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He appears grim and serious, accompanied by a posse of bored journalists next to mounds of rubble, soil, and big yellow monster machines. It is the site of a road extension.
Mr Jesmond Mugliett, as the minister for roads, obviously does not read modern Maltese history, neither does, it seems, his colleague the minister for the environment, George Pullicino. Road ministers think that progress means ripping up through enough countryside for a new road with two king-sized pavements on each side.
Back in 1966 in the Borg Olivier (BO) era, the first conservation movement was born to oppose a road planned to cut right through the Ghadira nature reserve. Back then it wasn’t even a reserve, but actually a hunting reserve.
The campaign was run by young Maltese and Gozitans, together with a group of helpful British ex-pats. They opposed the road that would destroy the Ghadira marshland and find its way to the escarpment under the Mtarfa Red Tower. They won the battle and the BO government caved in.
In 1982, Labour heavyweight Lorry Sant tried his luck again at passing the road through the Ghadira reserve and again, the independent conservationists managed to stop him. It was not an easy battle but somehow it worked.
I recall that the heavy-handed minister would refuse an official meeting at his ministry with us protestors, so together with Natalino Fenech, now a journalist, I visited one of his ‘pjaciri’ offices in Fgura with some rather naïve expectations.
Once our turn came up, we were introduced to a fuming Lorry Sant, surrounded by officials working overtime from his super public works ministry.
He screamed and banged. His coterie of self-appointed bodyguards entered the room shouting “X’gara, x’gara?” (What happened?). And then, we were rudely kicked out as one of them waved a revolver.
Now Mugliett wants a new network of roads next to Ghadira, just like Lorry Sant wanted. To be frank, Mugliett’s plans are far worse than Lorry’s. Under the excuse that these will be paid by EU funds, as part of this network of roads, he also plans to dig a tunnel just under Mellieha through sleepy Manikata and right to the area that once upon a time Premier Gonzi dreamt of as Golf course land.
In this small country of ours where everyone talks of branding ‘Product Malta’, someone should be telling the Jesmonds of this world that Malta cannot be raped any further. If we want Malta to stand for something, we certainly cannot brand it as a country with cars, cars and yet more cars.
In Gozo last week, the planning authority sanctioned more quarrying in an area which is designated as a national park.
The shouting and screaming may have subsided and so have the thugs, but the same stupid, silly, irresponsible Lorry Sant mistakes are still being repeated. Jesmond may neither be surrounded by thugs nor stand out as the corrupt minister, but his thirst for more tarmac should be resisted. If anything he should be focusing on potholes.
Only two weeks ago in Gozo, Jesmond appeared with Princess Giovanna next to the fields off San Lawrenz, where he watched over as the perimeter of fields were being ripped apart. Their idea of development is what in common parlance is called taking suburbia and planting it in the middle of the countryside. Instead of rubble walls with wild flowers, hues of green and yellow, they dream of artificial red bricks and wide pavements. How nice!
Dom has refused to pay a Lm1,200 water and electricity bill that covers a period of seven years. I have received several emails from run of the mill folk who have provided me with their water and electricity bills that work out for more than Lm1,200 in seven years.
“I have paid over Lm1,200 in seven years,” one of them said. Another irate reader asked: “Has this man ever paid for anything in his life?”
And another wrote: “Mintoff has lived all his life taking and not giving. When will he stop?”
You will read in this issue that Dom’s lawyer, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, has paid for Dom’s water and electricity bill after the grande Dom lost a court case in which he asked the Constitutional Court to recognise a breach of his fundamental human rights when the Water Services Corporation shut down his water and electricity for… one day!
Now Dom will probably not read this column, but if he does he has to be reminded of all the days, weeks and months the population of Malta suffered long bouts of water and electricity cuts during those dreamy years of golden socialism.
To describe Mintoff as cheeky would be an understatement. Because there is another aspect of Mintoff that cannot be forgotten. I may be suffering from dementia, but how can a man who revelled in treating the Maltese judges as pariahs, have no misgivings in turning to them for legal retribution?
