Have you noticed how silent the government has remained amid the ongoing AUM saga?
One might ask: is this the same government that had announced the ‘massive investment’ with such pomp just a few years ago? Is it the same government that had organized a three-minister press conference at Xghajra to accuse the Opposition of being negative and anti-investment?
Aren’t these the same people who took the project completely on board and tried to convince us that this was the best thing since sliced bread? Are they not the same ones who organized a big press conference at the Auberge de Castille when a ‘compromise’ was reached to split the campus in two – one part at Cospicua and the other at Zonqor?
The AUM project is now foundering, with the fledgling university failing to attract more than 30 students in its first semester despite all the hype and firing staff left, right and centre. Yet the government – the same government that had held a big press conference to announce a two-cent reduction in the price of petrol – is hiding in the shadows, now refusing to touch the tainted project.
Yes, both Joseph Muscat and Evarist Bartolo have said, when pressed by journalists, that no construction should take place at Zonqor until the Cospicua campus reaches full complement but, other than that …. zilch.
The Education Minister and even the Prime Minister (seeing that this project was hyped up so much by the OPM) should be holding press conferences to keep the media abreast of the latest developments with the AUM. Instead, they are just ignoring the huge problems being faced by what was deemed as one of their flagship projects – a university that, we were told, would rake in millions of euro in investment to the south of the island.
There is another thing: the government has so far limited itself to speaking about the future of the Zonqor site. But the issue goes far beyond development on ODZ land. This is also about the credibility of the government, which had stood foursquare behind the Sadeen group and agreed to hand over a prime piece of real estate to them, assuring us that this was not a real estate deal, and the credibility of Malta’s education sector, particularly the National Commission for Further and Higher Education (NCFHE), which had assured us that the Jordanian group had passed the tests and satisfied all of its requirements to be classified as a university.
The government cannot remain silent before this unfolding controversy and cannot keep up its attitude of ‘we do not interfere in the dealings of private business’ because ultimately we are speaking here about a private company using two pieces of public land. And the clause stipulating that the project has to be of an educational nature is not very reassuring.
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The National Commission for the Promotion of Equality yesterday joined a growing chorus of voices against the use of sexist language by people holding public office. While it did not mention any particular incident it was clear that the NCPE was referring to the opinion piece by of Education Commissioner Charles Caruana Carabez, which prompted a storm of condemnation.
The NCPE rightly said that people holding public office should not use sexist language or lean on stereotypes and must be aware of their responsibility in promoting gender equality.
TheMalta Confederation of Women’s Organisations had earlier called on the Ombudsman to remove Caruana Carabez from his post.
We feel that Caruana Carabez’s role at the office of the Ombudsman has been compromised and that the government or the Ombudsman ought to remove him from the post, unless he resigns of his own accord.
We also feel that Equality Minister Helena Dalli has a duty to speak up.