The ongoing saga regarding Pilatus Bank and the whistleblower together with all the signs of an impending dissolution of parliament may have taken pride of place on the news and social networks these past days, but they must not be allowed to be distract and minimize the importance of the resignation of Dr Godfrey Farrugia, former Minister of Health, from Whip of the Labour Parliamentary group.
Dr Farrugia's letter, as reproduced on news sites and on newspapers, is a letter of supreme dignity and does honour to its author, writing no doubt under extreme stress. In it, one can find words to remember the motivation that led him, and his companion, Marlene Farrugia, to militate in the ranks of the Labour Party and to share in the huge election victory of March 2013.
Not surprisingly, Marlene Farrugia often uses words to this same effect. Then came disappointment. Not the disappointment at the way he was moved from Minister of Health, apparently after putting up a tent outside the Emergency Department. He says he was offered other posts but refused them. Next, he was made Whip of the Parliamentary Group, and he says – and this can be confirmed (though you would not find it in the Labour statement replying to his letter) – that he carried out his duties to the best of his abilities.
He also speaks of initiatives he took, especially as regards the right to life, both in Malta's parliament and abroad.
Not all these initiatives seemed to have been approved of by other members of the Labour Movement. Cracks began to appear. Then the relationship entered a new and dangerous phase: he says he voted against his conscience in parliament. Then came a time when he could not stomach what was going on. The events of the past days seem to have determined his decision. Labour ideals should have never been betrayed "to push the agenda of the few who, it is clear, do not have the national interest at heart," he wrote. He accused the Labour leadership of using the people to protect its power, saying that it was wrong for Labour to try to justify its mistakes the way it did. "We got to a point where we are giving Malta a bad name, on an international level and during Malta's presidency of the EU," Dr Farrugia wrote.
"The political game of illusion was never to my liking; worse than this was the Machiavellian game, post-truth politics, hypocrisy and anti-truth."
In just one rather short letter, Dr Farrugia undermined all that the government is doing to ward off criticism and gave full credence to all that is being said about the present government both by the official Opposition as well as by the government critics in all media.
Here was confirmation, if ever one was needed, that what was being said by the Opposition and by people opposed to this government was not partisan jealousy or ambition to grab government but the truth, the real truth. It takes a courageous man, and Dr Farrugia is one such man, to utter these words of truth, like the child who cried the King is naked.
from The Malta Independent http://ift.tt/2qotOca
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