I’ll believe it when I see it

Yesterday, the PM Joseph Muscat was saying all the right things about law enforcement, clamping down on illegalities and coming down hard on anyone who breaches the regulations surrounding spring hunting, now that the YES vote has won. It sounded great. They were quite impressive, authoritative words, in fact, which seem to show that he has “listened” to the voice of those 49% of us who voted no.

The problem is I am just not buying it. The issue I have with this kind of rhetoric is that it ends up being just that.

The past has shown us that any time a politician announces with great fanfare that “this kind of thing will not be tolerated”, those of us who do abide by the law WANT desperately to believe him, but then time passes and we end up where we started.

Our hopes are raised, we try to quell our cynicism and believe that maybe, just this once, the authorities will really do something about lawbreakers, but then, pffft, like a deflated balloon, we realize it was just once again a lot of hot air, and we end up completely disillusioned.  Enforcement fizzles out like soap suds in the sink.

Here is a quote from his speech as reported yesterday:

“Today’s result was no reason to break the law, Muscat said. He said he had instructed the Police Commissioner and the AFM commander not to tolerate any law-breaking and action would be taken against violations.”

And yet almost immediately, people reported the sound of shots being fired in various areas, and in one case in St Julian’s a truckload of celebrating hunters halted traffic for 20 minutes so that one of them could get out and relieve himself.

Now this is a relatively mild, minor infringement, and yet it does not bode well. At the time of writing, I have not read anything about the police doing anything about it. And this is precisely what so many of us who voted NO were afraid of; that the complete disregard of the law would simply be perpetuated not simply when it comes to hunting, but in all areas of our life, and for whatever reason.

I listened to the hunters being interviewed as soon as the result of the referendum was announced, solemnly talking about adhering to the regulations and what they can or cannot shoot, and I really would like to believe them. I really would like to think that, after all this, they can fully understand the concept of not getting carried away and thinking that they can now do as they please. But I’ll believe it when I see it.

And I’m not saying this because I have some pre-conceived image of hunters with all the negative connotations which go with the typical stereotype, but because I have failed to see anything which will convince me otherwise. Where I agreed with Muscat is when he said that now that spring hunting has remained, the hunters have an even greater responsibility to prove to everyone that they can be law-abiding.

I hope that people can be out in the countryside, trekking or having picnics on public land and not be bullied or intimidated by a hunter with a rifle because “might is right”. Can Muscat guarantee that? We will see. The PM also said that he expects law-abiding hunters to report those who are in breach of the law. Again, we will see (but I’m not holding my breath). The hunting fraternity, as we saw in this referendum, takes care of its own.

Which is more than can be said for those who claim to love the environment. I, like many others, am immensely disappointed and upset that not enough people cared enough to go out and cast their NO vote, despite the fact that polls showed the NO vote was ahead.

It was clear to me from the beginning that the biggest challenge was going to be apathy because, for a variety of reasons, this issue did not stir many people’s emotions enough for them to rouse themselves up from whatever they were doing and physically go to cast their vote. This is not simply a case of clicking like on Facebook; you actually have to make an effort, and I guess the effort was simply just too much. Over 20,000 could not even be bothered to collect their vote, even though there was plenty of opportunity to do so.

I had a feeling of foreboding when I was still meeting people as late as 8pm on Saturday who had not yet decided whether they should bother to vote.  What can I say? There is not much one can say in the face of such an attitude.

There was the inevitable finger-pointing yesterday, blaming the NO campaign for being ineffective, blaming the political parties for backing the YES vote, and all sorts of other blaming going on. But frankly, you either wanted to vote NO or you didn’t. It either meant something to you or left you cold and fed up of the whole thing. Personally, I am still trying to understand the reasons for such indifference especially in districts such as Sliema and St Julian’s.

Are we so very deficient in the concept of voting on an issue which impacts the country as a whole and not just our own narrow interests? I guess the answer to that (like the vote which won in the referendum) is Yes.