Diane Abbot, UK Labour MP, once said that being an MP is the sort of job all working class parents want for their children – clean, indoors and no heavy lifting. Conversely, David Agius, Nationalist MP, who happens to share this lady’s initials tells me that his mother did not want him to ‘become’ a politician. “There is no one remotely involved in politics in my family but as a teenager I was immersed in the turbulent mid-eighties.” In 1986 while at Sixth Form, he re-established the Students Representative Council due to the fact that the latter was suspended by the Labour Government. He was then elected President of the well known SDM (Studenti Demokristjani Maltin).

I have a vivid recollection of David during an event organised around 1986 by the group known as ‘tan-numri’. A group of young people were protesting outside the gates of the President’s palace and the President eventually came out and asked: ‘What is it that you want?’ Someone shouted: ‘We want democracy and freedom from terror!’ That someone was 17-year-old David Agius. The President asked: ‘Who said that?’ And I remember a trembling hand going up slowly. All hell broke loose at that instant with the President making a beeline for David and the policemen that surrounded us suddenly became, to put it but very mildly, ‘rough’.

Later on David became a member of MZPN and in 1991 he submitted an application to join Radio 101 as a sports journalist. “I never worked as a sports journalist but as a News journalist. For seven whole years, every Sunday morning I hosted Radiopoli, a radio programme which eventually became an institution.” His listeners loved him because he is the kind of person who never uses insensitive words when speaking about any one and his ready laugh became his trademark especially during the whole three years of a morning breakfast show on Radio 101 and lately on Smash Radio.

In 1996 he married Debbie and they moved to Attard. A few years later he contested the local councils’ election for his adopted locality and he obtained an astounding 1139 votes – twice the quota. “I am not a doctor and do not have that personal contact with people so I worked really hard to get elected.” I gently remind him that his popular radio programmes were probably the reason for his success. He argues that he really tries to help people. “My mobile number is known to everyone and it has remained unchanged for years so anyone can reach me. It’s 79423101.” In fact his telephone rings incessantly during our chat and I can listen in to the short conversations. Most of them are people with a grievance of some kind or other.

Before he decided to contest last year’s General Election he sat down with his wife and told her that if he did contest she would probably see very little of him for several months. “She gave me her full approval and I managed to surpass my own expectations and get elected straight out in a district where the competition from my colleagues was tremendous. In fact I managed to nearly double the vote I got in the local council – 2095 votes.”

His four and a half year old daughter Davinia is obviously infatuated with her father because she does not leave him for an instant. “It is because we enjoy the little time that we have together,” he explains. In fact apart from his parliamentary duties, David holds a full time job at the Free Port where he puts his degree in economics and management to good use.

His parliamentary duties do not stop in Parliament because he believes that Parliament – politicians on both sides of the House – should cultivate good working relationships. His recent participation in the Euromed conference together with Labour MP Dr George Vella is a case in point. “He is a man with valuable experience in the international field so I discussed my speech with him and he is great to work with.” David also helped set up the members of parliament football team. “Recently we played a game against the Austrian MPs and we lost 4 -1. The fact that I scored the only goal is of no importance,” he laughs out loud. I finally ask him to give me his core ideology in one sentence and he gives me two: “Our society is as strong as the weakest link so we should concentrate on the frailest. However the rich should be encouraged to become richer because they generate the wealth that society needs.”

There is a famous scene from the classic film noir, The Third Man, where one character says: “In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed – they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, five hundred years of democracy and peace and what did they produce…? The cuckoo clock.”

It is debatable whether the 70’s and mid 80’s in Malta could be compared to the Borgia’s rule but they were certainly not a time of brotherly love and democracy. Dr Mario de Marco is sitting in front of me relating a well-known story: “We learnt a lot from that period. I hope that the events we experienced will never happen again. It is hard to forget the scene as a young child, of my father coming back home covered in blood having been hit on the head with a truncheon by a policeman, simply because he was taking part in a demonstration celebrating Independence Day; my grandmother’s house was attacked; at ‘Tal Barrani’ we were made to feel ‘foreigners’ in our own country by being prevented by the police and organised thugs from attending a meeting planned in Zejtun. I myself was that day hit by a rubber bullet in the arm; and then there was the horrendous murder of Raymond Caruana and the subsequent frame-up of Pietru Pawl Busuttil. The story has been told many times but they were formative years – they taught me how important democracy and respect for others is. It wasn’t difficult for me to forgive because my father set us all a good example. We must therefore today look ahead and not live in the past. We must only remember the past to learn from it. I believe that we have today become a more mature country as a result of all our experiences and I’m sure it will never happen again.”

