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Update 2: Stormy KSU meeting gets nowhere

The annual general meeting of the University Student Council (KSU) which was meant to discuss the electoral system for University student council elections got bogged down in technicalities this afternoon and was frequently interrupted by shouting and the trading of insults.

The meeting, meant to start at Noon was postponed until 12.35 for a quorum, however by 3.15 nothing conclusive had been reached - with disagreement even on the agenda.

Officials of SDM and Pulse - the rival political organisations, argued over the number of people going in and out of the room since a 50+1 majority was needed for for the agenda to be changed. There were various objections from both sides, with the room erupting into shouting every time the door was opened.

The burning issue in this meeting was meant to be the electoral reform proposed by Pulse which would mean there would be proportional representation in the student council.

As the electoral system stands, candidates from the students' group which gets the most votes gets elected en bloc, even if a particular candidate for a post gets more votes than the candidate in the team with wins most votes.

On Monday, Pulse submitted amendments for the KSU statute to implement a mixed-member proportional representative electoral system.

Members of Pulse and Graffiti later protested to the chair that efforts were being done to derail the debate on the electoral reform.

At about 3.30 pm, with no progress having been made, the Pulse representatives walked out in protest.

PULSE STATEMENT

Pulse in a statement said it was disappointed at what happened at the meeting.

"Democracy fell short as the AGM’s procedure was not duly followed. The AGM, as the highest organ within the KSU structure, failed to respect the KSU statute itself, which safeguards the decision of the students’ vote.

After considerable efforts to keep order, it became apparent that a mature discussion was unattainable. This forced Pulse representatives, amongst others, to abandon the meeting and withdraw their motion," the student organisation said.

It accused SDM of ridiculing the democratic rights of students.

"They prefer to spend five hours discussing if the AGM should commence or not, instead of discussing what truly affects the well-being of both the council and the student electorate."

On the other hand, Pulse goes further to question whether decisions taken in this AGM should stand to be recognised.

Pulse said it condemned all behaviour which was disrespectful and intolerant towards different opinions.

SDM REACTION

SDM in another statement said it condemned the hostile and insulting attitude of some members of Pulse, Graffitti and Move. This attitude, it said, which was neither moderate, nor progressive.

The SDM said Pulse had not achieved the required two-thirds majority needed to suspend the agenda so that its motion could be discussed. The sitting then had to be suspended because of rowdy behaviour by the members of Pulse and Graffitti, who expected to have the right to dictate what the Chair should do.

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Jonathan Galea

Mar 19th 2010, 15:13

I agree with you Mr.Grech, but I wonder what you would do if your right to vote was taken away from you unjustly? That is what happened in this KSU... or, to be more precise, SDM did not accept the vote that was taken democratically. Pulse pushed for a change in the agenda so as to discuss the more pressing issue first (that of the electoral reform), but we were denied the opportunity to do so, even though we had obtained the majority...

Christian Sciberras

Mar 19th 2010, 16:26

Online voting? You're kidding right?

If not, let me just say that there are a lot of ways to "play" online...

Jonathan Galea

Mar 19th 2010, 11:17

The only thing we are hoping for is that students finally open their eyes and see that they are being manipulated... it is high time that they wake up and decide that their voices need to be heard more, because THEY should decide who should represent them and... I do not need to continue this sentence.

Alex Cutajar

Mar 18th 2010, 22:40

Pulse does not scream if it is given a right to talk, and show proposals. SDM simply did not accept the proposal, and the AGM was a total disaster

Matthew Abela

Mar 18th 2010, 22:19

To Spagnol,

We both know that "bejn il verita u il fatti hemm il bahar jikkumbatti", there were things which PULSE promised and guess what?? We both know the truth behind this motion, all you want is power.. I dont know if you are l-spagnol il-kbir jew iz-zghir, could you please specify which one you are? Another point is...why now and not BEFORE the KSJC election??

