Prime-minister Robert Abela went on another photo-op at a Birkirkara day centre for the elderly.  “We are creating a just Malta for pensioners,” he bragged. “This is a just budget for pensioners with measures designed by the elderly themselves and built on their needs”. Those budgetary measures, according to Abela, ensure quality of life for the elderly and enable them to keep living in their towns and villages.

So what revolutionary measures had Abela introduced? “The budget will translate into an additional 780 euro per year for all pensioners - the highest rise ever”.

The maximum contributory pension is around 260 euro per week. Most pensioners are not on the maximum pension.  Irrespective of what their salary was, pensions are capped at a maximum of around 13,000 euro per year. That’s far less than the minimum 14,800 euro required for a single person to live a decent life. For elderly couples barely surviving on one pension, their life must be miserable. For those who don’t own their property and are paying rent, surviving may well be impossible. Couple that with the massive rise in prices of food and basic necessities, many of our pensioners must be destitute.

The €780 that Robert Abela is bragging about will not even get pensioners anywhere near the income needed to live decently. And yet Abela has the cheek to gate crash the activities at Birkirkara’s day centre to boast about the fantastic quality of life of our elderly - thanks to his merciful charity.

“The elderly had words of appreciation for Labour government’s prioritisation of the elderly,” ONE’s propaganda announced.  Several photos of Abela, happy with himself and surrounded by elderly attendees of that day centre accompanied the news item.

Labour has indeed prioritised pensioners - but not all.  Only a few very special pensioners have truly benefitted from Labour’s largesse. In March 2018, Labour’s star Chris Cardona tabled a bill in parliament that was truly ground breaking. That bill certainly bolstered the quality of life of some pensioners.  That bill guaranteed all Members of Parliament who served just one full legislature to receive a full uncapped two-thirds pension. 

In contrast to all other citizens reaching retirement age, MPs will get the full two-thirds of their emoluments as a pension even if they served for just 5 years. Compare that to the rest of us. We need to work for over four decades before we can expect to receive a pension which is capped at a maximum of just over €13,000.

But there’s worse.  The pension of MPs is index-linked to future increases in MPs honoraria. Their pension will rise if the remuneration of MPs rises in the future. For the rest of us, no matter how high salaries rise, our pension will not budge. 

Is this the just Malta Robert Abela brags about to those most at risk of poverty? Is this the just budget Abela boasts about? This isn’t justice.  This is shameless discrimination.  Is the contribution of an MP during a single five year term more valuable than 40 years of a nurse, or a police officer, or a shipyard worker? Does that sound like a socialist policy to you?

Why are Labour MPs so generous to themselves with taxpayers’ money and so stingy with the rest? And what huge contribution have Labour MPs made to deserve such special recognition out of our hard earned taxes?

One of those Labour MPs was accompanying Robert Abela on his propaganda parade at Birkirkara.  A certain Malcolm Paul Agius Galea was by Abela’s side, desperately squeezing in to get into those glossy photos with the leader.

Just days earlier that very same MP had admitted publicly that he was wrong to obey Robert Abela and vote against the Sofia public inquiry in parliament.  “I believe I made a mistake when I voted against and I don’t have a problem stating it”.  “Back then my mind was working in a legal way, I even sought legal advice and I was told our argument was legally sound,” Agius Galea commented.

And guess whose advice he sought? He asked Robert Abela, “because he’s a lawyer”. I’m not making it up.  Malcolm Agius Galea actually said this. And this MP will get an uncapped pension.

That wasn’t the only daftness spewing out of his mouth.  “I could have jumped onto the bandwagon and voted for (the Sofia inquiry) and I would have become the champion of all Malta,” he declared waving his arms and pointing his finger.

More of the MP’s enlightened wisdom followed : “Sometimes in politics you must work as a politician and not as a doctor or as a lawyer”. Sometimes? “You need to vote with your mind rather than with your heart sometimes,” he added. Should we laugh or should we cry?

We expect our parliamentary representatives to vote for what is right, according to their conscience.  We expect them to resist coercive attempts to toe the party line, on matters of conscience, always - and not sometimes. Instead we have MPs who seek legal advice on whether to vote with the prime minister from the prime minister himself - because he’s a lawyer! What we certainly don’t expect is for MPs to vote for themselves to get far more favourable remuneration conditions than the rest of us after serving for barely five years.

Malcolm Agius Galea has now realised that he erred when he trusted Robert Abela.  He’s belatedly found out that what his prime-minister ordered him and his colleagues to do was wrong. He now knows he cannot trust his own leader. Yet he tails him around on pathetic self-promotion exercises in the hope of currying favour.

Those pensioners at Birkirkara day centre should learn Malcolm Agius Galea’s lesson. Never believe a word Abela says. There is nothing just about Labour’s pensions - uncapped for the privileged MPs and capped for the remaining mere mortals.