The state of affairs in which the Speaker of the House of Representatives is effectively serving as the government’s gatekeeper in the government’s time of need is more than wrong, it is an insult to democracy itself.

For the second time in as many months, Speaker Anglu Farrugia has denied former opposition leader and current spokesperson for good governance Simon Busuttil the right to ask questions about the relationship between the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri, the infamous Pilatus Bank and the bank’s perhaps even more infamous chairman.

The situation, we would say, is beyond concerning when a PM’s chief of staff is first rendered untouchable as far as European parliamentarians are concerned, and now even as far as Maltese parliamentarians are concerned.  This is particularly worrisome after all that has come to pass and when so many questions are being asked about this individual’s financial comportment and its possible ramifications on the country.

The fact that the Speaker of the House yesterday once again denied permission for such questions to be asked in itself raises a number of questions, foremost amongst which is whether the Speaker is falling short of his Constitutional role by serving as the government’s gatekeeper.

Last month, Busuttil was overruled by the Speaker when he sought to question whether Schembri holds an account at Pilatus Bank or in Dubai. 

Then there was the other question about the chief of staff’s attendance at the bank chief’s relatively recent wedding.  That too was quashed by the Speaker.

Yes, the Speaker may have ruled against the governing party of which he had formed part for so many years in a number of instances but these questions about the chief of staff have touched a very exposed government nerve and when called upon by the government, the Speaker appears to have paid his dues.

We say ‘appeared’ because we would still like to have faith in the office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives.  But these latest rulings make such faith difficult to summon.

About the wedding, the Speaker ruled that Parliament’s Standing Orders dictated that questions could only be put to ministers if they were related to public affairs and to the public administration.  On this the Speaker may be technically correct on the one hand, but morally blinkered on the other.  That is because if the Speaker cannot see how the attendance at the wedding of this individual is not related to public affairs and public administration, he really would not know a public issue if it slapped him across the face.

This is clearly no ordinary case and it is one in which personal capacity does not apply, especially after reports from government bodies have pointed toward a particularly cosy relationship between the chief of staff and the bank’s chairman.  To have Schembri hide behind ‘personal capacity’ is, after all, rather ironic when he and his colleagues in government have blurred the lines so thoroughly that a team of archaeologists would be hard pressed to find any of those lines.

These questions are anything but gratuitous, they are in the national interest in the wake of the manifold revelations that have been published and they are also in the public record thanks to the efforts of this newspaper and others.

The Speaker this time cited the parliamentary ‘bible’ by Erskine May, rather than previous UK House of Commons rulings and unnamed legal advisors on the House’s Standing Orders, which, he said, agreed with his decision to not allow the questions because they concerned the private, not public, life of the individual in question, since Schembri is said to have attended the wedding in his personal capacity.

On the bright side, the Speaker said that just because the questions were inadmissible did not necessarily mean the matter was not of political importance. 

As such, the Speaker advised MPs who may take exception to the ruling to move an amendment to the Standing Orders if they felt the need for a review of the procedures. 

We also advise they do the same as soon as possible so the gates could be opened for the PQs that really matter.