An affair in eerie silence

One was beginning to wonder when the eerie silence held by the opposition over the Ix-Xaghra l-Hamra golfing affair was going to be broken. The way the location was thrust onto the course was enough to excite anyone's interest, not only of those who are worried about the environmental impact of developing the site as a golf course.

The Prime Minister exercised his right to decide that the government wants golf courses. Not everyone is as certain as he and others who feel there should be at least two more golf courses in Malta and Gozo that this would have a beneficial net effect on the tourist industry and Malta in general.

The PM's decision included a commitment to identify and make available a suitable publicly owned site. At the margin, suitability or otherwise will remain in the eyes of the beholder. The beholder who has the last say is the government. It proceeded to direct Mepa to carry out a process of identification and recommendation. Mepa used its own resources and also hired the services of external consultants.

The process led to several sites being examined. A prioritised shortlist was presented to the government. Out of the blue the government instructed Mepa to examine the Ix-Xaghra l-Hamra site. Irrespective of any environmental and economic consideration, one presumed the opposition too would demand to know why and how the afterthought came about. Some columnists, apart from being taken to task by environmentalists, pressed the government to elaborate. It did not, however, run into any barrage by the opposition.

The silence has finally been broken, if not by any cacophony. Labour MEP Joseph Muscat wrote in this newspaper (August 8), opining that the decision (to plan a golf course) was right, the location (Ix-Xaghra l-Hamra) wrong. He commented from a vantage point of feeling - he comes from a small farmers' village. A friend had given him details that were available publicly, but personalised the issue. The land tilled by a score or so of farmers was to be taken over for "public use".

Mr Muscat said that Ghajn Tuffieha and Manikata are not the happiest choice for a golfing location given the archaeological, geological and agricultural significance of the area. He reiterated an ironic observation made by others: many of the farmers being cleared off the site had recently received government/EU subsidies to help them upgrade the systems whereby they cultivated the land that had yielded them a living for generations. Friends in the region tell me that a Labour MP, Noel Farrugia, was organising an action group and other individual MPs had taken an interest in their plight.

Presumably, the opposition leadership will also speak up, by and by. Meanwhile, the government is forging ahead with its plans. These do not only include space for ramblers, as the PM carefully pointed out on his party's radio station. Mepa's webpage says that the government will be allocating an area of the land in question for residential development. If that happens there will be no shortage of bidders.

In my Wide Angle (The Sunday Times, July 3) I had commented about the odd manner in which the government had first commissioned Mepa to do one thing and, once it had done it, ordered it to forget all about it and take a trip to a pin-point in Ghajn Tuffieha.

One of the new owners of the Golden Sands project phoned me up. He told me his company had no part in the government's decision.

I had not suggested that it had and have no reason to doubt the word of my caller who was also frank enough to add that, naturally, his company would be positively affected. I have since learned that Golden Sands time-share units are being offered at a conditional price - say, Lm6,000 as is, Lm8,000 if the golf course proposal is consummated.

One cannot blame present and other developers for not turning their back on possible profit. One still scratches one's head over how the government holed into this particular golfing and property development affair and Labour's muted reaction to that...