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Now just imagine that forty years ago you happened to fancy a promontory overlooking Marsaxlokk harbour. It was a time when the issuing of planning permits was somehow illogical, haphazard, disjointed and possibly linked to your purse. Now add another factor to that equation and just change your name to Dom Mintoff.
Voilà, you have it.
Mintoff as we all know has or had a summer residence hanging over Marsaxlokk harbour. Then some upstart at Enemalta suggested building a power station just right in front of Dom. Before that, Dom was not the only one to have the privilege of constructing a dream house in the open countryside with a sea view.
There were others who built wonder homes in pristine countryside, but the vast majority did not have such opportunities. Given the chance, we all will run away from the claustrophobia of our small towns and villages and erect monuments for our untimely pleasures. But we do not because we are regulated by the rules made by the same people who call themselves Doms, Eds, Freds and Lorrys.
At the time, it was mostly the Brits or the traditional Maltese landowners that enjoyed the beautiful vistas.
Mintoff’s singular attraction to uniqueness was all the more stunning because of his credentials which he trumpeted ad nauseam: that of being a socialist of the Nasser school.
What is even worse was his envy or class hatred for those who owned largish and lavish properties. And he intervened on more than one occasion to make the permits for those individuals – Nationalist of course – impossible. Not to mention the land requisitions which he masterminded at no cost to his government.
The history of the compensation that has been awarded to Mintoff because of the siting of the Delimara power station, the court judgement and the appeal by government, are not interesting for this column but what is, is the principal that is being completely sidelined by the courts.
Some years back, when Mintoff was getting all flustered with the attractiveness of the Delimara peninsula to the masses, he started to eye yet another piece of faraway land. True, in typical Mintoffian style, the construction was frugal, minimalist, but nevertheless the surface area was sizeable to say the least.
In his last years as Premier and before his factotum Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici took over he had obsessed himself with his ‘autarky’ syndrome. He ordered the requisition of land, land he said was good for nothing. The Ghar Lapsi and Mtahleb plateaux were just two of them. It was at Mtahleb that he eyed as his next jewel.
There he could ride his horses away from the prying eyes of the injoranti. There he could have fantastic views of a sunset that outshone the one at his Delimara outpost.
Again, there was no question of permits. There was no question of proposed development being outside the development zone. That was Mintoff.
There are other angles to Dom. His never-ending thirst for real estate in his early days as Malta’s post war architect should be noted. The history of his cash rich professional operations and his investments, all these remain camouflaged from the public eye, from those who revered him and confused him with the Gods or God.
The uglier side of him: the politically discriminatory decisions, the nationalisation mania, the bulldozing over people’s lives, and the conflagration of the institutions are the side of him that should be remembered.
There were good things, but it is not for me to mention any more.
For years Mintoff was demonised by the Nationalists, of course. They hated him for what he was, but they despised him because they also wanted to be in power. So as all politicians do, they confused issues and they used people.
Yet, when the time came, they suddenly forgot what they had said about Mintoff. In the end they just started to hate one Labour leader more than the other. In the very end they preferred the brusque vile Mintoff to the eccentric bookworm Alfred Sant.
Just in case we have all forgotten, it was the Nationalist Party with Lawrence Gonzi as Secretary General that went all barmy for Dom Mintoff in his wretched jeans and a silly buckle pointing out to an incredulous Pierre Portelli live on NET TV his vision of Cottonera in comparison to that of Alfred Sant.
Rewind on many of those arguments, and the political machination was simple: give Mintoff all the space on Net TV to bring down the new Satanist by the name of Sant.
In those hot summer weeks of 1998, Dom returned to his old mode. His door was revolving, meeting political animals one after the other. Moving forward, backwards and sideways to see where he could stand. They were all over him and he was nowhere.
I wonder in those lively discussions did he ever raise the question of his Delimara house, did he ask for a commitment from the Nationalist government for compensation? Or is all this a figment of my imagination?
Now, reacting to public discontent, the government has chosen to appeal.
It should have, but many moons ago, laid on the table the negotiations it had had with Mintoff about compensation, and describe why the talks had failed.
Now that it has boomeranged in their face and the money is ours not theirs, they are attempting to appear tough and resilient and will be appealing.
Another big spender for government, you will agree, is Mater Dei, aptly named I would imagine by Edward. A technical committee has been set up by the Prime Minister, and rest assured that what they know they will not tell us. What we should not know, we will never get to know.
Just in case you have not noticed we have a Minister of Health. Yes, his name is Louis Deguara, but it could as well be Pontius Pilate. Every time you ask the man a question, someone else sprints ahead of him to take the question and deflect the flak.
So if it is Mater Dei, we have the Foundation for Medical Services answering queries - but even they have been evasive with the news.
Soon journalists in Malta will have to train as archaeologists, and with swimming pools in Mdina I would think it appropriate.
Mater Dei is the government’s biggest money spender. It shadows everything else. It has been the biggest white elephant and longest running project ever. And yet, we know nothing of how this turned out to be so.
It started off, you will all recall, from a brainwave of a certain Father Vella. The reverend seems to have impressed Edward so very much that off we went for this project without counting the costs. His Cabinet approved it.
Lawrence Gonzi knows it, Mater Dei should never have grown like this. Yet, he cannot say it. He cannot relate the real story because it will rebound on his government and Edward.
Throughout all this travesty of public spending, we have had a Minister of Health who remains a pale shadow to the silent movies we would watch on RAI on a Saturday morning when kids.
The sooner our Premier paints a true picture of Mater Dei’s maladies, the better.
The other day, the only journalist lodged permanently in Brussels, continued to stick to his code of being the country’s foremost gatekeeper. He said in a reportage that was a remake of a previous article of his that the reason for Malta’s absence in LIFE projects was a result of a lack of interest from the green groups.
What he did not say - I would imagine because it is of little concern to a gatekeeper - is that the interaction between government and NGOs has not always been healthy. What he did not say is that environment groups have won two LIFE projects in the past, and while those are not at all easy to come by, several other NGO projects have qualified for EU funding.
There is also a very ‘envious’ approach to green groups at the Malta Environment and Planning Authority. And yes, there has been very little help from MEPA officials. I can name a few, and most groups have had to knock directly on the Minister’s door to move things.
It does not stop there. The University of Malta, which could be a focal point for many environmental projects, has many of its staff members involved in lucrative Environment Impact Assessments and they have little time to spare for thinking about projects that could go a long way to improve ‘conservation’. But even that has become a dirty word.
Finally, what the gatekeeper did not say is that the job of Malta’s permanent representative Richard Cachia Caruana is to captain such projects and endear more NGOs to them. It would be far better than spending Lm9 million plus. And it could help him out with his public image… which has of recent experienced a bad bout of acne.
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