Muscat’s media rule turns ministers into ‘puppets’ says Labour MP

Labour MP Marlene Farrugia has dubbed an attempt at forcing ministers to seek the Prime Minister’s clearance before giving comments or interviews, as tantamount to turning Cabinet members into “puppets on a string”.

Ministers will require the approval of the Office of the Prime Minister before giving interviews, according to the revised Ministerial Code of Ethics.

The slimmed-down code is now accompanied by a host of manuals gleaned from the civil service code, but has a new entry on ministers’ relations with the media: they will have to inform seek the OPM’s approval on statements, interviews and ministerial activities.

But backbencher Farrugia, a vocal critic of the Labour administration’s record on governance and the environment, has decried the new rung of control set up inside Joseph Muscat’s office.

“Nothing is better than allowing each part of a team to reach their full potential by letting them offer ideas and debate them. [But] you’re telling ministers that it’s useless for them to have their own minds by passing them through the OPM’s sieve… and that means it will be the OPM that decides when and how a minister’s statement is transmitted, the difference often being that one minister gets portrayed as a capable communicator, the other as an incompetent,” she told Radju Malta’s Ghandi Xi Nghid.

Farrugia was a critic of the way her partner Godfrey Farrugia was treated by the OPM staff during his time as health minister. He has since resigned and recently appointed government whip. “We cannot allow the OPM to clamp down on a minister’s free comment. There should be enough confidence in a Cabinet minister that they will deliver.”

Farrugia was however critical of various “elements” inside government whose interests she said, were not the national interest.

“The government is made up of the Prime Minister, the Cabinet and the people supporting this part of the institution. Not all of these elements are coordinating with each other, to the extent that their interests go beyond those of the country.”

She claimed the government could be fast losing its supports among its staunchest adherents, citing as an example allegations of the overvalued €1.65 million compensation and fast-track expropriation deal for property owner Marco Gaffarena.

“The word out there is that it is payback time – these scandals are generating this kind of comment from the people… I hope the government convinces the people that this is not true.”

Farrugia, who will not be seeking a candidature in the next election, said she would not leave Labour and that she was firmly planted in the centre-left. “Irrespectively of the party’s pro-business slant, it is all the more important that a centre-left part demands a sustainable economic development and conscientious business climate.”

She defended her role as the proverbial thorn in Labour’s side, saying her vocal criticism was part of her role to “prevent the government from misleading the public.”

“The electorate will, in the next three years, consider whether the government has misled them or not,” Farrugia starkly proclaimed.

She said people did not just expect the administration to admit to its mistakes. “The public wants their just expectations to be met.”

“Take the environment as an example: the manifesto speaks of being in favour of economic development that is however sustainable. So we should be refraining from decisions that undermine this sustainability,” referring to the arbitrary selection of a natural park at Zonqor Point, for the siting of a 90,000 square metre private university.

The MP also feared that lands earmarked for the construction of the American University proposed by Jordanian construction firm Sadeen, were the property of speculators seeking an appreciation of their real estate.

“I hope this is not true, although that’s what some farmers in the vicinity of the area told me… I hope the government I form part of is not thinking of selling off the people’s trust for the benefit of four individuals.”

She said she often raised her concerns personally with the Prime Minister, but said the direction Muscat took on ODZ construction would be one she will oppose. “To me Zonqor was a shock… if at this point in time we don’t help the government change its direction, I fear there will be further entire environmental destruction.”