Letters | Wednesday, 18 March 2009

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Once upon a time university students made themselves heard vociferously and seen ostensibly. There was a time (1977) when some medical students chained themselves to the iron railings on the Castille side of the OPM’s main entrance, to protest against the government’s attitude’s towards the medical profession and the housemen debate.
For many consecutive years before, students had conducted a Students’ Charities Campaign around Foundation Day. Forty years ago today, the Students’ Housing Committee ended a campaign of collections of signatures in a National Petition organised with the intention of creating an awareness and ended with a protest march from Castille Place to Auberge D’Aragon: at the time, the Office of the then Prime Minister Dr George Borg Olivier.
The housing shortage had long been felt in Malta and besides the obvious financial problems of funding home ownership (at that time no financial institution gave out loans for home construction), the construction industry was occupied in full swing in the building of factories, hotels and luxury villas. Engaged couples who wanted to get married, or those already married, had no option but to move to a newly built residence. The greater majority of houses were those which escaped demolition by enemy action or else were the inadequate development that had taken place in the 20 or so years after the war.
The situation was desperate. Even those who could afford to buy, had a very poor market choice.
Letters started appearing in the press. The Church had built some flats at Blata l-Bajda which were invariably called the “Archbishop’s Flats”. The Cana Movement was at the forefront of the attempt to create a national conscience, to make the government do something to ease the problem. Faced with a personal problem and at the same time being a university student myself, a small, insignificant idea came to my mind. I phoned the Director and told him what I thought. He advised me to make a formal proposal in the next meeting of the Engaged Couples’ Committee, of which I was secretary. I quickly wrote a letter which was soon speeding to the SRS secretary.
In the name of the Movement I invited the student body to consider how “the SRC could help in a national petition which it intends to make as a collective protest against the national housing problem.”
I soon got the reply that Henry Frendo had formed a Commission including himself (chairman), Louis Galea (petition organizer), Colin Apap (secretary) Alfred Cauchi (promoter) Joe Libreri, Joe Meli, Paul Galea, John Sciberras, Klaus Vella Bardon (members) and Michael Falzon, SRC president.
The campaign was given coverage on TV, and the following day, a Saturday, there was the official opening at the Catholic Institute, and signatures started being collected on Republic Street.
The Commission afterwards called a press conference at the Students’ Union in Valletta. At 5pm we moved to Castille, where students and people had already gathered. The 10 members of the Commission led the dignified march and while some people joined us as we walked along, the majority preferred just to stand by and approve.
We arrived at Independence Square at 6.00pm and entered immediately into the Auberge, where we presented the Prime Minister with the 74,000-sigature petition and the memorandum. He told us he was pleased with the student initiative and that his government was conscious of the housing problem in Malta. While he was speaking we cloud hear the cries “Djar, djar, djar” and the singing of “L-Innu Malti”. After eight minutes Borg Olivier told us we had better hurry outside otherwise the demonstrators would rush in with their enthusiasm.
On leaving the Auberge the crowd started cheering and suddenly I felt myself being raised shoulder high and had enough time to see that Henry had shared the same fate. Soon after we entered the Archbishop’s Palace and were greeted by Archbishop M. Gonzi, who donated £20 for the campaign expenses.
It nearly cost me my degree, but it did cost the PN a nail in its coffin two years later.

Alfred Cauchi
Marsa

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