Busuttil to make parliament discuss American University Legal Notice on Monday

Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil will request parliament to discuss the legal notice enabling the construction of the American University of Malta on Monday.

This was announced as Busuttil delivered an impassioned plea to PN supporters at Zonqor Point, in Marsascala this morning.

He described the safeguarding of the area as a common duty of the Maltese people, saying “Zonqor tagħna lkoll” (Zonqor belongs to all of us), aping Muscat’s electoral slogan of “Malta Tagħna lkoll.”

PN MPs Marthese Portelli, Chris Said, Mario De Marco, Claudette Buttigieg, Beppe Fenech Adami and Francis Zammit Dimech also attended the highly organised event. Supporters were bussed in by the coachload and persons were handing out Maltese flags and placards bearing the slogans “Zonqor not for sale” and “Save Zonqor.” A petition was also being passed around, collecting signatures from those opposed to the development project. 

At least 300 people gathered in the rising midday heat to hear what the party had to say to them. The PN leader asked those present to look around and urged them to give a voice to the beauty that surrounded them. “There is no one to speak for it. As we have a right to enjoy it, we also have a duty to defend it.”

Busuttil announced that he had asked the Parliamentary Committee to urgently discuss the issue publicly and transparently with an emphasis on those two attributes, citing “big question marks about the process of selecting the site.”

Busuttil said that there were big questions about the educational value of the project, which he said may not be worthy of the title of “university.” He pointed to the recently published legal notice which lowered the standards required for an institution to be considered as a university in Malta.”

He urged government to go back and listen to the people, the PN, the labour party, the Church, the environmental organisations, the hunters and the residents and not steamroller over everyone.

“We want a declaration that Zonqor is not for sale, that Zonqor is ‘tagħna lkoll,’” said Busuttil, warning that if this declaration is not forthcoming, the people must be brave enough to resist . “We will have to come here and defend it again, and they will have to roll over all of us!” said Busuttil to a rapturous reception by the crowd.

The crowd had earlier been addressed by labour MP Marlene Farrugia, who had been greeted on her arrival with an embrace from the opposition leader. Farrugia reminded the government of its “Tagħna Lkoll” slogan and asked it to “not sell it to the investor who comes along with the biggest bag of money.” Busuttil referred to this, saying that she had not only challenged the party to be different from this government when they come to power, but also to be different from the PN of old.

“Mistakes have been made”, Busuttil admitted, “and we must learn from them, not repeat them.”

“The difference between Joseph Muscat and I is that I am learning from past mistakes so as not to repeat them while he is using past mistakes to make even worse ones.”

He appealed to non-PN members, environmental, religious and social organisations to mobilise their members and resist because “together we aren’t too small!”