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Just as the dust over the Dar Malta controversy starts to settle, Minister Jesmond Mugliett with all good intentions, announces during a business breakfast organised by our sister paper The Malta Financial and Business Times that Cabinet is close to giving its approval to the Valletta opera house site being converted into the House of Parliament. The obvious question that springs to mind is whether Government should commit public funds to a capital project at a time when the public finances are in dire straits and the people are being asked to make sacrifices? This was the controversial issue surrounding the Dar Malta debate and this is the identical issue that will inevitably rage following the Minister’s declaration. It is, in its narrowest form, no more than a pounds shillings and pence issue. Looking at the bigger picture of what is essentially the entrance to a world heritage site, it is of course much more.
It must be stated and stressed that the present site is an eyesore and that the shabby and the tatty atmosphere it gives to our capital city needs to be tackled. However, why now, and why as a Parliament? Government can be comforted by the thought that this time it will not come in for any flak from the Labour Party hoisted by its own petard, as the Opera house was included in the Labour party electoral programme for urgent development.
Government should still tread extremely carefully since the average citizen is most likely to be sceptical about the benefits of yet another project draining public funds. No doubt beyond the overcoming of the shabby remains, government may feel that such a project will help kick-start the economy. This Keynesian way of thinking is outdated. Governments are no longer the shakers and movers of their own economies, the global world market forces are the modern economic deus ex machina.
The net result will only be a widening debt bill with very little added value bestowed upon the taxpayer that ultimately foots the bill. Beyond the financing difficulties what added value will a new Parliament bestow upon the people? Will it upgrade the level of debate? Will the added space really allow Parliament to function more via committees than as at present? Will it in any way bring the people closer to its representatives - the ultimate test and criterion of a parliament? We have our doubts on the choice falling upon a Parliament
Granted that the site is in urgent need of development, government must think out of the box. Bearing in mind that Government certainly cannot, at this given moment in time, finance such a project, a possible feasible alternative is to think in terms of a public- private partnership whereby the private sector provides the financing and Governments contributes the value of the land.
For this to materialise it is clear that the private sector would expect a return on its investment. Herein lies the difficulty, for what project can guaranteed a reasonable return to make the risk-taking worthwhile? An opera house would be unsustainable, a theatre would only conflict with the ever growing popular St James Cavalier, and The Manoel Theatre, a multiple shopping mall would put the survival of the already numerous retail outlets in Valletta in jeopardy. The way forward remains putting the site open to the dreams and the eventual proposals of any individual or group of entrepreneurs ready to take up such a challenge. The tender, of course, as members of the European Union, would be to open to all possible bidders including European companies, many of whom no doubt do have experience of similar opportunities.
Government’s role would be, apart from that of providing the site for which it would receive its fair share of the eventual profits of the company, to remain the prime mover and shaker and arbiter of the eventual design chosen.
We anticipate the discussion about the project will reignite the controversy over whether the baroque architecture of Valletta or a modern twenty first architectural design statement should be the chosen design. Raising the issue again may be healthy and conducive towards redeeming a city which is presently looking a pale shadow of its former self, a city built by an Order.
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