We have a prime minister who doesn’t know what statutory roles and functions are: and no wonder he doesn’t distinguish between party and government
Michelle Muscat, second from right, seen here with her husband and with Social Policy Minister Michael Farrugia and his girlfriend Amanda Mifsud: the prime minister’s fallacious reasoning is that if he represents the government and she represents him, then she represents the government.
Anglu Farrugia is the Speaker of the House. He does not represent the government. He represents parliament. And incidentally, that’s the real Mrs Farrugia on the right.
The Malta Independent and Times of Malta report now that the prime minister says the Maltese government was “totally represented” at the canonisation ceremony at the Vatican: by the Speaker of the House, who represents parliament and not government, and by his wife, who has absolutely no constitutional role still less a government representative role.
His thinking appears to be this: ‘I represent the government, my wife represents me, ergo my wife represents the government.’
Aside from the fallacious logic, this demonstrates the crassest ignorance. Perhaps Martin Scicluna, that champion of all things correct, might care to write a column about it for Times of Malta.
Wives can only be dispatched to represent husbands, or husbands their wives, in matters of a personal nature. Muscat was not invited to the canonisation ceremony as Joseph Muscat of Burmarrad, but as the head of government. If he could not be fagged to accept the invitation, he should have sent the proper representative of his government: his deputy prime minister or his foreign minister.
Clearly, Muscat is a little confused and has mistaken himself for a head of state, rather than head of government, who also happens to be a monarch. If Queen Elizabeth can dispatch her heir, the Prince of Wales, or her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, to official ceremonies on her behalf, then why can’t Prime Minister Muscat of Malta send Mrs Muscat?
Martin Scicluna may care to pick up the telephone and explain to him why not, or add it to his column on the subject, because I am at the end of my tether. I really can’t believe it has come to this.
38 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
Tal-wahx. The country is being run like a school tuck shop.
And MLP clubs are now full fledged pharmacies, no more blocks of ice needed there to chill the drugs.
They have now got fridges and licensed pharmacists to dispense prescribed medicines in these “kazini tal-Labour.”
This dandy idea is so handy and convenient for the older people in the smaller towns and villages.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140428/local/chamber-demands-investigation-of-alleged-medicines-distribution-from-clubs.516804
Delegatis non potest delegare.
Writing in The Malta Independent today, Marlene Farrugia says:
“The general feeling is that an internal unelected core is running the country, and that the PM is being held to ransom by developers and businessmen.”
Is his wife holding him to ransom as well, maybe?
An unelected core holding the PM to ransom.
Now where did I read that?
Do not forget that our present Speaker, Anglu Farrugia was never comfortable visiting the 4th.floor at the PL headquarters.
I fear the ‘unelected core’ is not just ‘internal’.
The jokes just write themselves in this country.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/t1.0-9/10308218_615993378485079_7655443034817040584_n.jpg
I have come to the conclusion that this country is being run by a number of Brown Envelope pushers.
‘I represent the government, my wife represents me, ergo my wife represents the government.’ I’ll add a corollary to that: ‘I am the government – ergo, l’état, c’est moi. This is exactly the sort of attitude we’ve come to expect from this Prime Minister.
Or is ‘my wife represents me’ the faulty premise in this argument?
PhD and degrees have not taken Joseph Muscat and his motley group out of the backwoods.
As I wrote beneath another post:
White trash. Nothing more. Nothing less.
This mini-dictator is worse than Mintoff – his mentor and model. Muscat proves to be not only ignorant in running a country which has its rightful place in Europe, but also manifests his inability to comprehend a simple rule of protocol.
I think this was a diplomatic move, lest our strategic partners feel the vatican ‘interfere’ in our affairs.
What irritates me most is that the Speaker does not seem to have a problem letting the Prime Minister use him in this way. Any other Speaker who respects himself and the institution he represents would have been quick to point out that he was not representing the government but the Parliament of Malta.
But Anglu Farrugia would never dare upset the Prime Minister.
