I refer to Noel Grima’s report of the Mepa sitting (TMID, Friday 27 March) in respect of the City Gate project wherein it was reported that “Miriam Cremona soon switched to English because she said she did not trust the interpreters’’. The comment was incorrectly reported. What I did say was that, “since there are foreign guests I will be speaking in English,” adding that, “I do not wish to be interpreted since I distrust interpretations” – and not interpreters as alleged.  

The context of this remark is due to the ‘interpretation’ of the Structure Plan Policy Com.1 which clearly and unequivocally states: “Parliament itself and the ministries will concentrate in the palaces and auberges of Valletta.”  MEPA claims that “this is a restricted interpretation. What the policy actually states is that the ministries and Parliament must stay in the palaces and the auberges, not that every ministry must stay in an auberge. Even if Parliament is built at City Gate, Policy Com.1 would still apply.”

The thrust of my main objection was based on this interpretation of what is a clear and direct statement, since the policy within the law is unequivocally clear. I said that I wanted to take full responsibility for and did not wish to have any other ‘interpretation’ of what I wanted to say. This is the context which led to the pun which missed its mark. 

Had the organisers of the sitting informed us that interpreters were present then the issue would have been resolved since I would have been able to pass my text on to them and I would have been left free to speak in  Maltese.  Noel Grima’s reporting of the whole proceedings was exceptionally precise, one could say almost verbatim, including the content of the clip inserted on the MEPA screen which was seen by those present but not heard.   However he got one of the few spontaneous interventions referred to above wrong.  May I also add that I have the highest respect for qualified interpreters and the intensive training they go through since I am one myself.

Noel Grima replies:

I know what I heard and am still convinced I reported Ms Cremona faithfully. In any case, it is not so far from what Ms Cremona writes now, that she did not trust the translation of legal terms, to what I reported, that she did not trust the translators, who were there facing the audience and Ms Cremona. And while she said what she said, she switched from Maltese to English and continued so for the rest of her speech.