Matthew Abela

Alex Cutajar

Mar 20th 2010, 13:10

@ Matthew Abela
In the Junior College, there are only 2 organisations, and you can never say that one of them is winning by loads that the other can never be in the KSJC. In other words, in the Junior College, the situation is at a "same level playing field".

If Pulse wanted power, than pulse would turn up with candidates for the next election, with the motion. But CLEARLY this is not for the benefit of PULSE, but to any other organisation that feels that it should be represented.

According to how the AGM turned out, it clearly shows us, that SDM want the KSU for only themselves, and ONLY themselves. They do not want any organisation to interfere with them, and they are afraid of any Competition.

No Council is effective if there is no competiton. What are SDM afraid of, if they have nothing to lose? In this way KSU is always their's.

Mark-Anthony Fenech

Mar 18th 2010, 15:04

it's called sarcasm...

Joseph A Borg

Mar 18th 2010, 12:49

your sarcasm is dripping from the screen down to my table… I'm saving some for later.

I agree with you, sort of. With a free health service, free tertiary education, don't you thing that we have better social mobility now than in the 60's? Mintoff's desperate measures in the 70's were necessary then during a global recession. Both parties should encourage their members to study for high paying skilled jobs and lift themselves out of poverty and further raise local productivity.

The safety net for those who fall dangerously close to the povertyline should be continually strengthened but nothing beats lifting yourself up to the best of your abilities.

A.Saliba

Mar 18th 2010, 18:58

You are very misguided Matthew, VERY!! whenever Pulse President spoke about this electoral reform he also said that if the system was implemented at University than yes Junior College will follow.

M. Agius

Mar 18th 2010, 16:47

You may also confirm SDM's ties to PN. Check were some of them work, check past interviews done by NET tv and you can spot out whom they asked :) *Surprise!*

G.Schembri

Mar 17th 2010, 21:46

Nobody wants to have the same number, but it is expected that all students should be reperesented on KSU. Not all University Students are Studenti Demokristjani. So how can KSU be composed of SDM only.
If Local Council elections were held in the same way, we would end up with either PL or PN council
members only in each locality. Not to mention that if the same system was used in the general elections we would end up with a dictatorship.
By the way I suggest you learn the difference between Communism and Dictatorship. Right now SDM is the Dictator, fighting to have a one party administration, ignoring all the rest.

M.Cauchi

Mar 17th 2010, 21:23

Pull the other on it's got bells on it. Every student at uni knows that SDM = PN and Pulse = MLP - with either of them serving thier political master's agenda rather than the students'. While I applaud Pulse's current motion to try and instill some sort of representative elections at university I still would like to see the student council election based on individual independant campaigns free of political leanings and agendas, such as are carried out in a number of forieghn univerisites. Rather than voting for mr x from pulse and Mr y from SDM I'd rather choose from Mssrs v, w, x, y & z of no political leaning.

Jonathan Galea

Mar 17th 2010, 20:36

labour members? excuse me? I'm a tesserated PN member and part of the Pulse executive. time and time again we have stressed the point that we are NOT affiliated with any political party, be it red, blue, or green. on the contrary, we condemn party politics on campus.

I joined Pulse when I saw that unfortunately SDM feign taking an interest in students' affairs to gain power, as they have clearly shown today

lgalea

Mar 17th 2010, 20:44

You mean the SDM students and the ex-SDM president who should not have been allowed in because he is not a student?

M Agius

Mar 17th 2010, 20:47

Were you not shocked by the way sdm changed their opinion first arguing that Pulse were trying to change the statute and later (after AGM was suspended in the meantime gathering their supporters as everything was turning out against KSU/ SDM.) and later they came back saying that what Pulse wanted to change was the agenda and not the statute - the door kept opening while discussing a vote amongst other irregularities?

I am not a Pulse supporter or labour for all that matters, I think that both parties are different shades but pretty much the same substance. But I fully support proportional representation, may be in the future we'll have something like a coalition government.

