Why pointing a finger at PN MPs is just an attempt to muddy the waters

Clayton Bartolo and Clint Camilleri are delaying the inevitable by refusing to step down from Cabinet, especially after parliament’s Standards Committee unanimously adopted the Standards Commissioner’s report. 

A half-hearted apology and obstinance to accept that they bungled the Amanda Muscat affair will do little to convince a very distrustful electorate. 

Bartolo and Camilleri awarded Amanda Muscat a lucrative consultancy job simply because she was the former’s girlfriend. And to make matters worse, she did not even fulfil that job description but continued working as a private secretary. The ‘promotion’ was only intended to bump up her wage. 

There is no way these actions can be justified and their attempts to do so are not only pathetic but an insult to every right-thinking person. 

Within these circumstances, Prime Minister Robert Abela has no other choice but to kick them out. His reluctance to do so is inexplicable and exposes the level of moral decay in government. 

To make matters worse, the Abela administration is taken over by a siege mentality. Honest, level-headed criticism is often rejected, labelled unfair and interpreted as an attack on Labour. This mentality renders everyone and everything an enemy at the slightest hint of dissent. 

A sure sign of this mentality was on display last week when Labour functionaries, including the Prime Minister, tried to dissipate the heat from the Bartolo-Camilleri affair by drawing into the fray Nationalist MPs who work with the public service and who purportedly do not turn up for work. Their argument is, if Amanda Muscat is being criticised for not doing the work she was paid for, then so should the PN MPs. 

It was a pathetic and desperate attempt to confuse issues.  

If Labour functionaries are so outraged that a handful of PN MPs are not turning up for work in the public service they should direct that anger towards management that is responsible for ensuring that every single worker is giving their due. If the Office of the Prime Minister was closing an eye to the alleged abuse involving the PN MPs and only felt it necessary to raise the issue now because two of its own are being grilled there is nothing honest in the counter criticism. The outrage by Labour functionaries is just fake posturing in an attempt to muddy the waters. 

But it is worth noting that the issue concerning MPs who are also employed in the public sector and the work hours they put in, is not a new phenomenon. There have been many MPs from both sides of the house over the years whose day job was with the public service before they entered politics or were elected to parliament and every now and then the issue of workplace skiving crops up. 

This leader expects that people in the public service, whoever they are, should give their 100% at work. People who skive should be disciplined not only because the wages are paid from taxpayer money but because they are a disservice to their co-workers. Abuse should never be tolerated. 

But the matter involving MPs is more complex to deal with. While it is expected that MPs in these circumstances fulfil their day job duties – after all they are still being paid their full-time salaries and perks – they should also be enabled to fulfil their parliamentary duties without hassle. And parliamentary duties are not only confined to the hours when parliament is in session. An MP’s duties towards their constituents requires them to meet outside parliamentary hours. They should also be able to carry out research so that interventions are meaningful. 

This is why a change in public policy is required for MPs whose ordinary job is with the public sector. Clear guidelines have to be drawn up that allow MPs to perform their elected functions, without causing unnecessary disruption to their place of work. If the guidelines exist, they should be revisited. 

In the absence of having full-time parliamentarians, the conundrum of how to deal with MPs employed in the public sector will always remain. 

And if the intention is to make it difficult for them to perform their elected functions, we might as well have a parliament made up of lawyers and other self-employed professionals. 

Rather than claim false outrage, the Labour Party should take it on itself to reform the system so that MPs employed with the public service are helped to discharge their functions well. 

This requires a proper analysis of the situation and policy changes that are agreed by both sides of the House not political posturing to try and obfuscate a serious breach of ethics by two sitting ministers.