With the conclusion of the casual elections to fill the seats vacated by Labour Party candidates on Thursday, we now know who will make up the PL’s benches in Parliament for the upcoming legislature.

There were some surprise results, as more incumbent MPs missed out on keeping their seat.  Anthony Agius Decelis, an MP since 2008, lost his seat; veteran MP Joe Mizzi – a permanent fixture in Parliament since 1987 – was also not elected, and Jean Claude Micallef – elected in Helena Dalli’s stead in 2020 – missed out as well.

The focus of this editorial however is on another incumbent who missed out on keeping his seat: Oliver Scicluna.

Serving as the first Commissioner for the Rights of Persons with Disability, from June 2016 onwards, Scicluna was co-opted into Parliament in 2021.  A man who is vastly respected on both sides of the House and indeed on both sides of the political divide, it would have been very easy to imagine Scicluna forming part of a Cabinet of Ministers rather than just being a backbencher.

One of the things which endeared many to Scicluna was his desire to do things the right way.

This year, Scicluna made headlines after he took to Facebook to express his anger and offence at people offering him their vote in exchange for favours, saying that this is a practice and mentality which needs to stop.

“So many individuals come up to me and tell me that if I help they will ‘think of me’”, Scicluna said on his Facebook page.

He said that this is a phrase and sentiment which makes him feel uneasy, not necessarily because he would not want to help, but because he believes that people should only get what they think is theirs by right if they actually have a right for it.

At the same time, he said, the phrase itself has the undertones of a threat not to vote for him.

“This is a sentiment which hurts me.  I am writing this publicly because I feel offended when someone comes up to me for help with the idea that they will use their vote to gain some sort of favour in return. They forgot that I came into politics to work for a truly just society,” Scicluna had said.

“I want the people who vote for me to do so from their hearts and because they believe that I can do something good, not to trade their vote for a favour,” he added.

His statement prompted widespread praise, including from the PL’s Deputy Leader Daniel Micallef who said that “the system” needs to be changed.

Fast forward however, and Scicluna was not re-elected to Parliament, and has since announced that he will be retiring from politics as a result.

This is certainly a loss to Malta’s political scene, and the same Daniel Micallef was quick to point this out and say that he would be doing everything to convince Scicluna to remain involved.

One must question, however: did Scicluna’s public statement that he would refuse to offer any form of favour in return for votes ultimately damage him more than do him any good?

Being Daniel Micallef, it’s all well and good praising one of the PL’s candidates for speaking out against such practices and saying that the system needs to be changed. 

But then we had an electoral campaign where we heard a lot of reports of favours being handed out in the form of jobs, home appliances, and in one case reported by The Malta Independent even a hurry-up on a medical intervention for a “Labourite brother” (presumably to the detriment of whoever was before the person in the queue).

Where was the instruction from the PL’s leadership to its candidates not to use the power of incumbency in such a manner?

Scicluna’s departure from the political scene truly is a pity.  We need good men like him representing the country in its highest institutions. 

For that to happen, it’s not the system which has to change; it’s the people who operate the system who need to change their attitudes and their practices.