The Speaker of the House of Representatives yesterday proposed that Standing Orders be revised to promote an “increasingly higher standard of fair play” within Parliament.
This would ensure that Parliament does not result in a “winner takes all” experience, Michael Frendo said at a ceremony to mark the Sette Giugno events of 1919, a historical milestone in Malta’s path towards parliamentary democracy.
Speaking at Hastings Gardens in Valletta, in front of the Sette Giugno monument, Dr Frendo said more sophisticated safeguards of the rights of the minority and the tabling and allocation of items for debate need to be in place while the majority would still enjoy the necessary space to implement its legislative programme.
In another proposal, he said political parties should endorse a law that would grant Parliament decision making and financial autonomy.
“Allow me to throw down the gauntlet to the political powers to go beyond talking about the autonomy of the Parliamentary institution, and commit themselves in their political programmes – unless this materialises before – to enact a law at the first opportunity in the next legislature which renders Parliament autonomous from a decisional, financial and recruitment point of view,” Dr Frendo said.
The law he was proposing should be based on the existing model for the Office of the Ombudsman and the Auditor General, both officials of Parliament who were already autonomous and regulated by a specific law. Dr Frendo said such a law would be in line with Malta’s Constitution, which chose to deal with Parliament before any other institution, as the highest institution in the land.
In his address Dr Frendo appealed for a spirit of unity, recalling how the events of June 7, 1919, had been etched as a “defining moment of national unity between all social classes”. This day should serve as a tribute to all Maltese who throughout the years worked for representative governance, he said.
On that day, four men were shot dead by British troops during riots over the price of bread. Malta has only experienced representative governance for the last 90 years after the Maltese Parliament was established in 1921.
Dr Frendo said history had taught us that rights won must be safeguarded and one must remain vigilant to ensure they were not lost.