Writing is not enough, Ms Farrugia. You have to speak in parliament.
Marlene Farrugia
Labour MP and former Opposition spokesman for energy, Marlene Farrugia, has written for The Malta Independent today the very things she should say in parliament.
That is what a seat in parliament is for.
I hope she does so. This matter is clearly spiralling out of the government’s control, even if it were ever in their control in the first place, rather than simply a matter of wishful thinking compounded by bungling greed.
What follows beneath is the most relevant part of her piece today.
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Tonight we are having yet another debate on the energy sector. My Labour Government has admitted that it is reneging on its promise that it will have the new gas fired power station up and running within the time frames it repeatedly confirmed, but that it will still succeed in reducing utility tariffs for business by March 2015 as planned.
News of breaking THE promise has hit people very hard. Even the most sceptical among us were hoping that it was just hearsay, that it was PN spin. Unfortunately it seems to be true, the government’s credibility has taken another beating, and the people’s faith in political promises has touched the bottom. The least the government can do is to act with a modicum of respect by being frank and answering the people’s questions.
The nation needs to know clearly what are the implications and obligations, of any contracts that have been signed or are about to be signed with the investors who will henceforth be major players in our country’s making or breaking energy sector.
We need to know, now, since it seems like it’s been postponed again, when polluting inefficient Marsa is closing down and BWSC converted to gas, in order to eliminate the ‘cancer factory’.
We need to know what the new timeframes are.
We need to know what Enemalta employees can expect.
We need to know implications of the delay on Malta’s financial situation, ratings and forecasts.
We need to know that forfeiting national control on the backbone of our economic development is really warranted and why it is warranted.
We need to know what’s going to happen to the surplus electricity that will be generated and whether as a nation we will have to buy it even if we don’t need it. We need to know how our investment in the cable interconnector is going to pay off in the big picture.
We need to know if the pipeline option is still on the books and when it is going to rid us of the LNG monster in Marsaxlokk.
We need to know if there is a plan B if this deal is busted.
We need to know that we got the transparent government we voted in, and that it knows what it’s doing.
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http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-10-20/blogs/Is-Alice-in-Wonderland-6736124025
We need to know why Muscat’s government sold indirect control of Malta’s economy to China’s communist government.
We need to start planning the way out.
Exactly. De-Chinification of the Maltese economy.
Ask him, La Redoute. It’s a transparent administration.
Our PM had even contemplated resigning over the new power station debacle, but upon further scrutiny his previous declaration was deemed to be insufficient since he was ‘under the influence’ when he gave those guarantees.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-10-20/local-news/Prime-Minister-says-he-never-promised-to-resign-if-new-power-station-is-not-ready-by-March-6736124037
Or maybe it’s just our ‘perception’.
@ Volley – Our perception of Joey preceded the elections and was accurate in all respects. He was, is and always will be, a habitual liar!
Now he believes his own lies.
With a charlatan, if you give in once he will repeat the lie with a different scenario.
On and on.
And on, and on.
And on. And on.
Which one of the hats is he wearing when he’s lying?
Marlene Farrugia should also point out to ‘her’ (how about ‘our’?) Labour government that oil slumped by almost 20% and the electricity rates and the price of petrol remained the same.
I filled up in another EU Member State on Saturday (the day petrol is normally at its highest) and, to my surprise 98 unleaded cost €1.46 down from €1.56 from the week before. Of course in Malta very few people see beyond their own shores so they will have no idea they are being taken for a ride.
In announcing the delay of the new power station, Joseph Muscat deceives the electorate yet again. He said that the delay will be of ‘a couple of months’.
If construction on site were to start tomorrow, the new power station would definitely not be up and running before March 2016. The delay will be more than a year and not just ‘a couple of months’ as claimed by Muscat.
Goes to show what the mental state of a fibber is. He just can’t get himself to provide a new deadline.
When neither Electrogas nor Shanghai have even considered material procurement, let alone delivery to site which is when any ‘work’ starts, it confirms Muscat played all his cards.
We seem to have forgotten the conversion of BWSC and relevant infrastructure for both plants to run on gas. Indeed, ca. a year ago the debate centered around whether regasifiers would have been on land or on board the ship.
Quite a detail that one, changes the whole configuration.
But then, we never got a pretty postcard of the ship itself which, in shipping circles is equivalent to a visiting card. Anoraks will confirm.
Then there’s Has-Saptan and the two kilometer no go zone, dredging the bay, the dual carriageway jetty, preferably having these sitting on separate causeways, and so on.
When Scicluna was still, up to a couple of months ago, thinking Malta could get some EU money to finance this wank, things looked so wrong. And no, EU money is given for any leg of the pipeline network, not localised plant.
U kemm ngibhom bi kbar.
Imagine the property market in Marsaxlokk, will they, won’t they.
After the 1987 election we heard many MLP members of parliament saying that they did not approve of what happened during the 80s.
The same happened after the 1998 election when Lino Spiteri said that he did not approve of removing VAT even though he stood on that electoral platform.
Now we even have Karmenu Vella, who was on the frontline campaigning against EU membership, saying that he voted FOR EU membership.
It’s always the same. After cooperating fully in something and being a part of it, they throw their hands up when the public goes against it and say, ‘It wasn’t me!’
So now what are the Labour backbenchers going to do about the catastrophe being created in their name by the prime minister and his cabinet of self-interested, incompetent clowns? That they’re not to blame, even though they are doing nothing to defend their constituents’ interests in parliament?
We need to know whether Marlene Farrugia has the backbone to face Parliament with these questions.
