Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1318996
11 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 13 DECEMBER 2020 NEWS ert Musumeci, a soft-spoken, former Nationalist mayor, and bête noire of environmental- ists before 2013, himself an incarnation of Muscat's move- ment as the embodiment of pro-business moderates. In the wake of a crazy rant by avowed Labourite zookeeper Anton Cutajar, targeting animal com- missioner Alison Bezzina for questioning the ethics of zoos, Musumeci proposed appoint- ing the zookeeper as her deputy simply because they both "love animals" - an unthinkable bal- ancing act attempting to keep everyone happy by overlooking the contradictions emerging in Labour's hegemonic block. A rant too far Yet at that stage the damage to Labour's optics was already too great for Labour not to distance itself from Cutajar. For unlike less outspoken de- velopers, Anton Cutajar had broken one major rule: that of externalising his threat to use his political connections to put pressure on a public official on the social media. "I am telling you right here, if you keep it up, I will send letters to who I need to send them, and your time as commissioner will be up," Cutajar said in a Facebook livestream. Moreover his attack was tar- geting a public official who best incarnates the promise of 2013: a young, principled dynamic woman threatened by an ag- gressive, male zookeeper. The optics were too bad for Lydia Abela, the PM's wife and an an- imal rights advocate in her own right, not to reprimand Cuta- jar. At that stage Cutajar had no choice but to remove his of- fensive post and partly retract, expressing a willingness to work with the commissioner. One may say that Cutajar himself is an easy target simply because his threat to Bezzina was too blatant to be ignored, unlike more sophisticated lob- byists who get what they want without ever exposing them- selves and damaging the polit- ical optics of those who favour them. Yet Cutajar himself may have been led to believe that he is powerful. For not only was his 'zoo' regularised in 2017 but he has now applied to sanction il- legal extensions which include a sizeable dwelling with pool. And even his protests on pro- posed regulations banning the petting of wild animals found a listening ear, being mysteri- ously removed from a draft law issued for public consultation. Yet Cutajar does not play by the rules. Notice the contrast with MDA president Sandro Chetcuti, whose public pro- nouncements on environmen- tal protection contrast with his own lobby's daily actions and demands. In this sense Cuta- jar's outbursts have an authen- ticity which exposes the fault lines of Labour's increasingly unwieldy but still effective co- alition. From movement to skip? One risks making too many generalisations from this bi- zarre tale pitting an angry male zookeeper known for his ret- rograde views on migration (he even picketed a Black Lives Matter protest in remembrance of murder victim Lassane Cis- se) against a young, non-par- tisan woman appointed by a Labour government, who in many ways incarnates the spir- it of a forward looking cosmo- politan and liberal country. But it comes at a critical juncture where Robert Abela is keen on reinvigorating the 'coalition' after it was dealt a devastating blow by last year's meltdown of the Muscat administration un- der a dark cloud of corruption and impunity. While electorally Labour has held its super-majority in the polls, its moral authori- ty has been undermined in a way which may make it easi- er for a renewed Nationalist party to rebrand itself under a new leader who seems keen on modernising his party. In a sign of the danger posed by outbursts like those of Cuta- jar, Bernard Grech himself has shown tact by immediately ex- pressing solidarity with Bez- zina, aided by Cutajar's own tribalist pigeon-holing of the animal rights commissioner, the independent media and animal rights activists with the "anti-Labour crowd" whom he regularly accuses of lashing out against him because of his "po- litical DNA". Abela has so far sent mixed messages, keeping the populist right-wing on board by push- ing the "full up" narrative on migration, but showing greater disposition to redress the en- vironmental deficit and take small but significant steps at removing impunity for the pro- tagonists of Panamagate. Yet Labour has its dissonant dis- cordant voices, ranging from Schembri loyalists to xeno- phobes who distort its media optics. Whether Abela can res- urrect his movement's 'inclu- sivity' dream ticket from 2013 remains to be seen. The risk is that without clear ideologi- cal boundaries demarcating it from the loony right which has its own roots inside Labour, Abela's party may end up be- ing seen as a skip instead of a movement with a vision of a modern dynamic nation. Unlike less outspoken developers, Anton Cutajar had broken one major rule: that of externalising his threat to use his political connections to put pressure on a public official on the social media. "I am telling you right here, if you keep it up, I will send letters to who I need to send them, and your time as commissioner will be up," Cutajar said in a Facebook livestream. His attack targeted a public official who best incarnates the promise of 2013: a young, principled dynamic woman threatened by an aggressive, male zookeeper. The optics were too bad for Lydia Abela, the PM's wife and an animal rights advocate in her own right, not to reprimand Cutajar JAMES DEBONO THE tourism ministry is pro- posing the development of a 36,000sq.m park in Bengħisa at Birżebbuġia, with plans at an advanced state to convert a derelict site into a recreational park. The plan is to convert a dis- used British-era underground transmitting station, and re- generate the seaside town to balance out the heavy industry at the Malta Freeport. The restored transmission centre will form part of a her- itage trail with a 4km radius, which includes various ar- chaeological and historical sites, such as Tas-Silġ, the San Luċjan tower, Borġ-in-Nadur and Għar Dalam. "This pro- posal shall potentially act as a catalyst for the regeneration of other surrounding histori- cal areas, as well as creating a chain of places in the Southern Region of Malta, ranging from pre-history to the modern Brit- ish period," the ministry said in a project development state- ment. The site is characterised by a number of timber telecommu- nication masts, which formed part of an underground British station. These masts, which form part of the ventilation system for the underground bunker, will also be restored. The site currently includes a number of telecommunication masts previously used by the Malta Air Traffic Services and various abandoned structures, which will either be restored or demolished. Almost half of the site has already been planted with indigenous trees during the summer. The proposed works include the planting of various indig- enous trees and shrubs, the formation of pathways and pi- azzas, the excavation and con- struction of a reservoir, bench- es and a kiosk. The Bengħisa Transmitting Station, which will be restored, was built by the Royal Air Force to transmit encrypted messag- es to all parts of the world in 1940 and was closed down in 1976. A small café area is being jus- tified by the need to cater for visitors visiting the restored historical structures and the need to keep the area free from food trucks. The park is also being consid- ered as an opportunity to in- troduce species which perform well in coastal environments as a way of increasing biodiversi- ty. But certain areas, such as the area above the underground station, will not be planted, in order to enable the grass spe- cies to continue thriving and serve as pollinators. Soil will also be brought in other areas to to cater for the plantation of trees. Tourism ministry to turn Benghisa into family park