The government has well and truly dug in its heels on its insistence to locate the fledgling 'American University of Malta' at the picturesque Zonqor Point in what is an outside development zone (ODZ) area.

And the government continues to insist on this location despite the fact that practically the entire country, except for the government itself and Labour Party acolytes, have spoken out, some most vociferously, against this proposed location.

Hunters and environmentalists, after the recent bitter referendum campaign, are on the same side in steadfastly opposing the development of the area.  The business community in the form of the Chamber of Commerce, the Employers Association and the Malta Developers Association have all voiced their dismay and called for alternative sites to be considered. The Green party, the Opposition, every environmental NGO in the country and even the Archbishop of Malta are all in agreement on their disagreement with the government.  Labour MP Marlene Farrugia yesterday went as far as to have suggest the possibility of gathering signatures for a prospective referendum on the use of ODZ land.

In fact, to say that civil society at large is outraged would be an understatement.

It is strange that the government, as sensitive as it is to public opinion, is sticking to its guns on the site selection. At the beginning of the great Zonqor debate, the Prime Minister had said that he would entertain a site selection process but not much has been heard of that since. It is hoped that this is still in the pipeline. 

He also said that all environmental permitting applications and the like would be followed to the letter. But with the Malta Environment and Planning Authority itself having selected the site, it beggars belief that the same authority will be tasked with approving or rejecting the site selection.

But what is truly mystifying most of the country is the government's insistence on locating the university at that particular site, which it says was chosen by the Jordanian investors, and nowhere else. We are certain that no one in the country would object to the government attracting any quality educational institution to the country, nor would anyone object to the government even giving away the land for free, provided the right kind of land is chosen. 

And the right land for the construction of university buildings is certainly not a 12 football pitch size of untouched land in the smallest, most built up and most densely populated country in the whole of Europe.

At least the government appears to have dropped the unfortunate comparison between the building of the university at Zonqor Point and the previous administration's construction of a sewage treatment plant at the nearby Ta' Barkat. In fact, the Labour Party yesterday issued a statement saying instead that the Opposition is fine with building a power station in the south of Malta, but not with the notion of a university in the south of Malta.  The Prime Minister will surely be driving the point home this morning in Marsascala, which has been chosen as the location of today's Sunday sermon.

The government is insisting on the Zonqor Point location because, it says, the project will be instrumental to its plans to regenerate the south of the island. We are certain that no one is against a private university being located in the south of Malta, what people are against is this specific location.  There are several large tracts of disturbed, public land available for development in the south of the island, some with equally magnificent views, such as, for example, in Hal Far.

But, for one reason or another, the government is not listening to any such recommendations, and many have been floated over recent weeks. And as a sweetener, the government has said it will build a nature park next door to the Jordanian development some six times the size of the proposed university. But when questioned this week, the environment minister found himself at a loss when asked to explain what form, exactly, this nature park would take. The land being proposed as a national park is mainly agricultural land and it remains to be seen whether farmers will be given marching orders should the park become a reality.

The Opposition has been having a field day with this one, but who can blame it? Just imagine the stink the Labour Party would have hypothetically raised had it been in Opposition and the Nationalist Party had rushed headlong into such a project.

At the end of the day, the American University of Malta project is a pure business venture aimed at fee-paying and mostly foreign students. And apart from a handful of scholarships that will apparently be handed out to Maltese students to follow courses at this new university and a handful of jobs, we fail to see how this educational project stands to improve anyone's quality of life - at least not so much as to justify this practical giveaway of such a large tract of virgin, public land.

Unfortunately, there is nothing about this affair and the government's insistence on this particular site that shows it is anything more than a pure land giveaway. 

And this is one of the rare occasions in which a newspaper can say that it hopes to be proved wrong.