Correction: Chris Cardona is PL, not PN (as listed above).

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110615/local/MP-misses-90-per-cent-of-sittings.370603

The twelve worst offenders (six from each PL/PN, with over 50% recorded non-attendance), although we don’t know what happens to our part-time parliamentarians after they clock in and possibly leave (from January to June 2011), in rank order are:

Adrian Vassalo (PL) — 90% (District 10)
Stephen Spiteri (PN) — 81% (District 2)
Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando (PN) — 73% (District 11)
Peter Micallef (PN) — 70% (District 6)
Joseph Sammut (PL) — 69% (District 5)
Michael Gonzi (PN) — 67% (District 12)
Karmenu Vella (PL) — 66% (District 5)
Luciano Busittil (PL) — 64% (District 1)
Jesmond Mugliet (PN) — 63% (District 4)
Chris Cardona (PN) — 52% (District 8)
Mario Galea (PN) — 52% (District 3)
Michael Farrugia (PL) — 52% (District 12)

I will make only one more specific observation, regarding the good Dr. Adrian Vassalo, who is from my voting district (I have never voted PL) and who tops the list. From his absenteeism, Dr. Vassalo has obviously been a disgruntled “player” for a long time. He is well-known for his attention to patients and his remarkably low fees that he charges for the long line of patients who queque to his door. He is a natural vote-magnet, but he doesn’t belong in parliament with his fundamentalism (where he represents his own conscience, or his understanding of Jesus Christ).

Ecumenism in parliamentarians is essential in a democracy, but is absent in Dr. Vassalo. I would hope that he resigns from parliament, and that he would return to being a 100% full-time doctor where his heart is, rather than continuing as a populist parliamentarian. The PL would hate to loose the votes he brings to their cause.

I mean, I do not blame Stephen Spiteri for not attending Parliament when he sees his boss, the Minister of Health, take a question like the following from a Health Department Assistant:

“Jista’ l-Ministru jara għaliex hemm nuqqas ta’ endoscopy fil-ward S4 tal-Isptar Mater Dei? Jista’ jgħid kemm hemm pazjenti jistennew biex jużaw dan l-endoscopy ? Meta se jasal Malta? Kemm ilhom neqsin? Kemm ġew ordnati?”

How did these bunch of amateur, parochial, bible-bashing, hypocritcal and offensive individuals ever come to represent me in Parliament? I am disgusted beyond words.

Hmm. Not quite. Silvio Parnis appears to affect that Maltese “P ‘n’ Z” look (pecs u zaqq), while Stephen Spiteri looks – how shall I put it – like the wheezy kid from school who skived PE. Only he skives parliament.

They both, however, look like hicks. We’ll have to breed thousands more Tiffanys to dilute the prevalance of bad genes in the Maltese population. Le le ma nichdek qatt ja art twelidi? Tridx tmur.

Of course he did. Not only he had a raise in his honorarium, but the Prime Minister appointed him as a “parliamentary assistant”, which comes with a renumeration package of its own.

Funny how everyone seems to have missed the fact that out of 35 Nationalist MPs, around 30 are involved in the government executive, in one way or the other.

So much for a “less costly” Cabinet, Dr Gonzi.

Not Cordina! But the Kazin Malti…

What an insolent claim to make! Have you been treated by all the doctors in the south to make such a claim? I am sure that there are plenty of doctors ‘in the south’ that strive to do their best and manage to.