The court gave another reason for civil society to rejoice last week when it turned down the Lands Authority’s appeal in the long-standing Gżira garden saga. The government saw its efforts to hand over the land for the construction of a fuel pump thwarted after a protracted legal battle with the local council.
Mayor Conrad Borg Manché emerged as the man of the hour after this second ruling, which effectively justified the resistance to the project that would have effectively robbed the public of another public open space to serve private commercial interests.
What is more alarming is that the Lands Authority was represented in court by PL president Ramona Attard, who is also responsible for Labour’s electoral manifesto, including the €700 million pledge to create new public spaces. This is not only a tell-tale display of how conflict of interest operates in Malta but the government’s assiduous defence of the fuel pump’s relocation betrays its priorities.
An agreement of this sort, no doubt done behind the public’s back, is proof that Labour is neck deep in such deals and that it will go all the way to honour them.
Borg Manché had also stated that he found out about a PA hearing related to this project by chance, in what appears to be an orchestrated effort to underhandedly issue permits for this fuel pump. It is only thanks to his perseverance and that of lawyer Claire Bonello that the residents will retain the enjoyment of this garden, on a seafront otherwise gobbled up by private developments and concessions.
The mayor’s stance found widespread support not only among Gżira residents but also among a sizeable chunk of disgruntled Labour voters who have had enough of their party’s servility to big business and its main effect: the continued erosion of their quality of life.
Prime Minister Robert Abela spoke of “compromise” solutions in an attempt to quell the commotion caused by Borg Manché’s spirited defence of his residents’ garden. Abela is either blissfully unaware that the time for compromises has long gone or else is being plain cheeky. Borg Manché has been fighting to defend his locality from the onslaught of developers for quite a few years and it’s preposterous of the prime minister to expect him to back off from a battle he has fought without any support from the party.
This brings us to the other Labour mayor who was been wrangling with developers for years: Christian Zammit resigned from the Xagħra council and the party, in what he described as “getting out of their way”. Here, too, Abela tried an 11th-hour mediation but his efforts were shunned.
And rightly so: after years of looking the other way, if not directly favouring developers’ interests, in Gozo as in Malta, Labour cannot expect to be credible by offering an olive branch in public. More so when the business interests leading to this debacle clearly wield considerable power over the very politicians who asked Zammit to return to the fold.
In the run-up to the last election, Abela held a meeting with the big cheeses of the Gozitan development industry, at the same time as scandalous permits were being issued in Sannat, Xagħra and Qala, among others.
After validating the construction lobby’s power, Abela is naive to think residents should sit quietly and watch their quality of life go down the drain.
Gżira and Borg Manché are a lesson for those who think they can roll over everyone else; Xagħra and Zammit are an alarm bell screaming at the incest between politics and construction.
A year from the European elections, it’s up to Abela to decide whose bell he’ll heed.