MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, who last July became the House’s only independent MP when he resigned from the Nationalist Party, has sounded an alarm bell on the loose coalition he currently shares with the Nationalist government in an article in today’s issue.

In the article, Dr Pullicino Orlando takes the government to task for its handling of a number of issues, commenting: “The past year has seen this government show an unprecedented level of disdain and disrespect towards Parliament in a humiliating attempt at prolonging its sell-by date.”

He says the government’s “procrastination” on the IVF and cohabitation legislation (issues in which he takes a personal interest) is because “arch-conservatives who have hijacked the party are averse to even discussing the issues”.

He also says it is “unacceptable” for a democratic party to condemn its MPs for voting against their whip, with reference to his censure by the party for having voted in favour of a motion against Malta’s then ambassador to the European Union Richard Cachia Caruana, and asks readers to imagine what would happen if such action were to be taken in the UK, where MPs routinely vote against party lines.

“The present sorry state the Nationalist Party is in is not due to disgruntlement, but to mismanagement,” he writes. “Even a casual observer would be forgiven for associating the GonziPN experiment with a latter-day Titanic following a pre-charted course towards a monumental iceberg.”

According to Dr Pullicino Orlando, what the Nationalist Party needs is an election defeat, which would lead the party to carry out some necessary soul-searching.

He writes: “I can only look forward to a day when good men such as Lawrence Gonzi and Simon Busuttil are allowed to run the party unfettered. That can only happen if the PN is defeated at the polls in the forthcoming election and is given the opportunity of doing some much delayed soul-searching in opposition.

“One shudders to think about the unplumbed levels of arrogance to which we will be exposed if this is not the case.”

See the full article on The Malta Independent on Sunday