Promoting our heritage

We boast that we have a unique heritage stretching over 7,000 years, yet we are not doing enough to preserve it, maintain it and promote it. We have now been a sovereign state for over 40 years during which we have allowed our heritage to deteriorate and parts of it to disappear forever.

We are good at holding excited and sanctimonious discussions when vandals attack heritage sites like Mnajdra but otherwise we allow our heritage to be vandalised and destroyed through neglect and lethargy. Most of what has somehow or other survived needs to be maintained, managed and presented much better than it is now.

The promotion of our cultural heritage has never been high on our national agenda. We need a long-term action plan to make up for the precious time lost.

We need to save and promote our heritage for at least two very obvious reasons: for ourselves and for the thousands who visit us. If we are to have more than cheap bargain tourism and attract better spending visitors throughout the whole year, we must do our utmost to save and promote intelligently our heritage in Malta, Gozo and Comino.

Very few Maltese and Gozitan families visit heritage sites. Very few of us dedicate their energies to safeguard the heritage that has not yet been buried under concrete or replaced by ugly boxes called buildings in our villages and towns. We need to make more of our people appreciate heritage. People who lack an autonomous historical memory are like people who do not know their past, who lack an identity. They do not know who they are and do not know where they are going. If we are not to resign ourselves to being a soulless and anonymous people overcrowding this car-choked and overbuilt island, we must discover our identity, celebrate it and express it among ourselves and among those who come into contact with us.

Our museums and heritage sites must have the necessary educational facilities to make them interesting, lively and fun for people of all ages. It is possible to produce top quality material that is accessible to the largest number of people.

Three years ago the government proposed a new Heritage Bill in Parliament and the Labour opposition gave its full contribution to improve that Bill. The 2002 Heritage Act provides most of the structures needed to "ensure a future for our past".

Heritage Malta was set up to lead and coordinate the vast amount of work that needs to be done to safeguard and promote heritage in our islands and beyond. Yet, Heritage Malta still lacks the necessary human and financial resources to fulfil its tasks. It can barely cover its payroll costs and has a risible amount of money to improve the maintenance, management and presentation of museums and heritage sites.

After years of reckless public expenditure resulting into the worst structural deficit and public debt in our history, the government says it does not have the adequate funds to spend on heritage.

At the same time, millions of liri are frittered away on Dar Malta in Brussels and the Mater Dei Hospital. At the same time the government sells off precious national assets like Mid-Med Bank and the Malta Freeport very cheaply.

Saving our heritage must become one of our top priorities! Heritage Malta must be given the necessary resources to carry out the urgently required initiatives and projects to improve the maintenance, management and presentation of heritage sites.

Mr Bartolo is a Labour member of Parliament.

evaristbartolo@hotmail.com