Muscat has angered even Labour-voting academics

Dominic Fenech

Michael Briguglio

Times of Malta interviewed some academics at the University of Malta about the prime minister’s talk of wanting to break the university’s “monopoly”.

Dominic Fenech, dean of the Faculty of Art, who was secretary-general of the Malta Labour Party when Dom Mintoff was party leader and prime minister, said to the newspaper:

“I don’t see a monopoly. It is true that for most people in search of a solid tertiary education, the University of Malta is the obvious place to go, but you cannot blame the university for that. Besides, monopoly is something you associate with business, unfairly eliminating the competition, for lucre.”

Michael Briguglio, who teaches sociology and voted Labour in the last two general elections even though he was chairman of Alternattiva Demokratika (he said so himself) told Times of Malta that Joseph Muscat wants “to pick a fight” with the University of Malta. “He wants to create an enemy to defend the cause,” he said.

Whatever they’re getting (or more likely, have already got) from Hani Hasan Naji Al Salah, the sole shareholder in Sadeen Education Investment Ltd, they must think it’s really worth all this aggro and scorn.