The normal Sunday morning interview on Radio 101 by the leader of the Nationalist Party today turned out to be a pre-recorded interview with Dr Simon Busuttil who is in Vancouver on Parliamentary business.

In his interview, Dr Busuttil did not mention the CHOGM except accidentally. Instead he focused his remarks on the document about economic policy that the party issued last week.

Actually, this is the second document about economic policy. In the days before the Budget Speech, the party had issued for the very first time in Maltese politics, the pre-Budget document by the Opposition.

The document issued last week speaks of an economic policy at the service of the people. While in the pre-Budget document the party focused on the economic aims for the coming year, this second document is a more long-term one.

The document speaks of five fingers on the hand of the economy:

1. a well-oiled machine

2. an economy based on the environment, not against it

3. an economy based on equality, equal rights and dignity for all

4. a digital society with the best-available technology in everything from in the home to on the road

5. Gozo, not as the last chapter in a book but as one of five fingers in the national economy.

Dr Busuttil said this document has been presented to the MCESD and has received praise from everyone. Thus people will know what a future PN administration will be doing: there will be no uncertainty in that regard. This is more than anything that Labour proposed in its 25 years in Opposition: all it proposed were hurried last-minute proposals.

Last week's fracas in Parliament

Dr Busuttil then focused on the extraordinary scenes in Parliament last week.

Over these past two and a half years that he has been in the Maltese Parliament he has never stopped being shocked by the continual barrage of insults, threats, ridicule, and non replies the Opposition keeps getting from the government. But now the same treatment has been meted out to a government member - Marlene Farrugia - who has dared disagree with the government.

He and the other members of the Opposition could only gape in shock when the most senior member in the House, who should have given an example, attacked Ms Farrugia. It was not just his offensive and threatening language, but also his body language - Mr Debono Grech had to be held back by his colleagues.

What happened in Parliament is unacceptable. His own personal reaction while he assisted at what was taking place was to ask himself: What am I doing here?

In response to this, and only after being asked by the Opposition Whip, the Speaker gave a ruling which added insult to injury: it considered the aggressor and the aggressed on the same basis and it ordered them to apologise.

It was because of this ruling that the Opposuition left the House as once a ruling is given no one can criticise it.

Later on the Opposition proposed a motion which the Government later amended and whose amended version was later approved by the House.

Many points emerged from the discussion. The Opposition was proved right. It was Joe Debono Grech who sent in an apology, while Ms Farrugia did not, whereas the Speaker had told both to apologise. And some government members condemned the aggression, such as Godfrey Farrugia. Nor did the government, in its amended motion, say it agreed with the Speaker's ruling.

The Speaker had earlier said Parliament has been reduced to a pigsty (maqjel). He (Dr Busuttil) refuses to be in a pigsty.

The real lesson of all this is that the government reacts badly to any criticism. Until last week, it was only the Opposition which got this treatment but now, after Marlene Farrugia, it is anyone who criticises the government.

 

CHOGM and security

It was only in the last part of his interview (with Alex Attard) that Dr Busuttil mentioned CHOGM and then rather accidentally.

Both before the recent EU-Africa summit and before CHOGM security has been ramped up and the Schengen rules were suspended with the Opposition in agreement. But in the past year and a half 7,000 visas have been issued to Algerian nationals, that is, outside Schengen. Air Malta planes used to fly empty to Algiers and return full of people. No one knows what happened to these people. Government has said that twice that number had applied but that is not an argument that can be accepted.

It also means that in just a year and a half an office has been opened, 15,000 crowded to apply for a visa and one of the top persons in the Maltese embassy was a relative of the prime minister. There wass even a website which advertised visas for sale.

This kind of attitude has become usual for this administration but it now affects the security of Malta.

Besides, in one year, 14,000 persons have been given residence permits in Malta. These persons come from outside the Schengen area. We do not know how many residence permits have been given out this year so far. People have been arraigned in Court in conjunction with this issue.

Now the government has retained border controls even after CHOGM that means that against EU citizens coming from EU countries when actually such controls should have been put in place as regards to people coming from outside Schengen.

There is no threat to Malta coming from the Scherngen countries - even the Syruians who were arrested in Italy said they were coming here for work. 

The Oppositiion is ready to talk with the government regarding security. It offers its cooperation.

Labour Party's reaction

Leader of the Opposition Simon Busuttil has persisted with speaking out against measures in favour of national security, even though Nationalist Party media is in the middle of a scare campaign, a Labour Party press release said.

It continued by saying that Dr Busuttil’s media is scaring people by escalating the threat of terrorism, but still insists on going against measures the would amount to more safety control.

 

“This negativity, which by now we are used to, has gotten to the point that in an interview lasting more than 30 minutes, no focus was placed on the content of the important meeting that happened in our country [CHOGM], nothing more than negativity and fear which is the norm,” it concluded.