Heritage, and what's best kept by others

The excellent article written by Ray Polidano, director general of the Malta Aviation Museum (The Fate Of Faith, April 9), is essentially about what would undoubtedly be the best place where to have the gladiator Faith. But it suggests several other vital themes which warrant serious consideration.

One of these is what is increasingly emerging about Heritage Malta. It is - slowly but surely - coming out ever more into the limelight that, policy-wise, Heritage Malta seems - particularly through the way some of its top executives are operating - hellbent on ensuring that every single thing worth having and conserving in this country should be under its total and constant control. Its very gentle chairman, Mario Tabone, very often cannot be blamed for giving signs of unawareness of his executives behaving in this way. He probably is either not informed, or may not have the time to go into such issues.

Some of the reasons often being brought for denying that certain items move into the hands of other organisations who, at least morally and organisationally, are certainly better justified and able to retain them, are sometimes couched in purely legalistic or other concepts that should certainly not be the pure motivator for Heritage Malta clinging on to such items. Heritage Malta could indeed in some cases restore, repair, or whatever, but then return the items to the tutelage of their owners.

A case in point - and this is where the fine analogy with the War Museum's justified claim lies - is the case of a jacket which Malta's former GOC Troops Major-General Leakey had donated to the Warrant Officers & Sergeants' Mess of the former 3/11 Regiment RMA(T) during a visit to that mess.

Prior to disbandment of that regiment, the private property of that mess had legally passed to the 3/11 Regiment RMA(T) WOs & Sgts Association. But in a manner which this association can clearly show was a mistake committed at the time by one of the former regular PSIs attached to the regiment, that jacket ended up first in the AFM Officers' Mess in Luqa, and later found its present place in the War Museum.

Efforts by this association to retrieve that jacket were eventually shot down by Heritage Malta's lawyer, simply denying our association's right to it on the mere ground of "prescription". Is that, at least morally, fair?

This association will be suitably celebrating its 35th anniversary this coming May 8, and we again appeal to Heritage Malta to return to us what is rightfully ours. It would be a nice gesture of acceptance of subsidiarity by Heritage Malta towards our association on what for us is an important birthday celebration.