The Malta Independent 13 February 2025, Thursday
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TMID Editorial: Parliament is back

Monday, 13 January 2025, 10:53 Last update: about 30 days ago

Parliament will be back in session as from today after an extended Christmas break, signalling the opening of the political season for 2025.

Under the watchful eye of Speaker Anglu Farrugia, MPs from both sides will take up their seats on their respective side of the political divide.  It's a divide which many hope will start to close during 2025, but the signs even at the start of the year are not looking particularly promising.

A bill which will see the introduction of electronic tagging for those serving sentences for a crime will be the first item on Parliament's agenda - with the Bill's aim being to "suspend the obligation that a detainee is confined to the Correctional Facility of Kordin in the case of minor sentences, thus facilitating their reintegration into society, while providing reassurance to the community and victims of crime."

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It's likely to be an uncontroversial reform: the PN has already expressed its agreement with the reform when it first came up for discussion in Parliament prior to the Christmas recess - meaning that, at least, Parliament will set off on the right foot if its unanimous agreement that people are looking for.

But there are likely to be other, more controversial reforms in the offing.

Chief among them will be a reform to magisterial inquiries, one which Prime Minister Robert Abela has spoken about ever since former PN MP Jason Azzopardi filed a spate of requests for magisterial inquiries into members of his government.

The PL leader even took up a portion of his five-year anniversary speech on Sunday to speak about the need for such a reform in order to protect public officials from prosecution in their personal capacity for what they do while in office.

It will be a politically charged discussion - probably one of the most politically charged ones in this legislature - which will have Parliament at its centre.

What is certain is that Parliament is the scene where the day-to-day of Malta's politics - which is ultimately what the people vote for - is played out.  MPs need to ask themselves: what do people want to see in them when they are in those Chambers?

The appeal to MPs is simple: remember that your duty in Parliament and elsewhere is to all voters, and that your work has to be in favour of what is right, even if at times that may mean not having to go along with those on your own side.

Some things are a matter of opinion, and in some subjects the discussion on what is right and wrong is purely subjective - but there are other areas where there is a clear distinction between what is right and wrong.

The people do care about when Parliament finds itself on the wrong side of that distinction: the reaction to Parliament's denial of a public inquiry into the death of Jean Paul Sofia - which some MPs will, privately, say they regretted voting for - is evidence of just that.

So let's hope for a Parliamentary season which is characterised by good will, not political bickering, and one where our representatives remember that they are there to do what is right.

 


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