Below par

It is high time the Prime Minister dissociated himself from the golf course project at Ghajn Tuffieha, which he has been promoting so openly. Who is the faceless proposer of the project? Why is the government supporting this objectionable "development" for a private person or persons?

The Prime Minister, as head of the government, must be held accountable for what is leading to a disaster. How is the area to be turned into a golf course when most of it is hard rock, swept by winds and heavy rain in winter and scorched by a blazing sun in summer?

Who is coming to Malta to play golf when there are so many wonderful courses all round the Mediterranean, not least in Tunisia?

How can anyone think that there would be so many golf players as to cover the expenses of converting the area and maintaining the upkeep? How can anyone say this promotes tourism and generates money (obviously to one specific promoter) while denuding a fertile agricultural area and robbing all the farmers of their livelihood and at the same time depriving the public from buying the produce on the open market?

Why should Malta or Gozo have a golf course for a handful (if any) of foreign visitors usurping unwittingly our heritage? There cannot be that many nitwits around!

Once again, the government has taken the advice of an "expert" who is a foreigner because they cannot think for themselves and have an inferiority complex, when any Maltese adviser would have told them right away how utterly impractical and destructive a golf course at ix-Xaghra l-Hamra would be.

How is it that the President has signed the eviction orders when he could have made his own assessment and refused to do so? I understand the Prime Minister has ignored opposition from some of his Cabinet members, too. Will those who oppose the project stand up and be counted so one can know how to vote at the next election?

Readers should also know that the project incorporates the campsite of the Scout Association now in an advanced state of completion - a project for which the government has imposed an annual rent that is oppressive instead of furthering the noble aims of this worthy youth organisation.

Who is carrying out negotiations for the takeover of the land - is it the government which should not be involved if this is a private venture, or who?

How can we as a people let the government ride roughshod over the convictions of the majority of those who voted them in?

Would Parliament support this project in a free vote in the House? Ministers should be held accountable before the law.