By Ramon Casha

A number of government projects in recent years have been met with less than wild enthusiasm. Big and expensive, many of these failed to reach people’s expectations, and – this being Malta – each one became a partisan issue. Those on the opposition side immediately started pointing out the flaws, while those on the government side tried to paint the others as chronic moaners, never satisfied with anything. One of the frequent arguments made is “Well did you prefer it as it was before? It’s an improvement isn’t it?”

If I had a car which I had driven for years until it was rattling, falling apart and being held together by duct tape and chewing gum, and I finally buy a brand new car to replace it, I’d expect more than a superficial improvement. I’d expect it to be mind-blowingly better – cleaner, smoother, more silent, more fuel efficient, and the door remains attached to the body when I open it.

So what’s with this notion that a brand new service or project, that often cost us a mountain of money, is acceptable as long as it’s slightly better than what we had before (and sometimes even that is debatable)?
The new bus service is the latest of these projects. We would have new buses, smart drivers, better routes, they told us. I was beginning to get enthusiastic about it. If the routes are right I might even start taking a bus to work. It would be a thoroughly modern, state-of-the-art service matching the best that’s available out there.

What we got was Arriva.

Of course it’s not all their fault. Transport Malta couldn’t miss this opportunity to foul things up. The new routes are – according to pretty much everyone – worse than before. Trips that used to take half an hour now take two. Of course, there were the bendy buses. I’m not sure whose bright idea those were. Just the other day, three of them were involved in crashes on the same day – two actually crashed into each other. Did anyone ask how successful these had been in other countries, or did someone just see “bendy buses” and rubberstamp their introduction with the enthusiasm of a teenager with the latest electronic gadget?
More often than not I get the impression that many of these problems stem from the fact that this government stopped listening to its citizens years ago. Personally, if I had to introduce a new bus service, I’d have distributed a leaflet to every household, asking residents to fill in which routes would they use in a new bus service and how many times per week. Collect the results and then work out the new route network based on which routes are used most frequently, while retaining a minimum service level for all locations.

Not only has this government not shown a willingness to ask, it doesn’t even listen when told. When the city gate project was announced, everyone agreed that this was long overdue, but the criticism of the roofless theatre was almost universal. And these weren’t just a bunch of Labour malcontents. These were producers, directors, actors, singers, performers… all experts of the stage, all warning the government that this was a bad idea. Did the government listen? Did it even offer to sit round a table and discuss matters? No. These experts were dismissed while the government offered to send a mouthpiece to explain to them why they were wrong. We are now in the process of building the next demolishing project. I would not be surprised if the launching event will be the only artistic production ever held there.

This attitude of “I don’t care what you think, you’re merely a citizen” is not doing the government’s image any good. Having many of these fiascos fall squarely onto the lap of one minister who then cheerfully declares that he won’t lose any sleep over it makes it sound worse – he sounds like one who knows he won’t be held accountable.

We need to start expecting better from our politicians. We need to demand that our money is well spent, that we get our money’s worth. We need to insist that “it’s not worse than before” is not good enough for us.