Some days, I’d pay for an early wake-up call. There’s nothing more beautiful to watch than two boats sailing towards Comino in the early morning, with a 50-strong entourage of activists and citizens seeking to retake a public space stolen by privateers.
It was over in a flash: the deckchair vendors hogging the Blue Lagoon appeared overwhelmed and surprised, possibly having grown used to the MTA’s enforcement, which looks the other way whenever it’s not napping in the woods.
A battalion of eight to 10 policemen appeared two hours later, not entirely sure about the reasons for this mission in hostile temperatures. Willing to make the most out of this otherwise pointless expedition, some of the Old Bill enjoyed an ice cream and jovial banter with the deckchair owners.
The action came against a background of manifest and widespread theft of public open spaces which residents and citizens have been suffering for years – from pavements to beaches, nowhere is sacred. Comino has been the treasure cove of greedy business people for years, with nobody moving as much as half a finger to remedy the situation.
Matters were made worse last year when the Ministry for Gozo carried out unauthorised works, pouring concrete all over areas of a Natura 2000 site in a bid to provide water and electricity services to the kiosks. The debacle prompted Alan Deidun’s resignation from the ERA, another regulator which has a lot to answer for here.
Public support for the action was striking, especially because the authorities have not only been lazy but tone-deaf.
Clayton Bartolo, for one, increasingly looks like a pubescent gamer tasked with the controls of the Red October. The minister seems to think his job is simply dishing out sponsorships to Manchester United (look what happened to that) and throwing lavish film awards while his staff thrift away government funds on needless hotel bookings. His legacy is that of a €20m vortex in the MTA’s accounts and a series of incoherent, bumbled replies to the media. Perhaps, his concept of protecting the coast and its resources is based on a few cursory watches of Baywatch.
It’s a wonder how he retained his tourism seat: it’s like the prime minister is giving him length after length of rope and he’s eager to carry it all the way to the gallows. In the latest revelation, Bartolo’s father and uncles make €17 for each tourist they ferry to and from Comino. But there’s no conflict of interest for Bartolo, whose pledge for “quality tourism” puts him in the improbable role of regulating his own family’s profits.
It only took a matter of hours to unearth the truth about the sunbed operators: Daniel Refalo has close links to one Joseph Portelli; another is Mark Cutajar, brother of Labour MEP Josianne Cutajar and campaigner for Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri, who has yet to utter a word about the whole saga.
This, in turn, would not only incense public opinion further but lead to two spectacular statements from One stalwarts Manuel Cuschieri and, tellingly, Jason Micallef. Micallef would first support the Comino initiative led by his favourite punching bags, then, with the suddenly vocal Cuschieri in tow, asked for the heads of those who have “embarrassed the Labour Party” with the approval of Portelli’s pool in Xewkija.
Clayton Bartolo increasingly looks like a pubescent gamer tasked with the controls of the Red October- Wayne Flask
People can fall from trees and suddenly recite romantic poetry. Micallef knows just as well as everyone does that his own party, individually and as an organisation, has favoured this developer’s rampant, destructive drive across our country, including those who have handed him millions in roadbuilding contracts. Micallef knows whose villas to knock for answers.
That the PN’s Alex Borg decided to criticise only the authorities without mentioning Portelli by name – just like Bernard Grech did right before the election – should serve as a meagre consolation only to Micallef but to none of us others.
But those Labour quarters suddenly appreciating Moviment Graffitti must now concede that their actions put the government against a wall. A week before the action, five ministers received a letter with six clear demands for the preservation and management of Comino; none of them replied. As it turns out, one of them has undeclared business interests which clash with his role.
The activists’ intervention highlighted the general complacency of many an authority under these ministries’ remit, justifying the cynics who laughed off promises of “humility” after the election.
Despite the fact that civil society has had to single-handedly fight the effects of a series of laws, by-laws, legal notices and countless bureaucratic obstacles (particularly during the Muscat years, dear Jason), it remains the only credible voice in among the orchestra of rabid hyenas baying for public space.
It is also clear that Labour hasn’t started looking at the red numbers of the last election. The rise in abstentionism saw Labour lose 8,000 votes, lost ‘loyalties’ which Abela immediately pledged to recover. That his party ignores the frustration of thousands at the loss of quality of life is reflected in its need to commission a survey on the Marsascala marina, despite visible popular anger at the secretive project.
Similarly, all but one Labour candidate avoided giving clear answers to residents’ questions about Mrieħel and Wied Żnuber – after all, it only takes another crack of the whip from an increasingly nervous OPM.
Abela and his ministers may decide to persevere in their obstinacy and disrespect for civil society, demonstrated in an eyebrow-raising show of hostility at the Presidential Palace. It’s up to the government to choose its path and decide whether to get off its high horse and engage or bear increasing grassroots discontent at the siege of our public resources.
Whichever way it goes, it’s going to be an interesting summer. We love the smell of social justice, especially in the morning.