“Show me the money” was a catch phrase in the compelling, ‘feel-good’ movie Jerry Maguire about a sports agent (Tom Cruise) who tries to do the right thing and ends up fired and loses all his clients but one – a black American footballer, with an attitude (a bad one). The footballer overcomes his handicap; the public gets to love him; the money rolls in and everyone ends happy.

Of course the latter was a romanticised, Hollywood movie and this is real life. But “Show me the money” struck a chord and has become a popular quote. I think that Nationalist backbencher Jean-Pierre Farrugia was trying to do the right thing, but it is a bit naive for him to say “This is just about money, after all.”

It is all about the money because while the populace was given a pittance to keep up with the current, bad, quasi universal economic situation, our Cabinet and the rest of the MPs have got a bonanza, not very different to the bankers’ notorious bonuses, of course the amounts are less extravagant, but the damage to public relations is similar.

Money is what has deepened the mistrust of a large number of the Maltese public towards its politicians. The argument for the bankers’ bonuses is that unless you show these people the money, the banks will lose them to competitors in countries where they will be shown the money.

As to our politicians, they might abandon politics if it does not pay enough. The question here is do we feel that we don’t want to lose the politicians who prefer money to ideals? Dr Farrugia has been making noises for a while and although his intentions seem honourable he does faff about.

He hit the limelight again after he was reported as saying he was prepared to vote with the Labour Party if it were to present a motion to repeal the rises granted to MPs. That was very bad news for the government, even though, apparently, a vote cannot be taken on the issue, since it had already been approved by Parliament.

And reportedly, Dr Farrugia had after all last week met the Clerk of the House, PN Whip David Agius and Speaker Michael Frendo to demand assurances – which were given – that the miscellaneous budget votes would not include the issue of raises.

However, it is interesting that the issue had already been approved by Parliament because how come so many MPs are feigning surprise? Perhaps they were not even in Parliament when it was approved, since attendance at parliamentary sittings is notoriously low, and probably the whips did not think that any ‘whipping’ was needed in a case where all involved were going to benefit.

A bit like the excuse the PM gave on Wednesday, when he said that the idea of increasing the honorarium of MPs “had not been formally discussed with the Opposition” as Cabinet had hoped back in 2008. The only reason why this had happened was because he “had assumed” that, since oppositions MPs had long been asking about the rise, they would have supported the idea.

Oh dear, oh dear, one wonders how many more decisions the PM has come to on the basis of assumptions. He is obviously rattled to have come up with that damaging remark.

He said the government had intended raising the issue over the rise in the honorarium in a Select Committee of the House but this had never got off to the ground and Labour had eventually withdrawn its participation.

This meant some issues, which had to be resolved before the new honorarium came into effect, never did, leading to a situation where ministers were already receiving 70 per cent of pay scale one while other MPs were only getting the original 50 per cent, he said.

He conceded that in view of that, he should have referred the matter to the House Business Committee rather than allowing a situation where ministers and parliamentary secretaries started getting the rise before the rest of the parliamentarians.

The PM has been pushed into a corner, it could not have been easy for him to concede, “it was therefore, not fair for ministers and parliamentary secretaries to receive their already upwardly revised honorarium since 2008.” Well, did it have to take all this palaver for him to realise that what happened was “unfair”.

He further admitted that he should have referred the issue to the House Business Committee and not let it stagnate, unfortunately for him it festered and has resulted in damaging his credibility. The issue has now been referred to the House Business Committee, which has to decide the matter by the end of the month.

However, if the non-consultation of the rise to MPs honorarium is any indication, the PL might have had good reason to withdraw its participation from the Select Committee. Anyway, even if the Select Committee was not functioning the PM could still have consulted the Opposition on the issue.

Now the PN cannot afford loose cannons and despite Dr Farrugia saying that he would not threaten the stability of the government, he is doing a good job of undermining it. The PM has had to concede that he made assumptions and that he let things roll when he should not have.

Although Dr Farrugia did manage to convince the Prime Minister that public opinion had to be pacified, he seems to be easily appeased and he came out of Wednesday’s meeting with Dr Gonzi, at the Nationalist Party headquarters in Pieta, all smiles, “There are no longer any differences between myself and the Prime Minister.” However, the damage to the PN has been done.

Meanwhile, former Prime Minister and MP Alfred Sant is expected to call on the Speaker to take action on his letter, sent on 4 January, claiming the increases were decided upon “in contempt of Parliament”. Apparently, the Speaker had not yet replied to the letter.

Of course the PL are enjoying the fracas within the PN, they would have loved it if Jean-Pierre Farrugia crossed the floor, but he resisted what he called “any rapprochement” with the Labour Party, saying he was “not interested”.

And is the PL as united on the money issue? After all Labour as well as Nationalist MPs had asked Dr Farrugia to back down and only a handful of MPs from both sides were reported to be renouncing the rise and donating it to charity.

However, Opposition leader Joseph Muscat, who has already renounced his “double salary” and had called on his MPs to freely renounce their raises, said in Parliament that his parliamentary group was a “united front” and that they had all decided to contribute to a fund of unwanted increases, which would go to charity.

Well time will tell us whether this is a lot of hot air and whether the MPs who are saying they will refuse the money will put their money where their mouth is and like Jerry Maguire do the right thing after a sleepless night.

In the meantime, it would be wise for them all to take note of J. Paul Getty’s famous quote “Money is like manure. You have to spread it around or it smells.”

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