building Regulations office, the lists of contractors, is kept by the Malta Developers Association who is certainly not an impartial or a professional party? Will the law and the infamous article 26 be repealed to make mandatory the need for geological assessment and constant surveillance? Will the architects remain the absentee demi-gods of construction – responsible for everything and nothing? Will the building industry remain largely self-regulating when it has shown itself up so many times as being operated by a majority of cowboys?
The article adds that “the only way I will back off on this is if, over time, the industry takes steps to ensure that architects remain confined to the profession, that masons are again licensed and monitored. Not on paper. Not on the site notices. Actually monitored. If the authorities, including the law courts, show that they are working for a society that feels safe and not for a society that feels its pockets. Then I will back off.”
