Former PL Leader and current MEP Alfred Sant has come out in defence of embattled V18 Chairman Jason Micallef in his opinion piece on The Malta Independent.
"With abject apologies to Salman Rushdie and all those who must have spent hours poring over the writings of Jason Micallef," Sant opened," just cannot understand why they found them so disturbing. Micallef expressed views that you can agree or disagree with, but which are hardly out of this world.
"Whoever found his approach offensive must still not have read articles by a learned pundit who in "The Times" regularly instructs us about the writings of Mrs Caruana Galizia. He teaches how nothing in her discourse should be considered as obnoxious or as undignified, as bullying or as based on hate speech, in the context of how in today's world, modern stylists express themselves in writing, even through a sense of exaggeration."
"Nowhere did Micallef come close to her [Caruana Galizia] model for how to "strongly" express your convictions."
Should the argument concern Micallef's public role and the discourse he should use, Sant explained, it should also apply to Archbishop Scicluna.
"Ironically, the people who want to remove Micallef and Scicluna from their positions seem to be the ones who are missing out on the truly wholesome meaning of "European" values.
Over the last few weeks, local artists, 72 MEPs, and PEN international writers have called for Jason Micallef's resignation over the irreparable damage he has caused to the reputation, programme and leadership of Valletta 2018, with Ulrich Fuchs, the Chairman of the committee that monitored Valletta as European Capital for Culture in 2018, saying that he would not attend any V18 event "as long as people representing the project destroy European values."
Meanwhile, the common message sent by various Maltese and foreign members of the selection committee that awarded Valletta the title of the European Capital of Culture has also been that V18 Chairman Jason Micallef's post is untenable.
from The Malta Independent https://ift.tt/2r8NRx1
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