The Speaker is risking being slapped with a copyright lawsuit from the creators of Big Brother or Grande Fratello. Our House of Representatives is comparable to the House of Grande Fratello, where the occupants spend all day snipping at one another and then vote to eliminate each other.

What some Honourable Members are forgetting is that Grande Fratello has practically fizzled out. The hype of audiences having a chance to spy on a house and witness some live backstabbing and hypocrisy has died out; it is not all that fun after all. Malta’s attempt to have its own Grande Fratello failed, maybe it was too expensive to run! Now, we have a state-sponsored farce of grown men trying to avoid the wrath of a vote of no confidence.

Parliament has had its lows, such as when Nationalist MPs were attacked during debates, benches of Parliament were broken, the Commander of the Armed Forces entering the House while taking exception to what was being said about him. However, in my mind we have now entered a new low. The House of Representatives is being turned into a place where you can air your vindictiveness and repulsion against anyone with impunity. The events that have made the headlines these months point in one direction. Parliament is another institution that has failed and does not enjoy the respect of many people and this notwithstanding the fact that the people have voted its members in.

After the shameful events of the votes of no confidence in Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici and Richard Cachia Caruana, now the summer recess has only been used, by a few, just to sharpen their knives and present more motions of this type.

Now, new no confidence motions against two ministers have been presented. The Opposition, who is aspiring to be in government in a few months time, in my view is taking an approach that may boomerang, if elected. It is no secret that if Labour win the next general elections, they will enjoy a one seat majority. Therefore, Joseph Muscat will have to tread very carefully with his backbenchers and his disgruntled wannabe ministers. What he is saying today may echo back with vengeance, if his ambitions are fulfilled in the next general election.

However, the vote of no confidence on a minister because of a tender for car parks is ridiculous to say the least. I have, in the past, worked in order for car parks to be administered by local councils. However, I have a story to tell that in itself, reflects on Labour’s frame of mind on these issues. In 2005, the Pieta Council, which I led and still lead, had asked and was given the devolution of the car park just outside St Luke’s Hospital. When we issued tenders for its management and started charging drivers a standard fee, Labour went on overdrive on its attacks.

News items, television programmes and call-ins all attacked me as the mayor who hated the sick and the elderly. It only happened that in 2006, the majority in the Pieta Council changed and we had a Labour-led Council. One would have expected that there would be a reversal of the policy or else a drastic change. No, nothing happened, the Labour-led Pieta’ Council adopted, lock stock and barrel, all the tariffs, policies and the contractor. This was the Labour of Joseph Muscat and Toni Abela. Therefore, we have a living example of the hypocritical stands Labour takes.

Let’s not fool ourselves on the true reason of these types of motions. When the motion on car parks is on Parliament’s agenda, MPs may discuss the ups and downs of the privatisation of car parks. However, as Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici was voted against because one MP thought he bad mouthed him to the Chief Justice, this time it is because Austin Gatt was one of the speakers during the Executive Committee meeting which banned 3 MPs from re-contesting – a decision for which I voted in favour and have no regrets about. How can the Nationalist Party be credible in the next general election when we allow the MPs who created a constitutional crisis to contest again? Would we not be saying to the electorate that in the next five years, if we win, this all may happen again?

What this country has on its hands is a constitutional crisis. The Constitution has a mechanism that aims at stability. If the party that wins most votes does not have a majority of seats, then a number of seats will be handed over to that party to give it a majority in the House. This is what happened in the last election. The Nationalist Party was awarded more seats than it managed to elect, because it got a majority of votes. Therefore, each MP has a constitutional duty to guarantee that stability.

My interpretation of the Constitution brings me to the conclusion that the MPs that default in their duty to guarantee stability should resign from Parliament, not declare themselves independent. They have to allow the government to function for the full five years. Stability is not a political desire, it is a constitutional norm. It is the backbone of our democracy. The Constitution allows the people to choose who is to lead the country every five years, but those elected have a democratic obligation to follow what the people want and that is a stable government. I do not mean that the government should not be challenged during these five years. The government should be challenged, it should allow Parliament to ask questions and investigate; however, Parliament should allow the Government to function.

In any event, the general election is not so far away and the people will not be spectators, but full participants. Therefore, the voters also have a duty to vote in the best people that can guarantee stability while challenging the government. The Prime Minister has already signalled the need for change. Let us not have cross purposes of what change the people want. The people want a change in how politics is carried out and how it is implemented. It is not enough to change to younger faces, but a change in attitude towards how we politicians treat our constituents. We need innovation in politics. That is why I am contesting this election. I want to bring real change together with my colleagues and under the leadership of Lawrence Gonzi.

Dr Mifsud is a Nationalist Party Candidate on the First District