It was in 1990 that I first came in contact with Manoel Island and its complexity.
Before that this boy from Hamrun had simply no incentive to venture there.
Those who were older spoke about the "Bishop's island" to give it its former name, as mainly a base for the British forces, especially a submarine base. But then, all Malta was a British base.
Nearer our times its real estate-cum-tourist attraction in the middle of Marsamxett Bay attracted international attention mixed reportedly with Mafia overtones but nothing came of it.
In the early 1990s, as I was saying, when I first came in contact with the very first parish of Gzira, it was a byword for lawlessness.
Historic buildings lay neglected, including Fort Manoel and the intriguing Quarantine complex, with, it was said, engravings by illustrious persons such as Sir Walter Scott, forced to suffer in boredom the mandatory quarantine, turning to scratching their names on the soft stone.
For the children of Gzira (ask former mayor Conrad Borg Manche) it was a huge adventure park with incredible risks where they spent days roaming.
It was far more, and worse, at night out of sight with drugs, prostitution, etc. The reign of lawlessness.
Thus the newly-elected PN administration post-1987 put the rehabilitation of Manoel Island as one of its prime targets.
It was decided (maybe a debatable decision) to twin the development of Manoel Island with that of Tigne Point (where an equally lawless AST - Assocjazzjoni Sports Tigne, not the surname of the minister) with its collection of rock bands etc reigned.
Thus in the early 1990s a Development Brief was published which I, in an optimistic craze, saw fit to put on the front page of the festa programme instead of the usual photo of the Madonna statue or the titular painting. That was a serious mistake.
Thirty years later, the Brave New World of the Development Brief is still a computer-generated image. Only Fort Manoel has been restored and the very fact it has only been used for some concerts and choice receptions etc show the futility.
The only other change has been that where the entire island used to be open, there are now closed off areas which mayor Borg Manche, in all good intentions, succeeded to force open to open access to the sea.
This has been staring us in the face for most of these 30 years but it is only now that some people seem to have noticed.
Till some time ago MIDI fobbed us off with the argument it wanted to fully develop the Tigne side first. There were some challenges on that side such as the football ground that had to be accepted in the middle of the development.
Otherwise the development gave that area a prime retail area around The Point and many high-quality residential high-rises.
But as nothing seemed to happen on the Manoel Island side people understandably got angry.
A petition started making the rounds and was heavily supported by reportedly 29,000 signatories.
Then, as usual, politics intruded. Prime Minister Robert Abela, knowing that Manoel Island's development had been initiated with a unanimous vote of Parliament, hemmed and hawed and concluded this needs looking into, earning damning comments from blogger Kevin Cassar.
His counterpart Bernard Grech went one worse: he jumped and came up with the decision: Manoel Island must become a nature enclave, a national park.
He did not at least say let us examine what's going on but quite irresponsibly threw out the baby with the bath water. Playing to the gallery. New development: Grech beats Abela at populism.
Joining up with the usual rent-a-crowd faces and scapegoating any poor fool who got enmeshed in the confusion.
And quite forgetting how he could end up with egg on the face if the boot were on the other foot such as, for instance, if people were to pass his party's accounts through the same fine comb.
Meanwhile, since when a birds' association has to have a voice on development matters?
Today is the day when the usual opinion polls come out. If, as I suspect, they show Grech's popularity going further South you know why. Till he became leader the regeneration of the Tigne promontory had always been seen as a PN achievement.
The way ahead for Manoel Island is to implement the whole plan, not to turn the island into a mini-Ta' Qali.
Repeated statements by MIDI (see its website) have already committed to a slimmer residential footprint.
There are precious heritage buildings on the island - the Quarantine building, some three cemeteries, the cattle building, etc. To restore all this requires money, big money. Who has that kind of money?
In all this, repeated governments have not come up with what they had promised - such as to open a road from what we used to call the gas tank area on the Regional Road to the Ta' Xbiex end of the Gzira Seafront. Instead, we have to suffer huge traffic congestion at all hours and its consequences.
The two administrations have split their times in government. PN from 1987 to 2013, Labour: 2013 to today.
This is no way to run a country. It is right that the two sides shoulder their responsibility once they both supported the development. We cannot wake up as if the past does not exist. Or as if the future can be without problems. NGOs are very useful in any country but they cannot take the place of the government. It cannot be 'the tail that wags the dog'.
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