We need to know what Marlene Farrugia was thinking when she declared on TV plans would have been revealed fil-mument propizju.
Didn’t she also ask to see the contracts like most of us have repeatedly asked? Where is the transparency we were promised by her party?
She is very good at words. However, like they say, actions speak louder.
If we still need to ask what sort of government we have than we are in deeper trouble than I thought for, unless secret deals are what is considered transparent these days, the writing on the wall could not be clearer.
Imagine a thief has stolen your money and electronic equipment but he has too many items to carry them off. Would you give him your car and make him pay for the fuel? Would you then tell him that in his ‘special’ circumstances he can keep the car but need not bother to pay the licence or do the VRT?
This is not at all a ridiculous scenario according to the government. Water and electricity are being requested by the thieves in order for them to enjoy their loot. They not only stole the land but proceeded to build on it without a permit (so no fees were paid), without safety or aesthetic considerations, destroyed flora and fauna at leasure and deprived others with equal rights from using the area. But what does the government do, he swindles all law abiding citizens by giving them their loot and making them pay a pittance for them to continue to enjoy the fruits of their crime.
Do you really STILL need to ask what sort of government the people got Ms Farrugia? We might point to the worst leaders in history and their destruction and the devestation they caused but we would be so very wrong not to also point at those around them, their enablers who did not stand up to be counted and who ensured their power.
Do you need to as what sort of government invites a convicted criminal to a VVIP area, a person who sought to undermine another man by distributing pornographic pictures of him. Would you even call such a person a champion of the cause of gay men rather than an insult to the gay cause? Would you consider such actions as meriting a bespoke position?
Do you REALLY still have to ask what sort of government this is?
I can’t help thinking that Marlene Farrugia already has the answers (or a very good idea of the answers) to all these “we need to know” queries.
She was after all the Labour spokesman on energy issues. It’s true that she was gagged during the election, but that does not mean that she never had first-hand information.
The issue is whether she was gagged because she was (and still is) not in synch with Joseph Muscat’s Chinese plans on plans. In that case, this time round, she would be tempted to disclose all the pre-election details she is aware of in parliament.
But immediately after that, unlike what the previous government did with her ex-husband Pullicino Orlando, she will be forced to resign from Parliament.
However, I can’t help thinking that all these “we would like to know”, are just Labour’s way to create a climax. They are even using The Malta Independent to do so. That, in Joseph Muscat’s cynical mind, must feel like a small victory in itself.
Marlene Farrugia will make a u-turn and give her rubber stamp approval in parliament. That is Joseph Muscat’s way of getting Labour supporters who are sceptical about this issue back on board.
I wouldn’t be surprised if tomorrow’s L-Orizzont headlines will quote Marlene Farrugia’s words of approval.
NEVER trust Labour.
Well said. Actually, I myself don’t trust Marlene Farrugia. She is using that newspaper to “criticise” Muscat and Labour but I suspect it is all part of a PR plan to give the public the impression that the Labour Party is open to criticism even from within its own fold.
In the end, Muscat will gain from this “publicity” Marlene Farrugia is giving him.
Marlene Farrugia is, herself, responsible for the mess the country is in. Her responsibility is obviously less than that of Joseph Muscat but let us not forget that she did her best to get him elected.
I still remember her, during television debates, declaring that details about Labour’s energy plans would be made known “at the opportune moment”. The opportune moment never came along.
The ‘opportune moment’ came (and went) before signing any agreement with the Chinese and selling the BWSC.
But Joey decided to do what his hard head told him to do and then ‘consult’ later, still keeping the details of contracts secret!
No debates, no real consultation, amounts to no more than pure dictatorship.
I’m very suspicious of Marlene Farrugia. Why does she write such derisive and pointed articles about the Labour government but then always votes with the rest of her party’s MPs?
If she really means well, she should either vote according to what she really believes in Parliament, or else resign her seat and continue to speak her beliefs in the media. We don’t really need another Franco Debono in Parliament.
Her behaviour at the moment indicates that she just wanted to ride the gravy train like her colleagues. Besides, she looks like an intelligent woman. It’s hard to believe that she was duped like the rest of them.
I’d like to ask why Marlene Farrugia always has to bring up the wrongdoings of the PN in order to criticise the wrongdoings of her party? Can’t she just criticise without bringing other issues from the past so as she doesn’t appear in bad light with the Labourites?
Li tgerger u tpacpac mhux bizzejjed.
L-importanti hu li tgerger u tiehu l-azzjoni immedjata.
I may be wrong but I seem to recall Marlene Farrugia saying she is going to quit politics at the end of this legislature. If so, she has no excuse – not even the lame one of trying to hang on to her seat in parliament – to avoid standing up and speaking plainly to Muscat, in his pudgy face. Ultimately she’s a bit of a chicken.
Marlene Farrugia was on NET News Feed last week. She did not want to know any of the above.
She sat there, defending the prime minister and attacking his advisors and the others who “moved the goal posts”.
Why did she have to wait until the PN asked for a debate in the House to ask a few simple questions? As a Labour insider, she should know the answers to her questions already.
Try to join the dots…Marlene Farrugia is just fishing for her iced bun. Kif jghid il-Malti, jew m`Alla jew max-xitan.
Do not forget that this person was the shadow minister for energy in the previous administration.
It was under her auspices that the PL energy plan was formulated. Or was it?
Marlene Farrugia is Labour to the core. Full stop. Make no mistake.
Listening to the Leader of Opposition on Radio 101 giving a very good speech in Parliament re: The Energy Debate.