Dr Demarco is a newcomer in parliament, having been elected for the first time in 2003 from one of the most hotly contested districts: the First. It seems that he has already set down rules for himself because he comments that it is essential not to deify politicians. “They come down very quickly when they get big headed!” Interestingly he begins by mentioning one of his ‘failures’. “One learns from the sufferings of others. A case in point is that of an elderly woman who had an amputated leg but who lived in a 4th floor flat with no lift. Despite her disability and dependence on others she was such a good natured soul. My biggest regret to date is that notwithstanding my efforts to engage the housing authorities to provide her with alternative suitable accommodation she did not get the help she needed. She is regrettably dead now and I feel I have failed her. Unfortunately the wheels of bureaucracy still move at a snail’s pace.”

He, however, does not let this single defeat dishearten him. “Every Friday I see constituents and most of the problems have to do with housing and other social matters. We have an ageing population in my constituency, which brings with it particular problems and specific needs. Jobs remain an issue. Whilst it is crucial for this country’s economy for us to encourage and promote businesses, it is important for us to cater for all strata of society. It is also imperative that education becomes an ongoing concern for each individual; we should also encourage students to follow studies and acquire skills in those areas which are related to the needs of our country.” I notice that he chooses his words with care, so as not to tread on the treacherous ground of Mintoff’s utilitarian view of education.

Apart from his parliamentary duties he also practises in a law firm and teaches Commercial Law at the University of Malta. His undergraduate thesis, presented very pertinently in 1986, dealt with police powers vis-à-vis the rights of the individual. His post-graduate studies however took him away from this direction and he continued to study International Commercial Law at the University of Cambridge.

What about his parents? He remarks that they often joke that the only person in the family who is not a doctor of law is probably the best lawyer amongst them. “My father used to ask my mother to read the transcripts of the compilation of evidence of some of his cases because he wanted to see the reaction of a lay person, like the jurors. Her instinct was usually spot-on. Dinner time conversation often centred around some of his cases and it was all very exciting for us.”

At first his wife Sharon was against his contesting the elections. “What with the long hours because of my legal practice, she wanted me to dedicate more time to the family. Fortunately, however she came to understand my reasons for contesting and took it as a challenge, becoming indeed a tireless campaign manager!” What does he get out of politics? He answers with another question. “What do people who voluntarily sit on band club committees get?” I think that I see his point: it is the ability to influence the decisions pertaining to things close to one’s heart. Finally I ask him about parliament and the occasional long winded speeches. “Sometimes I’d rather be swimming in Gozo!” he laughs.He is 32 years old, with an athletic figure and the sort of grin that makes it very difficult for anyone to dislike him. The Hon. Carmelo Abela MP, is the Labour shadow minister for Education, Youth, Sports and Culture and when we meet in front of Zejtun’s magnificent parish church, people around call him Charlie and treat him like he is one of them. Some wave, some tap him on the back and others jest about his dark suit. Even the Nationalist Party media have found it hard to dislike him and the ‘worst’ thing that has been said about him is that he is a ‘moderate’.

Unlike many other people in politics he does not have any political lineage in his family. He was never in a political party committee, in fact he was brought up within the arms of the Church – an organisation which many still view as unsympathetic to the Labour Party. “I was an altar boy and until I was 17 years old I was still leading the altar boys and then I passed the screening process to enter the seminary,” he recalls. Eventually Mr Abela changed his mind about joining the priesthood but from time to time he is still active within his parish, especially during the feast of St Catherine the patron saint. He also played with Zejtun Corinthians football team and later, together with others, started the nursery for the same club.

How did he get involved with politics? He tells me that when he contested the 1994 local council elections, many of his constituents saw him as a representative of the parish and not of any political party. It was some two years later that people started urging him to contest the general elections with the MLP. “Had politics been like it was before the 90’s I would not have contested but things have changed although it’s important to realise that violence, psychological violence, is still with us and though it is rather less evident it can be more insidious than physical violence.” As an example he talks about cases of persons who were sent to a place of work by this government and given nothing to do and how such actions can destroy a person’s self esteem.

He believes that in education there should be no partisan politics and consensus should be the order of the day: “As long as we first agree on where the priorities lie. Presently we are at the preparatory level of starting working on a document which outlines the party’s direction in education”. He talks of three main aims: quality education, education for everyone and emphasis on all sectors of the educational system. Any ideas which are more tangible perhaps? “We agree on having more students at the university but there should be more guidance for students. For example by pointing out to them what the country’s needs are. Long term plans are important but the university needs short term solutions too because it requires money immediately. Should it perhaps start charging private businesses for its services? And what about all the university people who are doing private consultation work?”

Apart from his post as shadow minister he is also deputy speaker of the house and he must often substitute the speaker. “I work in a bank and every time I have to be in Parliament during normal working hours, my pay gets reduced. During the last budget I had to be present for every sitting and my pay for that month was some Lm200 less!” With conditions such as these what advice would he give to his two children, Andrea and Nadine, about becoming politicians? “I’d leave the decision to them, the way my parents did.” And what about his wife Melanie? “She comes from a staunch Labour family and her father, with a smile, had advised her to marry a man with the same political beliefs. And I think in me she has found more than her father could have wished for!”