In this island, where time has a propensity to stand still, and inertia is next of kin to paralysis, politicians of the old school struggle in defence of the status quo. Brutally described, their role is to man the dam that holds the tide of progress.

Many a reader is likely to be taken aback by the foregoing, and will doubtless make his/her personal assessment of this statement. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

The point I propose to elaborate is that, over time, Maltese party politics has often been transformed into an exercise in sleight of hand. The electorate is involved in a game of Chinese mirrors. It is promised the earth, plus pie in the sky. It is assured that the economy is steadily moving forward in the right direction. Electoral inebriation, stimulated at the right time, reaches such a pitch that unkept promises are forgotten or set aside, and new ones are introduced to sustain morale.

Twelve years ago, at the end of a hot July, I tried to take measure of this game of political illusion. Writing in another newspaper, (The Malta Independent, July 30 1995) I described how the electorate had been taken for a long, long ride by what I described as the ‘Potemkin Syndrome’

Potemkin villages

I recalled Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin (1739-1791) who served Empress Catherine the Great of Russia in a number of capacities – as minister, counsellor, administrator and friend.

He was so concerned for the happiness of his Empress, and also perhaps for his personal image, that he arranged for her to hear only good news from her subjects. He also wanted her to be pleased with his stewardship,

He is reputed to have built phoney pleasant villages along routes travelled by the Empress. He saw to it that the villages where the Empress had to stop were inhabited by ‘happy’ peasants.

Potemkin achieved immortality, thanks to his original device. The term ‘Potemkin Village’ has been assimilated in the language of political science to denote artificially contrived displays, where guile succeeds with the help of artificiality,or even a degree of deception.

The temptation to build Potemkin villages has prevailed in a number of countries. The deception could come from governments and their agencies, as well as non-government quarters. Shakespeare summed it all up in Hamlet: “One may smile, and smile, and be a villain”.

Maltese Potemkin constellation

Twelve years ago, I pinpointed various Maltese Potemkin villages which had served their purpose by 1995.

Some of them are still disfiguring our landscape, like ghosts from the ugly past. One is the Chambray project, initially entrusted to an Italian-Malta Government enterprise, handed over to a Maltese quadrumvirate, and subsequently to Gozitan interests. It is still awaiting completion.

Another Potemkin exercise on a grand scale was the Renzo Piano plan for the approaches to Valletta. It was touted as a million-lira project, designed to change the face of our capital city. Princely fees are said to have been paid so that a reputable local architect could undertake preliminary spadework. The Renzo piano village has since vanished into thin air.

The remains of the former Royal Opera House stand, like an abandoned bride, at the entrance of our capital city, more than half a century after the end of World War Two. They embarrass, even shame the string of politicians who repeatedly undertook to restore the site to its former grandeur or, at least, to make alternative use of it.

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) has proved to be another major star in the Potemkin constellation. The Authority built its own head offices to cause a permanent scar on the aesthetics of the Floriana outer fortifications. The ceaseless wonders attributed to MEPA have been at the centre of national frustration and the focus of massive popular complaints, for which there seems to be no solution.

The so-called reform of the public transport service has been dangled before the eyes of the electorate in a succession of moves by a succession of public entities – all of which took the nature of a cross between a public agency and a quango. Several fare increases have been authorised during the past 17 years against solemn promises that the service would improve.

The bus owners took the fare increases, as well as some subsidies – but the service leaves much to be desired on many routes. The travelling public has been paying through the nose, and has been taken for the proverbial ride in return. If one considers the intolerable overcrowding, the deplorable manners of many (but by no means all) driving personnel, and the inefficiency of meeting demand at peak hours, there is much that is sub-standard, particularly in the light of Malta’s aspirations as an international tourist destination.

There are various other Potemkin villages, one of which is a modern crafts village at Ta’ Qali. The other was the closure of the old Marsa Power Station, the restoration of the Bighi complex and development of the area around Dock No 1. They are all on stand-by for recycling.

The distinctive features that characterise Malta’s Potemkin villages is that they represent visions, beautifully projected on paper, and result in the electorate being short-changed.

Maltese incarnation

Perhaps Prince Potemkin is best epitomised in Malta by the Civil Service. It has made big claims about modernisation and reform. The millions invested in revised salary scales have not been matched by all-round efficiency and productivity.

Although there has been time enough to send top civil servants for special training, there has been no significant, tangible input at managerial level. As a result, the country has operated by guess and by God, relying on calculations and sometimes on hunches, and plenty of rhetoric, at times enhanced by Ministerial whims.

Ministers continue to be singularly adept at doing a Potemkin at the snap of their fingers. They publish glossy literature galore, and any number of annual reports, basking in the expectation that they will be applauded by ‘happy peasants’, anxious to find favour with their Empress.

“That’s how the status quo prevails.

The more Potemkin villages

The more will time stand still.

The more there is stagnation,

The more there is frustration

Until the bluff is called.”