If what goes on, on campus is representative of the outside world then we're a heading towards a new totalitarian government.
The AGM should be annulled due to all the irregularities it had from the very start or else rename to SDM u l-ħbieb tal-ħbieb AGM.

R abdilla

Mar 17th 2010, 20:46

@Karl Bugeja .dawk mhux jghajjru il hadd imma qed jigieldu ghad drittijiet tghahom . ghax luniversita giet manipulata ukoll. Tyson tant kin jaf xinhu jghamel li hareg lin nies barra biex ma jaqawx ghall provokazzjoni li bdew jghamlu nies li liskopp tghahom kin li jara lin nies tal pulse jiritaljaw. Dak is sejahlu tghajjir ? taf min jghajjar hux f luniversita ? meta kin gie alfred sant u insulentawh bi kliem dispregattiv fostom it tifel ta mara li illum mhux tghamel hliex ix xewwex u ig gelled nies

Maria Pace

Mar 17th 2010, 19:18

I'd rather the country would be ruled by these than by someone who does not know the definition of 'blasphemy'.

These students are doing the right thing. They are fighting against a system that is not working.

A. Briffa

Mar 17th 2010, 17:14

Why remove student organizations? From your words why don't we remove all NGOs and start living the survival of the fittest game!

Victor Laiviera

Mar 17th 2010, 16:33

Mr Sapiano, there is nothing in that article which indicates which side the "insults" were coming from.

If you had been present at the pre-election University Debate - as I was - you would have seen and heard the right-wing students hurling the vilest of insults at Dr Alfred Sant - including taunts about his medical condition.

Joe Cassar

Mar 17th 2010, 16:36

The present system at the University is totally undemocratic. If it were to be used during the national elections, it would mean that the party that got most votes - even if it was a slim relative majority, would get ALL the parliamentary seats.

Is that what we want?

L. Grixti

Mar 17th 2010, 16:37

Democracy is actually that all the people have persons to represent them. The system at the moment is that 52% of those who voted (mind you, only 25% of the people at university actually care about voting) are represented by 100% of the committee, while the other 48% have no one representing them. You call that fair and democratic?

PULSE motion is about having a ratio of elected members to represent the election result. Quite a fair and democratic motion in my opinion.

I can't understand how to blame are left-wing movements, when the AGM is being organised and directed by the current KSU, which as far as I know are SDM members.

And I won't even comment about people commenting against youths and students.

L. Grixti

Mar 17th 2010, 16:37

Democracy is actually that all the people have persons to represent them. The system at the moment is that 52% of those who voted (mind you, only 25% of the people at university actually care about voting) are represented by 100% of the committee, while the other 48% have no one representing them. You call that fair and democratic?

PULSE motion is about having a ratio of elected members to represent the election result. Quite a fair and democratic motion in my opinion.

I can't understand how to blame are left-wing movements, when the AGM is being organised and directed by the current KSU, which as far as I know are SDM members.

And I won't even comment about people commenting against youths and students.

Christian Mifsud

Mar 17th 2010, 17:12

The word democracy at the University of Malta does not exist.

john micallef

Mar 17th 2010, 16:46

I didnt believe there are still stupid people like you

Matthew Farrugia

Mar 17th 2010, 17:55

Mr. Micallef, and to all those who think that it's because of national politics,

I have been with these people for some long time to know that, as for Pulse, there is no affiliation with a political party, let alone infiltration. PULSE is a neutral student organisation, yes with left ideology, because we believe that every student has the same and exact right to learn with all the others, because left is not labour, left is the ideology that I don't care if you're rich and poor, if you have the right to learn, than come and learn... Pulse is made up of different students from different backgrounds (political, religios etc)... and that what makes pulse strong,

Karl Tabone

Mar 17th 2010, 18:12

I'm sorry to correct you but Pulse does not have any connection to a specific party. We said it before, and still people cannot understand this simple statement.

Alex Cutajar

Mar 18th 2010, 22:37

Mr Micallef.. Even if it where the MLP, what's the havoc? Try not to listen to only one side ..

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