As someone who resided for a number of years in Senglea, I find the recent controversy about the Palumbo Dockyard extremely interesting. In the past twenty years or so, a sort of a love-hate relationship developed between the dockyards and the residents, which was non-existent in the past. Until Austin Gatt took the decision to close the Dockyards, they were seen as a Labour bedrock in a red Labour district. This was the main concern for many, and euphoria for many others. Any complaints about noise or pollution were not voiced in public but only in private. I remember the problem of grid blasting and sound but these were never brought to the forefront of the national agenda.  They were considered an element of concern to only part of the Senglea’s residents, those who lived in the area of Triq is-Sur.

What is interesting in the current controversy is that the media on Government’s side is starting to depict the residents as victims and Palumbo as a devilish employer who Malta can do without.

However, not all the residents of Senglea are against Palumbo. A quick look at the Facebook pages of some of the residents reveal support for Palumbo and one particular association even went public in disassociating itself from the Residents’ Association.

In itself, this illustrates the different subcultures that are at work even in a small locality like Senglea. Many of those who consider themselves Sengleani are behind the Palumbo Dockyards. The main reason is that they are seeing in this organization a company that is ready to sponsor their various activities. The Residents’ Association is made of a different stock. I am under the impression that they are normally more literate and are seen by the rest of the residents as an elitist group. Some of the members are native residents but there are also a number of foreign citizens, who have made Senglea their second home. The latter are helping the residents to organize themselves. Up to a few years ago, such type of organization was lacking.

Yet, one cannot exclude that behind this whole controversy, there are also individuals who are banking on land speculation. The price of property in Senglea is going up, in particular, since foreigners became interested in buying property in the area. Till recently, Triq is-Sur was one of the last remaining areas in Malta where one could buy a seafront property for a kill. The property value was low because it overlooked the docks. Whoever moved into Senglea and the surrounding areas, knew perfectly well that there was, and still is, a Dockyard with a strong tradition. A number of foreigners and Maltese realized that they would strike gold should all dockyard activity be brought to a halt.  

With the value of land increasing and most of the dockyard workers today not hailing from the area, the historic bond between docks and residents is dying, which makes it easier for those who are inspired by the London docks, to increase pressure on the authorities.

I think that workers at Palumbo’s Company are well aware of these mechanisms and this explains why they decided on a protest march. I will not compare their protest to the political demonstration by Dockyard workers in the past. This type of protest was similar to the one organized by the workmen engaged in building Portomaso, during the time of Alfred Sant. They walked to Castile, after residents of St. Julians started to oppose the project.

What astonished me most was the reaction of both Palumbo and the Prime Minister. I think that Palumbo was unwise in sending that type of letter to the President of the Residents’ Association. The residents have all the right to voice their concerns. Besides, once procedures began and the Court gave its verdict in favour of Palumbo, and this was not contested, the matter should have stopped there.

Normally, the Prime Minister does not interfere in such issues. This time, Joseph Muscat decided to take a stand. It is not yet clear why he reacted as he did.  Was it because Senglea is part of his electoral district, or because he honestly thinks that Palumbo over-reacted and appeared to be adopting bullying tactics against some of the Senglea residents? There is a third consideration. Was this the golden opportunity for the Prime Minister or as we say in Maltese - sab ix-xoqqa f’moxta – to start a fight with Palumbo?

With land speculation being high on the agenda of this Government, I don’t know whether to read in the Prime Minister’s words the start of a process to elbow Palumbo out from Malta so that the whole area of the docks is changed into a mega building project – a Portomaso for the South.

I am told that when the representatives of Palumbo’s workforce walked to Castile, they were told that their jobs are safeguarded and if Palumbo leaves, they will be given an alternative job. Should one interpret ‘alternative jobs’ to imply that their current posts would no longer be there for them because the dockyard would be no more and Government has it all worked out?

Whether my analysis is correct or not, it is time for the Maltese nation to start asking whether it suits Malta to continue keeping the docks or not, even now that they are profitably run by a private company. I am convinced that it is in the interest of Malta to keep the docks particularly and especially in view also of our yacht marinas. Even if creating blocks of cement may appear to be a better revenue-generating project, it is always very short sighted to put all eggs in one basket. This applies also to the current land speculation spree.  

The Maltese Government needs to choose between land speculators and individuals with capabilities whose workmanship and knowledge need to be safeguarded both in the interest of heritage, our future and in the best interest of the nation. On the one hand, we have the Minister of Labour, Evarist Bartolo, who is correct in lamenting in Parliament that for the past decades, Malta has ignored the teaching of basic crafts and on the other hand, we have a Prime Minister who seems ready to close down the last heavy industry on the island that is finally making profit while under the previous managements, it was loss making.

The irony of it all is that the Nationalists used to be accused of being the enemy of the worker for wanting to close the dockyard. Now that it has been successfully turned into a profit-making enterprise, as it was also at the turn of the nineteenth century, when the shipyards below Senglea were run by the Maltese, the indications are that who wants to put an end to the Drydocks is none other than the present Labour Government. If this were to happen, Malta would become more and more at the mercy of incompetent ‘clowns’.