Silvio Debono made an unexpected, if ever unwelcome, return to the public eye last week. Clad in the sheepskin robes Debono and his ilk love to wear under pressure, the DB supremo appeared in front of the public inquiry on Daphne Caruana Galizia’s heinous assassination, in what I thought was a rather good performance – only if you consider the likes of Simpatiċi as Emmy material.

Debono was presumably summoned on the back of the 19 libel cases he had filed against the murdered journalist after her scathing work on the DB-ITS project. Debono came across as the typical bull trying to tiptoe around a minefield of his own making. Suddenly professing peace and love, he offered a ludicrous olive branch to the Caruana Galizia family; “compromise,” he called it.

Compromises with big business are a danger to us common citizens. Cabinet ministers and state TV propagandists love to dangle this word in front of their audiences whenever activists and residents stand up for their rights: “don’t you see the possibility for compromise between the economy and the environment?” is a question I’ve faced countless times, as have many of my colleagues in various NGOs.

Unfortunately, the time for compromises is past. After ravaging and pillaging our resources for decades, the ruling classes want us to compromise. The problem is that our quality of life is already sufficiently compromised through various interventions, “developments”, as they call them, and there isn’t much left to lose. Compromise, as the big business lobby means it, is a carrot laced with cyanide.

Debono’s sudden appearance in court last week was also a stark reminder of the fact that, yes, the Monster is still alive. By “Monster,” I certainly do not wish to infer ulterior, unfair adjectives onto Debono or any of his lapdogs.

The Monster is the infamous ITS-DB project, which threatens to strangle Pembroke and its residents in darkness, congestion, noise and pollution.

Most of us know how it’s gone so far. The PA had originally approved the project in spite of vehement protests from residents and NGOs back in September 2018; then-CEO Johann Buttigieg had managed to outdo himself by pulling not one but two rabbits out of his hat on that fateful day.

First, he interrupted contracts chief Jacqueline Gili’s vacation in Sicily, scuttling her back via a private charter which cost in excess of €10k (taxpayers’ currency), so that she could vote in favour of the project. There were controversies about the sale of the land to DB, with negotiations that were led by nobody other than Konrad Mizzi, who is always obnoxiously present in this kind of deal. The NAO flagged “multiple irregularities” in this deal, with Debono clinging to the same report to insist, even last week, that he paid a “fair price” for the land. But the elite always expect everything for free, so the peanuts DB negotiated with Mizzi are being spun as a fair deal.

In light of recent decisions such as the Aħrax-Miżieb debacle, handled by the Minister for Capital Projects, among others, all of us have a right to worry about backroom deals

The second rabbit involved a letter which Buttigieg pulled out of his side pocket at the end of the hearing, right before the vote was taken. In this letter, the master of ceremonies explained that Transport Malta committed itself to the construction of an underground tunnel to specifically service the DB project; the tunnel, you’ll never guess, will be paid for by government.

Maybe Debono is right in stating that the price he paid for the land is fair. He got handed a pricey extra as a sweetener and, right after the PA approved the project, he locked himself in silence and refused interviews with news outlets such as this paper.

Thankfully, residents took the issue all the way to court and the permit was revoked after a blatant conflict of interest involving real estate kingpin Matthew Pace was exposed. Incidentally, Pace enjoyed close ties with Keith Schembri; Debono also admitted in front of the inquiry that he was in talks with the latter during negotiations on the ITS deal.

However, Debono didn’t really offer Pembroke any compromise, instead instructing his faithful tonto, former state propagandist Lou Bondì, to kickstart a PR campaign with the title ‘We Listened and We Acted’.

I’m sure they meant ‘Play Acted’. DB merely shaved off two storeys from the Monster and led a sustained onslaught in spring before the public consultation process was meant to kick off, drowning the media in advertising while most of us were worried about the then-novel coronavirus.

And, then, everything went mysteriously dead.

This is the kind of silence that brews unpleasant storms in Malta. Why have DB suddenly stopped listening? Have they started acting, behind the scenes?

Debono (unlike Bondì, maybe) knows when it’s wise to hit the mute button. But he’ll also forgive me, and thousands of residents in the Pembroke constituency, if we feel a bit edgy at the sudden end of the PR offensive.

In light of recent decisions such as the Aħrax-Miżieb debacle, handled by the Minister for Capital Projects,  among others, all of us have a right to worry about backroom deals. If Debono has managed to get Transport Malta to pay him a tunnel (not a mere pavement, mind you), then we can only hope nothing of the sort happens in the second round.

Surely, it would be the kind of “compromise” between the government and big business that will, once again, spit in the eyes of Pembroke residents who may witness the second round of this murky love story.

Without a hint of irony, the bedfellows are a former ġakketta blu and a “socialist” government hellbent on selling off our common resources to the elites.

Wayne Flask, member of Moviment Graffitti