‘Malta’s democracy on life support’, Busuttil says in final speech in Parliament

Former Opposition leader and Nationalist Party MP Simon Busuttil delivered his final speech in Parliament and submitted his letter of resignation to the Speaker of the House yesterday, which will take effect at the end of the month.

Busuttil is stepping down as an MP in order to take up a top job within the European People’s Party, in the role of secretarygeneral, on 1 March.

He dedicated his final parliamentary speech to assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, to “this woman, daughter, mother, sister, journalist and, above all else, this martyr of democracy; this martyr of freedom of speech and freedom of expression. They killed her to cover up corruption.”

He said he wished Parliament would honour her by naming a hall after her, as the European Parliament had done just a month after her murder.

He said that as secretary-general of the European People’s Party he would strive to rebuild Malta’s reputation.

Busuttil said that from the moment Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed, “we have not been living in a true democracy. Our democracy is in a coma, on life support.”

He disagreed with Prime Minister Robert Abela, who said that the country had returned to a state of normality.

Busuttil stressed that the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia had been a fatal blow to democracy, but not the only one over the past seven years.

Democracy, he said, was meant to rest on three pillars: the government, Parliament and the courts. There was also the fourth pillar, he added: the press. “They chipped away at these, and now they are giving way.”

The government, he said, “is corrupt from the top to bottom.” Referring to the police Traffic Section scandal, he stated:

“How can officers be arraigned in court [ on allegations of misconduct] when we had Konrad [ Mizzi] and Keith [ Schembri] opening companies in Panama?”

He argued that it was pointless for Prime Minister Abela to say that Malta had returned to normality when such people were still being sheltered from justice.

He asked whether it was normal for Schembri to be named in court, as he had been, or for Joseph Muscat to invite Yorgen Fenech to his birthday party knowing the allegations levelled against him.

He spoke of Pope Francis’ upcoming visit to Malta, quoting the pontiff ’ s words on corruption: “Corruption is something that enters into us. It is like sugar: it is sweet, we like it, it’s easy, but then, it ends badly. With so much easy sugar we end up diabetic, and so does our country. Every time we accept a bribe and put it in our pocket, we destroy our heart, we destroy our personality and we destroy our homeland. What you steal through corruption remains in the heart of the many men and women who have been harmed by your example of corruption. It remains in the lack of the good you should have done but did not do. It remains in sick and hungry children, because the money that was for them, through your corruption, you kept for yourself.”

Turning to the second pillar of democracy, Parliament, he said that this institution was failing to fulfil its role of scrutinising the government, as one would normally expect in a democratic country. He said that the majority of Labour MPs were in Cabinet while the rest were in positions of trust. “How can you expect them to come here and put pressure on the government?”

He said that only two parliamentarians had chosen not to be bought: independent MPs Marlene Farrugia and Godfrey Farrugia. He said that if Parliament was not strengthened, democracy would continue to weaken. In order for Parliament to be strengthened, he said, MPs would have to be paid a decent salary.

Turning to the courts, he said that justice was not being delivered with regard to corruption.”

He mentioned an appeals judge refusing to launch an inquiry into the Panama Papers, although this refusal was overturned by another judge. He added that the same judge had also refused to launch an inquiry into the controversial VGH hospitals contract.

He referred to a particular judge who had been mentioned by the “mafia that killed Daphne Caruana Galizia, but it is as though nothing happened.”

He said he had gone to a magistrate over Adrian Hillman and Keith Schembri. “Three years passed and nothing happened.”

He said that the government had destroyed the independence of the judiciary. “Not all are bad in the courts, and the majority are honest and competent. But why must it depend on who you get in order for there to be justice?”

He said that without justice, “we cannot have unity.”

Turning to the fourth pillar, the media, he said that when Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed to cover up corruption, the independence of the media was also killed.

He described the PBS as a state propaganda arm before turning to party media, specifically the Labour Party’s ONE: “I know what it is like for the channel to attack me every day, with half the country led to believe I am a monster as a result,” he said.

“They try to buy the few independent media left… And what about social media – a jungle of insults and hatred doing irreparable damage to our social fabric.”

He said that if the pillars were giving way, then it was “no surprise that our democracy is in the state it is in. No, prime minister, we are not a normal country. We are in an unprecedented crisis in our country’s history.”

He spoke of a few of his personal memories of his time in Parliament, including the ‘I do not have a secret company in Panama’ posters, his first time in Parliament, when he tore up the VGH contract that had been redacted, and when fake cash was thrown in Parliament last year, among others.

He said that the past seven years had not been easy for him, and spoke of how sad it was for him to see the country divided over corruption. “Instead of the government admitting its mistakes, it turned the cannons on those fighting against corruption.”

“I was attacked from all sides... in Parliament, on Super One, on the street, on Facebook and other social media... Why did you divide the country over corruption?”

He appealed to the people not to allow political parties to abuse their loyalty. “If the party is proven to be corrupt, don’t continue clapping for them. Political parties are not football clubs. A party must work for your respect.”

He said that he was pleased to see that what he believed in eventually winning. He was also pleased that civil society was born in the country.

He thanked those who had voted for him, and said that it had been a privilege. He thanked all those people who had worked with him, the MPs and his family.

“Together we have lit a small flame of hope that our country can once again become a true democracy.”

“Let us finish what we started, to again become a true democracy, as we deserve.” He said it would not be easy, “but those who never give up, reach their goal.”