Which brings me to Dom’s days, of which highlights included – apart from holding mass meetings, surrounding himself with a bunch of gorillas and intersperse his speech with endless sexual innuendoes – Freedom Day.
Last Friday was Jum il-Helsien, which for the vast majority of us has as much significance as the disappearance of the Tsetse fly from some derelict pond in Tanzania. Freedom Day is celebrated at an oddly placed rock garden which was rudely dumped at the feet of one Malta’s most beautiful and historic churches in 1979.
In those days of freedom, there was never anything such as MEPA (not that everything might be dandy just because MEPA is around today), to possibly censure the erection of that rock. Because that monument at Birgu was Mintoff’s idea of constructing monuments which debased culture. It is a brutal piece of kitsch art that reflects the superficiality of his populist inclinations.
Last Friday, New Labour chose of all people the young Alex Sciberras, a 24-year-old who was elected to the Msida local council and became mayor not on the strength of his political experience, but by the mere fact that he garnered the highest number of votes. A former Moviment Graffitti and Alternattiva Demokratika activist, he is the son of Judge Philip Sciberras – himself a former Labour MP and a lawyer to Dom.
Sciberras, who some moons ago was protesting against nuclear weapons with Graffitti at the same monument, talked about the achievements of the Labour party in the social field and that the decisions taken by (Dom’s – my words) Labour governments led to “peace and progress”.
That famous “paci u progress” makes anyone over 35 years of age cringe. And of course, he said that the achievements attained by Labour were being eroded by the incompetent Nationalist governments and a PN which sort of existed for “friends of friends”.
Of course no one informed little Alex that “friends of friends” was coined in 1974 during Mintoff’s first legislature upon his return to power, by anthropologist Jeremy Boissevain. By 1974, Jeremy had started to doubt Dom in a very, very serious way, whereas before he would talk of the importance of a Labour government to guarantee true freedom for Malta.
Well, 27 years ago, I was there watching the whole socialist shebang from the other side in Senglea, a north-easterly gregale storming through the day when Alex Sciberras wasn’t even a sparkle in the eyes of the creator to see it happen.
I was 16 then and like a young simpleton, experiencing what I thought was history. I still had to experience the ghoxrin punt, the student beatings, the thuggery, the mediocrity of the media, the protests in the streets, the land permits corruption, the nepotism and the grand disillusionment with that grand old leader Dom.
So I cannot understand what Alex means when he talks of peace and progress. Jum il-Helsien then was all about waving ciao to the last Brits on the islands. The peace and progress bit is all hogwash and a confused ideological soufflé that simply means nothing.
The Nationalists are far from perfect and the more they age the more they resemble a rusty old cargo ship with water seeping through the broken bilges. But at least they still have a compass on board. And sometimes, or most of the times, they can be no different to what the Labourites perfected for their own friends of friends network.
In 1979 – the year of peace and progress – I did not miss the Cadbury the PN cried for, neither did I yearn for the colour TVs the odd minister would have in his home, or the other odd privileged comforts of life.
But I did miss out on realising what a flipping mess we were in. Sciberras was not around to remember that in 1979, the whole idea of freedom was taken to mean “do not f*** with me because I will f*** with you”. In 1979 the Times was burnt down and Fenech Adami’s home ransacked. And that means that 1979 is not a good time to remember for Maltese socialists.
If I were the party I would hire a few machines from Polidano and bulldoze the rock garden to kingdom come. Thinking of it, he would probably lease them out to the Labour party for free.
I sent out some questions to Robert Arrigo, the Nationalist MP from Sliema, on his views on low cost carriers and whether he shares the same views as his elected colleagues in the Cabinet. Strangely Mr Arrigo did not get back to me. I have this uncanny feeling that when it comes to the Sliema constituency one does not find the camaraderie that one would possibly encounter in a united political party!
sbalzan@mediatoday.com.mt
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