Independent MP Marlene Farrugia believes that the PN’s good governance proposals augur well for the local political scene, which has been plagued by murky governance for many years and has recently taken a turn for the worse.
“The publication of this 'governance standards' guideline document indicates that PN has not only fully acknowledged the significance and implications of one of the major causes of its own downfall, but is determined to rebuild the new PN alternative government in the making on the solid foundations of honest, transparent and accountable governance,” she said.
Unfortunately, she said, the document is and will be perceived as just another report unless the PN visibly puts its principles into action in governing its own party and business affairs in the run up to the next general elections. The document, she explained, will also remain just another document until the PN in government has the opportunity to walk the talk.
The independent MP believes that the PN will be constantly deeply scrutinised in this regard because of the nation's ongoing experience with Labour.
“With every passing day more and more people are becoming aware of the deepening chasm separating the kind of governance promised by the Labour Movement when in opposition, and the actual ongoing Labour Party governance”.
From Opposition, Labour incessantly harped on the need for a new way of doing politics; “on the need to purge our governance from the corruption nibbling away at the country's ultimate performance. PL stopped short of publishing a document on good governance, but it certainly hammered itself into people's minds as the champion of a new style of Maltese politics , denouncing old style shady governance at every opportunity”.
“Two and a half years into the legislature, with the echoes of PL 's chants of good governance still ringing in our ears, we are subjected to daily news of muddy activity condoned through action or inaction, by the very people the electorate entrusted to bring about the change for the better”.
Could we have foreseen Labour's descent from a formidable opposition to a government constantly in a quagmire? MP Farrugia believes the answer to this question is “with hindsight, yes”.
“A deeper look at the way it ran its internal affairs as a party in Opposition, an analysis of the situation and activity within its Centri Laburista, the shroud of secrecy surrounding its notorious 4th floor, its eye-opening fund raising activities. All this and more was there for all of us to see - hadn't we been knocked unconscious by the combination of an intoxicating PL marketing campaign and a nauseating PN final year in office”.
She called the PN’s document a step in the right direction, and believes that Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil is determined to bring about real change in the PN and in Maltese politics. “The effectiveness of the good governance document as a tool to persuade the electorate to trust PN again in the next general election, will depend as much on the Nationalist Party's behaviour in dealing with its own affairs and campaign, as it does in Labour's ongoing show in government”.
She said that the Opposition Leader never formally discussed the document with her, however they did hold discussions on “re-establishing good governance and cleaning up local politics to safeguard and build upon whatever fragments of trust in authorities remain following the PN and PL onslaught on credibility, within and among politicians and political parties”.