Michael Cooperson, an academic, has written an article, published in the Times defending his friend Olvin Vella by saying that Olvin’s mistake was simply that he didn’t read the fine print.
Olvin Vella didn’t commit a mistake because “he didn’t read the fine print”. He lied, knowingly and willingly to the Language Council and to the Maltese public in a desperate act of ingratiation with the Culture Minister. How can the Language Council put up a respectable fight with the Culture Ministry with Olvin Vella as its head? It can’t. Olvin Vella made a mockery of the institution and he himself should do the decent thing and resign for the sake of the Council and the Maltese language.
This is what we have to put up with in academia at the University of Malta and the Faculty of Arts: opinions and positions based on friendships, a gross lack of unprofessionalism, and a tolerance for fraud. Our national institutions and University deserve better and standards have to exceed these anti-meritocratic attitudes.
It’s insane that we have to put up with this stuff at the University and really, there are no excuses for this kind of behaviour. National entities are not platforms for dilettantes to fulfill their passions and hobbies. They are a very serious thing and they should be led by serious people.
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