“This project will be a game-changer”, Joseph Muscat boasted in Parliament. He was referring to the American University of Malta fronted by Hani Salah, a hotel developer. On 5th May 2015 at the signing ceremony in Castille, Joseph Muscat bragged that Salah would invest €115 million and would recruit 4,000 students. Only 100 students showed some interest in AUM, and of these none had confirmed, according to leaked e-mails.
The Zonqor campus will be completed within 2 years, Muscat claimed in 2015. Seven years later, Muscat’s successor has given away more land at Smart City to Sadeen Ltd for peanuts in order to retake Zonqor - on which not a single stone of the AUM campus has been laid.
“The AUM project will consolidate Malta’s excellent reputation whilst also serving as an education hub in the Mediterranean”, Muscat declared. He went on to make more false claims - “AUM and the Sadeen group has teamed up with the acclaimed De Paul University of Chicago”.
Within hours De Paul University was categorically denying Muscat’s claims. “There is no agreement in place to provide De Paul faculty or staff to AUM. De Paul will not be involved in AUM operations”. The only tenuous link to AUM was that Sadeen Education Investment Ltd had bought curriculum material from De Paul. It certainly hadn’t “teamed up” with AUM as Muscat claimed.
Muscat continued to bolster Salah, his Sadeen group and the AUM. In August 2015 Muscat visited Zonqor where he claimed “three out of five colleges of the AUM will be situated”. “AUM will give the much needed economic push to Marsascala”, Muscat promised. The AUM, he bluffed, will contribute €85 million per year to the economy.
“The government will be negotiating hard for scholarships to be offered to Maltese students”, Muscat bluffed. Instead his government entered into a secret side agreement with Hani Salah committing to help the AUM with student enrolment by selecting students itself and then paying Sadeen for those students’ tuition - which the taxpayer would pay. Muscat’s hard negotiations with Salah also involved Keith Schembri signing another secret side agreement on 26 October 2015 giving Hani Salah an additional 3,022 square metres at Zonqor. Or another secret agreement signed on 27 December 2018 through which government bound itself to develop and implement schemes and incentives which would directly benefit Sadeen Education Investment Ltd a minimum of €2.5 million and a maximum of €3 million - again out of our money. Instead of boosting the economy by 85 million per year as Muscat deceitfully claimed, taxpayers’ money was being spent to keep Sadeen afloat as it failed miserably in attracting more than a handful of students and continued to make huge financial losses.
Muscat secretly appointed Allied Newspapers’ managing director Adrian Hillman on the AUM board. Keith Schembri advised Sadeen how to handle media criticism. The prime minister’s office provided the AUM with two letters of support - one to be sent to East China Normal University and the other to be used as required.
“I want to reject claims of interference in the NCHFE (National Commission for Higher and Further Education)”, Muscat declared in 2015. Yet James Grech, an official within Muscat’s office, was chasing NCHFE on behalf of Hani Salah. Audrey Abela, who had worked at the OPM, was Head of Accreditation and Validation at the NCHFE but went on to become a manager at the AUM. The head of Quality Assurance at NCHFE, Manuel Vella Rago also became an AUM faculty member.
Joseph Muscat knew what the reality was. Yet he continued to feed the public more of his crap - €115 million investment, 4,000 students, €85 million annual boost to the economy, five colleges, excellent reputation, scholarships for Maltese students, de Paul University. Lies, lies and more lies. “The AUM is a win-win solution for all”, Muscat proclaimed.
Universities have an incredibly important mission in democratic societies - to train people to recognise bullshit. In 2017, the University of Washington introduced a course of studies called “Calling Bullshit: Data reasoning in a digital world”. It aimed to ensure that students “remain vigilant for bullshit contaminating their information diet”, “recognise bullshit whenever and wherever you encounter it”, “figure out for yourself precisely why bullshit is bullshit” and “provide an accessible and persuasive explanation of why a claim is bullshit”.
Sadly, that programme is not offered to Maltese students. It’s certainly not offered at the American University of Malta, which is neither American and nor a University. As one of its own lecturers commented, “AUM really isn’t …an ethical bona fide educational institution”. Dawn Adrienne Saliba, that AUM lecturer, actually wrote a letter to Joseph Muscat categorically denouncing AUM as a fraud and a hoax. Of course Joseph Muscat knew too well. Hani Salah and his company had as much experience in university education as Ram Tumuluri had experience in health.
Yet Muscat’s bullshit was swallowed whole by an entire nation. The country’s stomach was still wretching on the medical tourism, 200 million Vitals investment con Muscat had rammed down its throat. The voices in the wilderness that vociferously objected to Muscat’s latest scam were shouted down. Evarist Bartolo mocked the opposition for “sounding like the end of the world was upon us”. He attacked the opposition in parliament for not making “a detailed analysis of the proposed contract” with Hani Salah. How could they, if his government kept the contract and its multiple side agreements secret. Evarist Bartolo turned up at Zonqor with Joseph Muscat and clapped enthusiastically as his boss, Muscat, conned the people once again.
Malta desperately needs to take that University of Washington course. The country needs to learn fast how to distinguish fact from fiction, truth from lies, honesty from bullshit. How many times do you need to be scammed by the same person before you even realise? Hello Malta Professional Football Clubs Assocation.