Parliament has come a long way from the days when MPs crossed the floor with bad intentions to verbally assault their peers on the opposite benches. Just 30 years ago, there were various instances where members from one side would physically cross over and verbally assault other MPs with finger wagging in faces and sometimes more.
It still happens today in some of the younger democracies of Europe, and other Continents too. On Wednesday night, Speaker of the House Anglu Farrugia actually cut off the microphone feed from Minister Konrad Mizzi after he launched into a tirade against Opposition leader Simon Busuttil.
Forget the subject matter. What was unnerving was the way Dr Mizzi repeatedly shouted “be ashamed, be ashamed, be ashamed, be ashamed, you are not fit for purpose,” repeatedly and directly at Dr Busuttil.
House rules specify that speakers in parliament must address the chair, in this case, Dr Farrugia. The Speaker reminded Dr Mizzi to address the seat of parliament and when he failed to do so, he asked technicians to cut off Dr Mizzi’s feed and transfer speaking time to Dr Busuttil to answer the charges that were levelled at him.
W e have to say that the speaker was correct in what he did and that it was the only course of action that could be taken. The Speaker had warned Dr Mizzi to address the seat of parliament and then told him he would be switching his microphone off, saying: “When I tell you to stop shouting, stop shouting, don’t carry on.”
A similar incident took place in the UK with the debut in the UK parliament of the Scottish National Party. When one of their speakers quipped a reply to a Conservative MP, they broke into applause.
John Bercow immediately bellowed “Order, order!”As soon as he did, the SNP ranks fell silent and he proceeded to remind them that it was a long-standing tradition for there to be no clapping in the UK House of Commons and that he “hoped this would be respected”. He told the SNP that they would be given chance to speak, upon direction from the chair in the House.
Moving to the new parliament made many think that things would change and that our style of politics would be mellowed by moving from a facing benches system to a circular plenary chamber. When this is coupled with what politicians said during yesterday morning’s eko-skola parliament session, then those hopes should be bolstered even further.
But it seems that it is not the case. Members of both sides of the House have committed fax pas in terms of their attitude towards their colleagues on the other side, as well as showing lack of respect towards the speaker of the House.
Parliament is the highest institution of the land and it should be shown more respect, no matter how much tempers become frayed. Malta is supposed to be a mature democracy, we should start to act like one. And the ones who are at the forefront of setting such examples are those who are elected by the people to represent them in our chamber of parliament. We hope such scenes will not be witnessed again. On a more positive note, maybe our MPs will learn from the fact that their behaviour in the House is now open to scrutiny through the streaming service. They will certainly be more accountable for their behaviour from now on. The camera never lies.