It is really not an option. When you are the wife of the most powerful man in the country – the Prime Minister – there is no avoiding the limelight. Occasions arise and you have to be there, by his side, supportive, understanding and discreet. Some do not like the attention, others may love it.
Michelle Muscat is not a rare sight in public. She chairs the Marigold Foundation and last summer raised €150,000 for that organisation and the Malta Special Olympics Team by swimming across the Gozo channel.
She is patron of the European Organisation for Rare Diseases and honorary president of the Association of Parents of Children with Autism. She occasionally accompanies the Prime Minister on visits abroad, sometimes with their children.
She inaugurates wedding fairs and art exhibitions, attends product launches, international conferences, the Special Olympics and even presented the Malta Baby & Kids Directory best mum and best dad awards.
She also organises charity events, which is laudable because in adding her face she attracts more attention and, hopefully, raises even more funds.
Her name was brought up in a judicial protest filed by an Armed Forces of Malta gunner against his commander and deputy commander. The soldier let it be known that he had done as other military personnel had done in a dispute with the top brass and requested a meeting with the Prime Minister’s wife, which took place at Villa Francia, in Lija.
Incidentally, in its recent report, the National Audit Office said it was unable to test inventory items at the villa, which is the official residence of the Prime Minister – “due to reasons beyond its control”.
The ‘conciliation’ meeting, presided over by Mrs Muscat, unfortunately failed to come to an agreement.
In explaining Mrs Muscat involvement in the matter, the Office of the Prime Minister said that “as was the case with the spouse of previous prime ministers”, she is asked for meetings on a regular basis by hundreds of people regarding various issues. Mrs Muscat “listens to people who contact her with genuine claims and she does so voluntarily as part of the political mission as the spouse of the Prime Minister”.
The Prime Minister’s wife does not have an official political mission or political role. While she can always be a ‘shoulder to cry on’, she should never officially be a mediator, especially over issues involving the armed forces, and particularly in view of the long-standing dispute between the Home Affairs Ministry and the Ombudsman’s Office on army promotions.
Furthermore, the involvement of the Prime Minister’s wife, by implication, involves the Prime Minister himself because, officially, he is her only point of contact within the government.
It is not the first time that Mrs Muscat has waded into controversy. A case in point was a speech she made on Women’s Day in 2014, when she appeared to put down stay-at-home mums. She should avoid exposing herself in situations that attract flak because, for obvious reasons, that would also reflect badly on the Prime Minister who might well be forced to pick up the pieces.
Mrs Muscat’s mediation in AFM issues, and evidently from the government’s official explanation, in other issues as well, is unwarranted and out of place. Like all who came before her, she does not have a political role to play.People who desire such a role, should start by openly declaring their political ambitions. As things stand now, being the Prime Minister’s wife does not make one part of the government.