Gatt to ‘hound’ Arriva, understands frustration

Transport Minister Austin Gatt yesterday said he would “continue hounding” Arriva until it provided the bus service expected of it, in response to a university student who heckled him at a press conference the previous day.

“While I am still baffled why I should be blamed because a bus is late or because Arriva fails to respond to customer queries, I fully understand the frustration of Ms (Nicola) Abela Garrett with Arriva,” Dr Gatt said.

The comments, made in a statement released yesterday, followed an outburst by Ms Abela Garrett at a press conference against the “ridiculous” bus service, repeatedly telling Dr Gatt he should be “ashamed” of himself. She said it had taken her two hours to reach Naxxar from Attard by bus, adding that students were missing lectures because of the poor service.

Dr Gatt took the incident in his stride. “I was a student once and I expect nothing less from a student but to speak her mind and publicly express her protests without fear. I can assure her there is absolutely no animosity and I consider the case closed.”

He did point out, however, that he was not addressing her when he was overheard saying “no problem”. Ms Abela Garett had interpreted this as a condescending response and retorted with some colourful language which she later said she regretted.

The words “no problem”, Dr Gatt said, were addressed to people surrounding him in an attempt to make sure they did not intervene to try to stop the student.

In an open letter Ms Abela Garrett sent to the student online newspaper insiteronline.com she publicly apologised for her “bad language” directed towards Minister Gatt: “My behaviour was uncalled for and I can assure you, I am in no way a gutter girl.”

However, she went on to demand an apology from the Minister. “Now that I have apologised publicly, through this article, to Mr Austin Gatt, I would like him to apologise to the Maltese bus commuters for his disastrous attempt to reform the bus system and his selfish attitude towards the 130 complaints Arriva and TM have been receiving daily.”

Towards the end of the letter she said she would not apologise for speaking her mind, “brash as it may have come across”. She said all she wanted was “someone to sort out the chaos within the system”.

Meanwhile, the university pointed out yesterday that a man who, in footage aired on One News, was apparently asking Ms Abela Garrett for her details after the incident, was not one of its officials.

In her open letter Ms Abela Garrett referred to this “complete stranger” who “forced” her to give her name and told her off for insulting the minister.

A spokesman for the Transport Ministry said neither the Minister nor anyone at the ministry enquired about Ms Abela Garrett’s identity or complained with her: “Ms Abela Garrett was perfectly within her rights to speak to the Minister in a public place and her identity was frankly irrelevant to us.”

Her apology yesterday bred a string of critical comments, as bloggers pointed out that the student had also insulted Minister Gatt on her Facebook wall on September 8.