Nationalist backbencher Franco Debono is insisting the Prime Minister had promised splitting the home affairs and justice portfolios by year’s end, adding the pledge was made on the eve of a Budget vote.
Speaking a day after threatening to withdraw his support to the government in Parliament unless the Prime Minister honoured his pledge, an irate Dr Debono said he had felt “uncomfortable” voting for the Justice and Home Affairs Ministry’s Budget estimates earlier this month.
Budget votes are legally deemed to be votes of confidence and the government’s survival could have been in the balance had Dr Debono voted against.
The estimates were approved in an uneventful sitting on December 3, two days after Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi had publicly committed himself on Net TV, the Nationalist Party’s television station, to consider splitting the home affairs and justice portfolios. Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici captains the two portfolios.
“I had informed the Prime Minister before the vote that my conscience was perturbed because I could not vote to give money to a ministry that was floundering,” Dr Debono said.
The Għaxaq MP said the Prime Minister then promised he would split the portfolios by the end of the year.
“I have been talking about the urgent need for justice reform since 2008 and, given that this legislature is nearing its end, I asked the Prime Minister when he would honour the pledge and he told me he would do so by the end of this year,” Dr Debono said.
He said he had contacted the Prime Minister on Monday to enquire about the pledge and, according to the MP, Dr Gonzi told him he needed more time.
Angry at being branded a rebel, Dr Debono insisted he was “a voice of reason”, who was being ignored.
“I have been clamouring for reforms such as the right of access to a lawyer during police interrogation, the setting up of dedicated inquiring magistrates, changing the way magistrates and judges are appointed and reducing the discretion of the Attorney General,” he said, taking umbrage at some of the changes to the Criminal Code proposed in a Bill presented in Parliament last month by Dr Mifsud Bonnici.
Attempts to contact Dr Mifsud Bonnici yesterday proved futile.
Dr Debono had criticised various aspects of the Bill and insisted the minister had consulted no-one before coming up with the changes.
“Doctors have told me my health risks deteriorating but I do not mind and will continue to push forward because I want to see reforms in the crucial sectors of home affairs and justice,” he said.
Dr Debono said he was fed up with the situation and did not care if the Prime Minister called an election.
“They can do what they like. But what are we waiting for to implement reforms?”
Splitting the portfolios would be only a first step, the MP insisted, and unless it happened now any future change wouldsimply be “a farce” because there would be little time to initiate the reforms.
Dr Debono insisted he had no interest in being appointed minister, but was offering his help to reform a sector that was in crisis.
“The details that emerged from the recent Josette Bickle case go way beyond who should shoulder ministerial responsibility because they seriously undermine the law-and-order functions of the state. And yet we continue to hesitate in implementing reforms,” he said.
Dr Debono completely brushed aside any notion of contesting the next election with the Labour Party. “It never crossed my mind,” he said when asked.
“I am an accomplished lawyer in the criminal field and if I am rejected by the PN I will continue pursuing my career and, possibly, even practise in Italy. It is not I who should feel uncomfortable in the PN but others,” he said.