How time flies! A month has gone by since the election and, despite the prognostications, the world has not come to an end. Business as usual, you might say, apart from the speculative interest that a section of us take in who is being appointed to what and how. We have not been in ‘business as usual‘ mode for almost two years!
Malta is totally fed up of confrontational politics
It would be impossible to please everyone in this little fishpond of an island of ours and, by the time the spanking new legislature has the wherewithal and the people to be an up and running government, people will be far more interested in who is going to be leading the Nationalist Party.
History repeats itself ad nauseum. In 2008, the electorate, after voting for ‘more of the same’, was far more interested in who was to succeed Alfred Sant. In retrospect, that should have been a good indicator of what happened afterwards although, in all truth, the proverbial excrement did hit the fan when the divorce issue was raised.
Divorce was so badly handled by the PN that it left the already weak Government totally handicapped.
As we saw for ourselves, the electorate is not as gullible as many thought it was and the threats, personal attacks, character assassinations, negativity and overall apocalyptical scenario painted by the PN should Labour be elected turned out to be as ephemeral as a soap bubble. The PN itself has, like a house of cards, imploded into bankruptcy both fiscal and ideological as the contenders primed to succeed Lawrence Gonzi flagellate themselves with blame citing the obvious as to what went wrong and promising to turn the PN upside down in an attempt to restore its credibility. I wish them all the best of luck.
Meanwhile, we have a new Administration raring to go.
The main reason behind the colossal victory was that Malta is totally fed up of confrontational politics and what Joseph Muscat promised us, a truly inclusive and national government, appealed to a nation torn and scarred after decades of internecine strife between the two parties.
Muscat has achieved so much by his drive, at first pooh-poohed if not derided, to heal the wounds and apologise for the past. He promises a full stop and fresh line approach to the way things are done and a government for the people. That is what led an additional tenth of our population into taking the plunge and voting PL.
If he can deliver, which I believe he can, Muscat will be responsible for the long-awaited emancipation of Maltese politics. Maybe, next time round, Malta will not have to go into election mode for almost 18 months before bringing the economy to a grinding halt.
Maybe next time round the stress and enervation we experienced will have been a thing of the past. It all remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, it is essential that the new Government ensures it is there to serve the people and that it does not repeat the cardinal mistakes made by the outgoing Government.
One of the most telling mistakes made was the Piano Project, not in itself but in its concept and function.
The politics of art is a complex science. Monarchs and presidents throughout history have vied to create buildings and monuments that reflect their greatness and magnanimity. The vast majority of these in the last century have been houses of culture for the people. The great palaces built by enlightened and not so enlightened despots have been turned into museums and personal art collections belonging to the Habsburgs, Medicis and Bourbons have long been put on display to our greater delectation.
Architects like Renzo Piano have been creating libraries, museums and concert halls all over the world. Therefore, is it not obvious that the brief given to Piano to build a Parliament was insensitive and politically inept?
Rubbing salt in an open wound there was no commensurate brief to create a cultural shrine out of the ruins of the Royal Opera House but a half-baked vagueness called the roofless theatre.
The Piano Parliament buildings have been pronounced as too small for a variety of reasons. There are plenty of uses that these can be given should good sense prevail and Parliament be taken to the Sacra Infermeria with ancillary offices in the Evans Building and Fort St Elmo. Think of how this juxtaposition will generate a new life and a vital transformation to lower Valletta. Think of the magnificence of the long hall of the Infermeria decorated with the tapestries that caused so many problems in 2008 with the bunker issue.
It could, with very little additional expense, become one of the grandest and most artistically significant Parliament buildings in Europe, set in a very important historical building that was the raison d’être of the hospitaller order that ruled us for almost three centuries.
This move would then leave the area next to City Gate free to be a cultural hub. Already there is St James Cavalier and the fact that the national collection is in the process of moving to the adjacent Auberge d’Italie already gives more logical sense that the area should become ‘cultural’ in the true sense of the word.
With Valletta 18 around the corner, the fact that we have no auditorium for our homeless orchestra, no national theatre apart from a court theatre that cannot go on being all things to all men, no museum of modern art, no museum of contemporary art and no proper library gives plenty of scope to rethink the Piano project on lines that are in keeping with what modern governments work on; giving to the people what they deserve and enshrining its treasures and facilitating their achievements in a concrete way for posterity.