The mystery surrounding the building of a new university in the south of Malta is only the latest in a series of events about which the government was not truthful with the people. It says something, keeps important information away from the public, and then tries to shield itself when the media tries to probe and finds out what the government conveniently did not say.

The Labour government – as well as the Labour Party – has built a reputation of having a finely-tuned marketing machine. It can sell ice in Antarctica, or sand in the Sahara, whatever you prefer.

But, one deception after another, Labour is losing the edge and people have started to see through its untruths or outright lies. It has happened too often that a nicely-wrapped gift, when opened, turned out to be a sham.

Before the election, it promised a power station in two years. As we all know, it did not materialise. The twisting of words made it seem that Joseph Muscat had not made such a pledge, but it is evident that Labour failed to live up to its major pre-electoral pledge.

And it continued after the election – the citizenship programme and the contract signed with Henley and Partners, the Cafe Premier scandal, Sai Mizzi’s job, the proposed investment in the Gozo hospital and the unannounced visits to Azerbaijan were all issues that come to mind quickly on how secretive the government has been. For a party which promised transparency, these are all situations which expose it as a fraud on this particular aspect.

The news of the latest so-called investment in education is yet another example of the government’s dishonesty. The fact that it was first called University of the South, and later became American University of Malta, only to be renamed DePaul University before it was realised that DePaul will have nothing to do with it except for the curriculum - and so we went back to American University of Malta - is already an indication of how manipulative the government has been.

That the Malta Developers Association was the only organisation so far to give the thumbs-up to the project is the second clear indication that this project has little to do with a university, but will end up being a land speculation exercise which will destroy the little that is left of our pristine land. A university does not necessarily have to be close to the sea, but a hotel or tourist complex will get extra points from its location, and so one does not need to have Einstein’s IQ to realise what will happen.

So we have two big issues here – one is the raping of virgin land, which is already in itself a strong argument against Labour which had promised better preservation of the environment, and had always been in the forefront each time there was a hint of environmental abuse under the previous administration.

The second issue is the educational aspect of the project, which is also of concern given that Malta will definitely not want to earn a bad reputation. In this regard, the government has not been convincing about the credentials that this new university will have.

Selling ice or sand will no longer come easy for this government.