Cospicua local council chose to boycott the opening of the Cottonera Garden last Sunday, officially because the government decided to change the name of the area, formerly known as il-Mixtla ta’ Bormla.

“Bormla” is the Maltese name for Cospicua, one of the Three Cities which are enclosed by the fortification lines built by the Knights of St John. The other two cities are those of Vittoriosa (Birgu in Maltese), and Senglea (Isla).

By giving the garden a new name – removing Bormla and replacing it with Cottonera – Cospicua local council must have felt that the locality is “losing” the area which will now, according to the new name, “belong” to the whole of Cottonera – mainly taken as the area comprising the Three Cities.

The council also felt offended that it received the same kind of invitation to attend the opening ceremony as the residents, believing that this showed lack of respect because the council was involved in the rehabilitation project, and had promised to pay Lm15,000 towards the costs.

What’s in a name? Should the shift from Bormla to Cottonera irk the council so much? And does the council believe that it deserves more than the residents? Why was the invitation it received “disrespectful”?

At face value, it would seem that the council has allowed itself to get involved in parochial matters that a body of its stature should work hard to avoid. If local councils get entangled in such trivial issues, and this is a reflection of the national psyche, then it is no wonder that rivalries in Malta sometimes go beyond what is expected.

Cospicua council must have felt it was voicing the opinion of its residents because, after all, it is there to represent the people living within its boundaries. But, on the other hand, local councils should be the first to set positive examples that would help defuse the differences that exist between localities.

Let us not forget that the work to rehabilitate the 55,000 square-metre patch of wooded land was carried out by the central government, which will continue to be responsible for its upkeep, and therefore, as such, the government had every right to change the name of the area, if it deemed it the right thing to do.

The reasons behind the change of name are not known, but the government must have felt it was necessary since it formed part of its ongoing plans to give a new look to the whole Cottonera area, which had been left to its own destiny for far too long.

Over the past years, the Nationalist government has worked hard to revamp Cottonera. The opening of the Cottonera Garden follows hot on the heels of the completion of the Cottonera Waterfront project. Together, these two projects have given a much-needed facelift to an area that had been neglected, and will no doubt help to attract more tourists – and therefore more business – to Cottonera, not to mention the many locals who have visited (and will continue to visit) Cottonera since the waterfront project was finished.

Perhaps there is more than the change of name behind Cospicua local council’s decision to boycott the official opening of the garden.

It is an acknowledged fact that the residents of the Cottonera area, and therefore of Cospicua too, are predominantly Labour supporters, as election results – at local and national level – have always shown. And yet it was a Nationalist government which made it its task to rehabilitate the area, and in fact did.

Could it be that the Labour-led local council was not willing to show its support for a project like the Cottonera Garden simply because it wanted to keep its distance from something that the government will use as part of its propaganda in the months leading to the election?

Would the council have reacted in the same way if a Labour government had carried out the same project and chosen to change the name of the area?