There seem to be two clear camps around the very important Ta’ Cenc controversy.
Those who support the owner, Victor Borg, who understandably of course wants to profit from his investment. What businessman wouldn’t? And those led by Din l-Art Helwa and AD who are opposed, also quite rightly, to any development there beyond upgrading and perhaps slightly extending the hotel footprint. Both are writing in our media. Both are talking to our media. But it seems they are not listening or talking to each other at all. And the issue cannot be resolved though the media either, certainly not by some of the mudslinging of late, certainly not by all the broadsides from both camps.
Mr Borg is taking this up like a national Gozitan issue, giving us the impression he is a beleaguered Gozitan. But Ta’ Cenc is a part of our entire heritage, Maltese and Gozitan. And there is more. We are now part of Europe. So there are Europeans who live in Gozo and Malta who are making their voices heard and rightly so. It was disgraceful that we bickered in a public meeting, very inhospitably I hasten to add, about whether we should speak English or Maltese at the public meeting, both our national languages after all; one of the Brits who colonised us recently, one of the Arabs or thereabouts of longer ago, but languages of our colonisers always!
Ta’ Cenc now belongs to our European residents and visitors too. It is part of our entire collective heritage, a part of the natural beauty we all have a stake in, and a part of the beauty of which there is so little left in Malta and Gozo. The Greens have taken it up as a green issue. Din l-Art Helwa as a heritage issue. But it is a much bigger issue than all these issues individually. The Ta’ Cenc project encapsulates all the issues facing this island.The over development, the dust, the ugliness, the general degradation of the environment, our heritage, our tourism, all our tomorrows.
It is about how we are going to look, how we are going to live, what kind of Malta and Gozo we will bequeath to our children and grandchildren. If we develop there now in this generation, the next generation of Borgs will one day go to MEPA for even more, whatever is written in the agreement. It is just time to say no in all our interests, however good the project will look, however competent the EIA, however many jobs can be sustained, whatever MEPA policies can be invoked to allow it.
The issue is not about Victor Borg or his opinions. There should be no hate generated towards him specifically. He is only doing what many others have done before him. Nor is it about Martin Galea and his, or more specifically, Din l-Art Helwa’s opinions. The issue is not about opinions but is about the national interest.
It is almost beyond MEPA too, because if MEPA has a policy which would allow for more development on those cliffs, that is entirely wrong too. It is not the first time a public entity has a policy that is wrong or open to wrong interpretations. I should know. I chair an entity and frequently have to change policies to deal with the real world and new realities. If there is a wrong policy we shouldn’t be afraid to change it, only and always in the national interest of course.
It is also wrong that the policies as written are open to interpretation but it is entirely understandable. The old policies were written before Malta and Gozo were destroyed by rampant speculation, in a country where every year we add hundreds sometimes thousands of empty, often unsold properties to our housing stock.
The trouble is the divide between commercial interests and the national interest. And so it is up to, government to intervene, to intervene in the national interest, to intervene on behalf of us all, blue, red, green or currently uncoloured.
Many of the currently uncoloured, or those who are saying they won’t vote, have the Ta’ Cenc issue very close to their hearts. The petition they signed is proof of that and it is unwise of Mr Borg, writing in MaltaToday, to imply that the petition is meaningless because the public did not have all the information. People are allowed to disagree, but not to hate each other because they do.
Mr Borg is in a sense unfortunate. If MEPA had succeeded over the years, and allowed for a sensible development which corresponded with what we needed as a nation there might not be the same horror and outrage against Ta’ Cenc there is now. But now people have had enough. They have seen Sliema destroyed. They are watching St Julian’s turning into a dust bowl. They are sitting in their houses wondering when the house next door will be pulled down and their homes becomes useless as such.
And I do believe in the end governments will act in the national interest at Ta’ Cenc. Many people do not have my faith. They believed the golf course would be built at Verdala. I believed it wouldn’t and it hasn’t, at least not so far. They were also sure the golf course in the Golden Bay area would come about and it hasn’t. They believe the Ramla development will happen. I don’t. They believe Ta Cenc will be built up. I don’t. I can’t afford to. If I believed these things I would stop writing, stop campaigning, stop believing that ordinary people can make a difference.
The fact that the government has given in to the will of the people on so many environmental issues of late is a good sign. It is a sign that we matter. It is a sign that our environment does matter. It is a sign that our politicians look around and don’t particularly like what Malta is looking like, smelling like, feeling like. Politicians are not there forever though. But we are. As individuals and as parents. Politicians, at least many of them, are parents too. So at this time when they are in parliamentary recess they should think of themselves as parents first and take another bold step and not allow Ta’ Cenc to be built in the national interest.
Let’s not do what was done to Anglu Xuereb who had to go backwards and forwards for years, incurring a lot of expenses until he got his final no to his golf course. The government and all the political parties should say no. Ta’ Cenc must be a national park free of hunters, with every bit of its heritage restored. The hotel can be upgraded and extended, keeping that lovely girna style, which is the image that comes to mind when you say Ta’ Cenc, cliffs and girnas. That’s what we want there.
And people will be listened to, as they were at Verdala, as they were at Golden Bay, as they will be at Ramla il-Hamra too. The uncoloureds have had enough. The uncoloureds have the clout to decide the fate of the next election. The uncoloureds want the government to look after Ta’ Cenc in the national interest. And I believe they will.
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