There are two ways in which one can view the incident in Parliament the other day when an unseemly exchange between Labour MP Joe Debono Grech and newly-independent MP Marlene Farrugia degenerated into the first verbally threatening the second.

One could dismiss it as par for the course in parliamentary proceedings. After all, we’ve seen worse, mainly in the 1970s and 1980s. Or one could be appalled and disgusted.

Niġi għalik u nifqgħak were the precise words used. Such an expression of violent intent – language one normally associates with bullies and thugs – is completely unacceptable in mostcontexts, let alone in the country’s highest institution.

It left Labour looking very bad. But what makes them look even worse were the weak and rather spineless reactions.

After being asked by the Opposition, the Speaker, Anġlu Farrugia, gave a ruling in which he called on the two MPs to withdraw the disparaging words they had used in each other’s regard. So far, so good. However, the circumstances demanded that he single out Mr Debono Grech for special censure.

There is some dispute over what exactly the two MPs said to each other in the build-up to Mr Debono Grech’s outburst but there is no doubt that he crossed a line that Dr Farrugia did not.

The Speaker, as guardian of parliamentary standards of behaviour, should have made that unequivocally clear in his ruling. The Opposition walked out of the House at that point, rightly arguing he had made no distinction between perpetrator and victim.

Then there was Mr Debono Grech’s apology. It came days after the incident and he put the remark down to hisown “known character”. Hardly the unreserved apology one would have expected, making it appear more the result of internal pressure than one based on principle.

Next came the squirming attempts by various Labour MPs, including Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, to avoid the only correct course of action: outright condemnation of Mr Debono Grech. That never came. Instead, in a counter-motion to the Opposition’s call for the MP’s suspension, the government appealed for a more responsible attitude “among MPs” and for no talk advocating aggression or violence to be accepted in the House.

It was nearly there but it was just not good enough. In reaction to the walkout, Dr Muscat even accused the Opposition of not being able to take criticism, missing the point entirely.

Civil Liberties Minister Helena Dalli, stung by criticism of her earlier comments in Parliament that were interpreted as condoning Mr Debono Grech’s remark, dug herself and her colleagues deeper into a hole.

Rejecting comparisons made between Mr Debono Grech’s threat and domestic violence, she did say the threat was unacceptable – but should have limited herself to that instead of saying, as if by way of an excuse, that Dr Farrugia had instigated the threat by hurling insults at Mr Debono Grech.

Social Policy Minister Michael Farrugia, on his part, spoke of the need for Christian forgiveness following the apology and wanted to learn from the incident rather than dwell on it.

The Labour Party could have sent a clear message about where it stands on bully-boy behaviour that comes right out of its dark past by imposing some sort of sanction on Mr Debono Grech.

Alternatively, it could, at least, have distanced itself totally from his remark by condemning it more clearly. Instead, it practically closed ranks around its errant MP, raising doubts about its true colours.

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