National unity Labour style

The way we see it, the job of Head of Government Communications should be to act as a government spokesperson, reply (in a prompt fashion) to the questions sent by journalists, to react to news reports and issue explanations or clarifications, to be proactive and supply newsrooms with positive stories to push forward the government agenda and to oversee the smooth running of the government information and media relations system, ensuring that all ministries have a good relationship with the press and that the communications people under their responsibility are actually doing the job they are being paid to do.

But it seems that the current holder of that post, Kurt Farrugia, has given a new meaning to the role - one that does not fit into the above description. Farrugia, who was once the head of the Labour Party’s propaganda machine, yesterday launched a scathing attack on outgoing PN Leader Simon Busuttil, using totally inappropriate and uncalled for language against his master’s political rival.

In his opinion piece on Times of Malta, Farrugia claimed that Busuttil will not be missed by anyone, that no one will shed a tear when he leaves and that the PN leader

Editor’s pick

deserves no praise. In what was nothing more than a personal attack penned a month and a half after the election, and at a time when Busuttil is stepping down, Farrugia said the country would be relieved to see the PN leader’s back.

This opinion piece came a couple of days after Busuttil asked the courts to investigate Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri over their secret Panamanian companies, and is, in all probability, a reaction to that request. It was the typical PL attitude of ‘lash out against and destroy all those who criticise and expose your dirty linen’.

Granted, maybe Busuttil is taking things just a little too far and should have let the ongoing inquiries take their course, but he believes he is doing the right thing, and many agree with him that democracy in this country at this point in time is under threat, no matter how great the economy is doing.

The fact that more than half of those who voted in the general election chose the Labour Party does not mean that Busuttil does not have the backing of the other half. We have already stated that, just because the PN lost the election it should not let up on the subject of corruption. Many of us still take that subject very seriously.

Busuttil is now being accused by Keith Schembri of producing false evidence, when the evidence the PN leader presented in court was the infamous FIAU reports that are there for all to see, with their very clear conclusions.

Farrugia makes the mistake of thinking that everyone shares his dislike for Busuttil, and this is symptomatic of a government that thinks that, because it won a second landslide election, it can do as it pleases and ignore the tens of thousands who voted for the other party.

This is not in line with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s rhetoric about healing and national unity. What we are in fact seeing from the government camp is arrogance and disdain for anyone who is not part of the same tribe.

It is, however, in line with the blog run by MP and OPM employee Glenn Bedingfield, who also ran a distasteful piece on Busuttil this week, and of the editorials penned by former l-Orizzont editor Josef Caruana, who has now also found a new home at the Auberge de Castille.

Instead of uniting a divided country, this attitude is only serving to reopen healing wounds.