He is enjoying the gravy train, being chauffeur driven in an expensive car and touring the world on useless visits which he likes to call parliamentary diplomacy.
“What’s new today?” That was the first thing that went through our mind every morning. That had become the norm.
But that was under Mintoff in the 70s and 80s.
Hear hear.
‘Tqum filghodu u tara biex kien qed jhewden dak il-lejl’.
As I recall, it was not “What’s new today?”, but”Ha naraw x’ser jaqla dak il-poxt illum.”
The executive is headed by a Casa Real not by one individual.
Therefore any member of that Casa Real is perfectly entitled to represent the executive.
The House of Muscat.
This is now beyond the ridiculous.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives represents parliament only. So yesterday the Maltese government and the Maltese state were NOT represented.
It seems that many people do not distinguish between the different and separate roles of the Presidency, Parliament and Government. And should the Chief Justice have formed part of the delegation?
U mhux xorta. L-aqwa li rahas il-kont tad-dawl.
L-aqwa li ddefset Michelle ghax miskin Joseph kien busy u ma setax imur jahli hinu ghal cerimonja bhal din.
Did anyone even bother ask WHY the PM could not make it? We know Preca’s excuse, but what was his i wonder?
Probably to watch the game Valletta vs Birkirkara. He was in the VIP section.
“Perhaps Martin Scicluna, that champion of all things correct, might care to write a column about it for Times of Malta.”
Love it.
I can clearly see Mr Scicluna flipping the pages of The Constitution. “I’m sure there’s something about wives. Now, where did I see it?”
[Daphne – He would no more need to do that than I do. That’s my point.]
With Joseph Muscat we have become used to there being no distinction between government and party. Now there is no distinction even between government and family.
There is no distinction between:
wives
party and government
parliament and party
parliament and government
government and family
state and government
state and speaker
state and family
personal and professional
May I add that there is no distinction between:
Policy maker and Policy Administrator
Government and Civil Servants
Government and Police
Pharmacy and PL club
Facts and fiction
Public and private (funds, billboards, etc)
Why is governance so very ameature? Is this the highest standard of governance this Government can reach?
L-ebda differenza bejnu u l-mara. Marriedocrazija.
And no difference between:
A Maltese Prime Minister and a King
Delegatus non potest delegare
Daphne in one of your posts yesterday you mentioned that the PM was to announce something mega this week. Well he did it in a crude way yesterday.
His wife is the government.
So when the Maltese President invites the Pope to come to Malta, he will at the last moment send his valet instead, because he could not find a return flight back in time to meet a group of scouts.
I can’t help writing again and asking again where the Opposition is.
Is it possible that we are accepting everything and not challenging or questioning all this arrogant and amateur behaviour?
Why didn’t the President take Joseph Muscat’s example and send her husband to represent her?
Diplomatic passport wasn’t ready yet because:
– they couldn’t spell all the new add-on surnames properly?
– Keith Kasco is keeping the paper supply on hold until he gets some deal or other confirmed?
– they’re keeping passport paper under strict control in case Manwel Mallia decides he needs more mattress stuffing?
– they’d forgotten to get a new one done for him as first man of Malta?
– the President refused to accept a diplomatic passport in a show of solidarity with her grass root supporters?
– Joseph Muscat hadn’t yet authorised the issue?
Zorro, you must have missed the 1930hrs news on Net TV. TVM is not exactly a reliable source of information.
There is a sense of hopelessness out there and it’s ever so easy to criticize the PN, who are trying to get their message across but few are making the slightest effort to listen.
If it wasn’t for blogs like Daphne’s things would be even worse.
Perhaps it’s best to hibernate for a few years and take it up from there once people really start to suffer from the fallout.
It was a bit like this in the early seventies until people had had enough and started to react.
I have just read this post with incredulity. Yesterday over lunch my relatives commented on who was representing Malta at the ceremony but I swear I thought they were joking.
I now see this.
I am shocked and nauseated beyond words.