This newspaper has reported on 23 April 2026 that government is planning to introduce a metro line in Malta. This line will be designated as the ‘La Valette Line’.
Without entering into the merits whether it should be called ‘La Valette’ or ‘De Valette’ as that is not pertinent to this piece, though studies by learned Judge Giovanni Bonello have clearly indicated that the Grand Master’s surname was ‘de Valette’ and not ‘la Valette’, the question is why give the metro line the name of a foreign coloniser when there have been several Maltese patriots whom the state has totally forgotten? Is it not enough that the capital city – to date – continues to be a relic of past colonialism and does not evince national identity in the very name of our capital city itself?
Of course, if the government does not want to name the metro line after a Maltese patriot, why not name it ‘City Line’, in Maltese ‘city’ being translated as ‘il-Belt’. After all, this is how the Maltese people know Valletta as ‘il-belt’. When I go to Valletta, I do not say in Maltese ‘sejjer il-Valletta’ but ‘sejjer il-belt’.
Unfortunately, the Maltese, postcolonialism, continue to be a servile population. Colonialism and submission to foreign rule seems to be ingrained in our leaders’ psyche. Take the case when foreign minister Ian Borg nominated Donald Trump for the Nobel Prize. Quite a foolish act as the events in Iran are nowadays evincing. Our Labour government is resurrecting the ghost of a foreign colonial ruler to name an important project 61 years after independence from colonial rule after such unelected tyrant when newly independent countries remove all colonial relics from prominent places and names. The Local Council of L-Isla as I wrote in this newspaper last week want to revert the name of their town to Senglea, to bear the name of another colonial tyrant.
Will this postcolonial servile mentality be eradicated from Malta? Shall we now amend the Constitution of Malta to call our Prime Minister with the title ‘Grand Master’ instead? Perhaps all these postcolonial initiatives that are being banded around by government – central or local – would suit us more once our leaders are imbued with a colonialist mentality. Such mentality is disrespectful to people in recent times like Pawlu Boffa, Dom Mintoff, Nerik Mizzi, and Gorg Borg Olivier who, in their own way, laboured to see Malta an independent state. Should we honour their memory and of others who preceded them in such a demeaning way?
Once at it, should we not call the servile Maltese ‘subjects’ rather than ‘citizens’ for it is after all these Maltese who want to hark back to colonial times when, instead, they should be proud of their independent, republican, and free Malta as all our forefathers and foremothers fought for, even at the cost of their lives.
