The inauguration of a renovated, revamped Mdina last week, following the removal of all the unsightly wires that festooned the streets and the repaving of most of its streets, has rendered Mdina more beautiful, one can say, than we Maltese ever remember it.

It certainly looked beautiful on Saturday night, not just with the re-enactment with people in medieval costume standing with torches in odd corners, and with the ‘fjakkoli’ around all the bastions, but also and especially with the new light effects around the main gateways, monuments, palaces and even the odd doorway or chapel.

All those who over the past days have gone up to see for themselves, can vouch that it was well worth the wait, especially as was stated in a letter to the press by an archaeological services cooperative, what ‘delayed’ the paving works were the requirements of modern archaeology to understand and record what lies underneath the ground in one of Malta’s most rich historical areas.

There is still more that needs to be done at Mdina, in order that this jewel of a town is preserved intact for further generations, especially, as Prime Minister Gonzi himself said on Saturday, the bastions, which need extensive repairs done to them.

At the same time, however, the same government that has spent so much to renovate Malta’s old capital, is still allowing what it did at such high cost to be immediately undermined and ruined by benign neglect. The light grey slabs with which Mdina’s streets are now paved are already stained by oil and other liquids that drip from cars entering the town. There are stains in the main street, and also in front of the Cathedral Museum (caused one could say by the very vans that brought in the catering for the inauguration reception).

As usual, it’s one hand removing what the other hand has just done!

In a few years’ time, Mdina’s pristine streets will become just like Valletta’s Republic Street which, again, was inaugurated with such pomp (and shame for Malta seeing it was done right in the months when Valletta was the European Cultural City of the Year and its main street was a shambles) and which should have been kept spotlessly clean but has been allowed to deteriorate to such an extent that it has become a by-word for grubbiness and neglect.

With this proviso, however, the Mdina treatment must be extended to the other historic towns of Malta especially Valletta, which so direly needs it.

Valletta is shabby, the neglect is painfully visible in all corners of the city with lawlessness and selfishness being the order of the day. It is to the perennial shame of this administration that it has been in power for almost 20 years, bar two, and Valletta is still as dirty and neglected as it has always been, if not worse.

Whenever the present administration tried to do something, it was sporadic at best and not maintained. The best example of this is the lighting around the bastions, which have been vandalised by those who preferred to carry out their illicit goings-on in the dark. The lamps that went out or were intentionally broken were not replaced.

This administration is further guilty of having repeatedly toyed with ideas what to do about City Gate and the old Opera House and then lapsing into inaction.

This newspaper has over and over again campaigned about the state of City Gate – to no avail as nothing has changed. It is ridiculous to have two carts selling bread, plus horses and taxis obstructing the way and nobody in charge.

Just to take one leaf, one leaf only, from the Mdina example, there are countless buildings in Valletta that could do with the right electric lighting as has been done at Mdina – the Auberge de Castille, the most beautiful building in the city, immediately springs to mind. Equally the Presidential Palace, but its façade must be cleaned up first and its unsightly air-conditioning units removed.

And no, no renovation in Valletta can be called such unless it starts from Palace Square, the favourite parking space for MPs and lawyers. No country that respects itself would allow that.

Similarly, the Three Cities and Victoria must be given the Mdina Treatment. Much has been done, or is being done, both through the efforts of its local councils and private citizens, but more, much more, needs to be done.

Malta can be extremely beautiful if we want it to be so and seeing the results, such as at Mdina over the past weekend, makes one proud to be Maltese and justifies the cost. But we must tackle the problems head-on and in an organised way, not haphazardly or depending on who is in government.