The Nationalist Party today again challenged Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to state that he will not touch Zonqor Point, the area earmarked for the development of the controversial American University of Malta.
Speaking at a press conference this evening, the PN’s Shadow Minister on the Environment, Marthese Portelli, and PN spokesman on planning, Ryan Callus, showed journalists clips taken from last Friday’s Xarabank, showing parts of an interview with lawyer Kevin Deguara. Dr Deguara is a partner in DF Advocates, the legal advisers of the Sadeen Group in Malta.
In one of the clips, Dr Deguara said the government had not promised any alternative sites to the developer. He said he presumed the government was studying the possibility of other sites but had not approached the investors at all. Dr Portelli said this showed that it was not true that the government was trying to identify alternative sites. This was contrary to what the Prime Minister had said.
In another clip, Dr Deguara said the university did necessarily have to be built along the seafront. The PM had claimed that the Jordanian investor chose the site but this turned out not to be true. “The PM has chosen the area himself. Why did he choose that area in particular,” she asked.
Another clip showed Dr Deguara insisting that the university campus had to be set up in one place, contradicting Dr Muscat’s claims that it could be split into two or more parts.
Dr Deguara also said he knew how much the lease cost and what period of time it would cover but could not divulge these details. Dr Portelli challenged the PM to say how much the lease would cost and until when it would last.
“Not all of the land in question is public, some of it is private. So how can the government, what right does it have to negotiate on behalf of the private landowners?” Dr Portelli said a substantial part of the area is privately owned by farmers. Dr Muscat, she said, had promised to reintroduce a responsible policy on agriculture, encouraging full-time and part-time farmers to stick to the sector. He had also promised giving farmers using government-owned lands a more favourable title on the lands. Instead, the government is taking their lands away to make way for this project. The supposed responsible agricultural policy would also encourage the transfer of lands from one generation to the next but the only transfer of land is to the private Jordanian investor.
Mr Callus noted that Moviment Graffiti today joined the ever-growing chorus opposing the Zonqor Point project, describing it as unacceptable. The government’s hard-headedness when it came to this project is leading people to lose faith in politicians, he said. He referred to yesterday’s stand taken by some 150 academics, who criticized the lack of transparency the government was showing.
The PN MP said that, apart from the many NGOs, organisations, farmers and other groups who have criticized the project, two Labour MPs – Marlene Farrugia and Godfrey Farrugia – have always come out against it. Other groups included hunters, students and the employers association. “Opposition to the project is growing every day. When will the government finally bow its head down to the will of the majority and stop the destruction of virgin land in Zonqor?”