[WATCH] Glenn Bedingfield: ‘Now is not the time to build walls’

Glenn Bedingfield was appointed for the first time to an executive position last January when he was made parliamentary secretary for public cleansing. 

It has been a “learning curve” over the past seven months, he tells me as we sit down for this interview at his open-plan office in Mrieħel. 

The relatively short period he has been part of Cabinet belies Bedingfield’s permanence in the Labour Party. “I have militated under every leader since Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici,” he tells me with a chuckle. 

Bedingfield’s deep roots in the party give him an insight into the thinking of those who form part of the party’s grassroots and who have been up in arms since the June election mishap. 

He acknowledges that some in the grassroots are voicing displeasure with the Muscatian idea of a movement, which in their eyes has robbed the party of its soul. Non-traditional Labour voters have suddenly become opportunists. 

“I understand and appreciate this sentiment. Many of those who speak in this way do so because they would have passed through personal experiences. We have to address these personal experiences but I speak a lot with these people and even they understand the need for the party to grow,” he says. 

But Bedingfield cautions against a siege mentality that risks taking over the PL. “Now is not the time to put up walls,” he says, adding that historically the party won elections when it acted as a movement. 

Bedingfield says it is the governments duty to take the necessary decisions to improve people’s quality of life. This is the message he believes people delivered in the June European Parliament election. 

But it is not just the government that should act. Bedingfield says the PL must step up its auto criticism and prod the government. 

However, he insists, change should not be cosmetic or about individuals. He says the party has to determine how it wants to shape the country for the next 20 to 25 years. 

As for his government portfolio, Bedingfield feels the “ignorant actions” of the few who persist in illegal dumping of waste should not tarnish everyone else’s reputation. 

He says a new plan for enhanced cooperation and surveillance is being drawn up but insists keeping Malta clean is a collective effort.

The following is an excerpt from the interview. 

The full interview can also be followed on Facebook and Spotify.

Do you agree with this statement: The Maltese keep their homes very clean but are disinterested in what happens outdoors? 

No. You cannot generalise. The majority of people who live in Malta are educated and observe rules and then you have the few who are unfortunately ignorant with no respect towards their neighbours, the environment and the country, who litter and take out their household waste on the wrong days...

We often see public cleansing workers going to clean up waste deposited illegally after the location would have been flagged on social media. It is an efficient service but isn’t this a knife that cuts both ways? An efficient service without effective enforcement could lead people to disregard the rules because ‘the people from cleansing will soon come to clear the waste’. 

This is a question I ask myself daily with every case of illegal dumping that we deal with whether this has been flagged on Facebook, through a phone call or by mayors and councillors. I do not wish to leave our country in a shabby state. It is true that having an efficient cleaning service can encourage people to continue dumping illegally but at the same time we have to take care of our country. Taking care of the country cannot be left to the 700 workers employed with the Cleansing and Maintenance Division. It has to be a collective effort…

[…]

How much illegally dumped waste does the division collect every year? 

Every day we collect an average of 45 tonnes of illegally dumped waste. This is equivalent to the size of two double decker buses. We find all types of waste from black garbage bags to animal carcasses; even cats and dogs dumped in black bags. There are particular areas that are notorious hotspots and have become dumping sites.

[…]

Do you think the door-to-door waste collection system as amended over the past few years is efficient enough or are there shortcomings that are enabling the illegalities to happen, even though this is no justification? 

By and large the waste collection system is good… it is a free service provided door-to-door. Very few countries have such a free service… I think it is a good idea to continue discussing the issue to determine whether we should improve it by for example considering the collection of waste at night or at different times of the day.

[…]

Were you expecting the Labour Party to win the European election in June with just an 8,000-vot margin? 

No, I wasn’t expecting it… let us keep in mind these were people accused of being bought out by the Labour Party but they quietly passed on a judicious and measured message; ‘I do not trust the Nationalist Party; I still trust the Labour Party’. But that trust has been reduced to 8,000 on a national level… People have cautioned us; they showed us the yellow card.

What is the message that you believe was delivered by the people in the election? 

People want the Labour Party to take the necessary decisions without having to wait for people to protest about them… tough decisions on the environment, construction, traffic; various issues that are bothering people…

You mentioned, the environment, construction and traffic but it could be the cases of corruption that have erupted over the years are now bothering people at a time when they are feeling the squeeze. 

I do not exclude it. But over the past four years there was no corruption case that could have changed people’s views…

There is the ongoing Vitals case… 

But what I am talking about is in the last four years.

But this is the same Labour government. You are not a different government. You are a different administration but you have inherited the sins of the past. What counts is how you will react to them. 

…I do not exclude it [corruption being a factor]… but today our challenges are different from what they were in 2013 when a new Labour government had the priority of creating work opportunities and encouraging investment. Today, those priorities have changed and people are interested in the quality of life. The [June election] message was for us to take the decisions required to improve people’s quality of life.

Do you think the government’s handling of the Vitals case was a mistake? 

As a government, we handled it well.

What about the scenes of jubilation outside the courthouse when Joseph Muscat, Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri were arraigned on serious accusations of corruption? Do you believe that was a scene that did the PL any favours? 

No, I do not believe it did the PL any good.

After more than a month since the election, nothing appears to have changed. At governmental level, there does not seem to be the urgency to act on the message voters delivered. 

This is symptomatic of a society that wants everything now. The result was out on 9 June and expecting to have changed everything a week later means we would have been taking quick and wrong decisions… Decisions have to be taken but what we decide today must not only take us to the next election; we have to ask ourselves where we would like to see our country in 20 to 25 years’ time.

[…]

Is the PL being a critical voice towards the government? 

The auto criticism exists but the engine needs to increase its speed… we have to determine how the party can act as a force to prod the government forward. The forum of ideas needs to be widened. When you are under attack, [the tendency is to] put up walls to defend yourself…

Is this happening to the PL? 

It would be a mistake if we went down this road… whenever the party acted as a movement it always won. When we acted only as a party we did not always have the successes we wished for. Now is not the time to build walls. We have to open up; we have to speak; we have to reach more people because historically, the PL’s message was always a message that belonged to the people; to workers…

You are saying the party should not put up walls and it should remain a movement but the reaction of some in the party’s grassroots has been the complete opposite. They argue that the PL has given too much leeway to others who are not traditional Labourites, even labelling them as opportunists… 

I understand and appreciate this sentiment. Many of those who speak in this way do so because they would have passed through personal experiences. We have to address these personal experiences but I speak a lot with these people and even they understand the need for the party to grow.