The brand-new president of the House of Representatives told us he would like some more sense of humour in Parliament. Aye to that. Since Minister Tonio Borg is one of the few men in the House with a sense of humour, I seriously thought that he was taking on the Speaker's suggestion - of providing some humour - when he stood up to say that MP Justyne Caruana had voted no to the Labour Party's motion on the power station extension before Parliamentary Secretary Mario Galea voted yes. Some kind of he-says-yes-she-says-no kind of joke, I thought.
But when I looked up I realised that Dr Borg was serious. Uncomfortably so but serious nonetheless. Had I not been present, I would not have believed that someone - let alone a deputy prime minister and considered as one of the better characters in Parliament - could stoop this low.
The matter was not, of course, about the parliamentary secretary's mistaken yes, as somebody said on national television. Anybody can make a mistake. The issues were (a) on how the government side interfered so as the result of the original vote was not read out and (b) the lie about Dr Caruana's vote. So for whoever said that Labour over-reacted to a genuine mistake: no sir, Labour reacted to what came after the mistake and the blatant lie told in order to balance that error.
There would have been nothing wrong had the Speaker declared the result of the vote: 35 ayes for the opposition's motion and 34 nos.
Subsequently, the parliamentarian concerned - Mr Galea - would have made a declaration that he wanted to say no but erroneously said yes instead. End of story. It happened before and parliamentary life went on.
Not so this time, though. Dr Borg's usual self-confidence was gone. Normally very articulate, he was sombre, looking for words to cobble together an emergency statement to save the government from losing the vote. He succeeded in sowing doubt - in the minds of those not present - on the way the targeted victim voted.
The Deputy Prime Minister even had the temerity to say that the setting up of Dr Caruana is a figment of Labour's imagination. As though all the members of the opposition are demented. To add to the insult, the fact that we signed an affidavit - declaring that Dr Caruana voted for the PL motion - was rubbished by the Nationalist Party's secretary general on national television while he said that PL parliamentarians are remote-controlled. Maybe. But that wouldn't be as bad as government MPs who were so vociferous against the power station extension only to come to Parliament and vote in its favour once their string was pulled, would it?
The power station extension saga is a big black spot on the Nationalist government. We must therefore not let this barefaced lie on a Labour MP obfuscate the abuse of power in relation to the awarding of the power station tender to BWSC. The process should have been stopped and the tender reissued. This is the Auditor General's main conclusion in a report which is highly critical of the manner in which the contract was awarded.
What is to be done? There is no hope that the PN government will change its ways; it is heavily set in them. There is too much at stake and those within the inner circle have too much to lose. The PL can only reiterate and further strengthen its policies on transparency and good governance as pronounced by its leader. We do this by building on existing policy proposals, which had been eclipsed by the government's march in the opposite direction while abusing of its power of incumbency in the run-up to the 2008 general election.
I recall Labour's first news conference of that election campaign was on good governance, after which we were told that, maybe, it was not such a wise thing to do as those who were having it so good would work even harder to keep us out of government. But must we go on forever in this free-for-some while ordinary citizens foot the bills? I don't think so.
Concretely, the PL is proposing the repeal of the time-barring law with regard to politicians so that none of us will have the security that after enough time has elapsed no action can be taken against us. If he has nobody to cover, the Prime Minister could decide to see this through straight away; he will have our full support and that of all the people, I am sure.
A Labour government will see to the introduction of a strong Whistleblower Act and also to the strengthening of the existing toothless Freedom of Information Act. Labour will also introduce a law on party financing by which it will be less easy for money coming from corruption to be used to help political parties and politicians. The setting up of a commissioner for parliamentary standards who supervises the behaviour and interests of members of Parliament and Cabinet ministers is also on the cards.
These and other good governance policies will not however be taken on board by a Nationalist government. Rescuing representative democracy in Malta from the pit into which it has fallen won't be an easy task.
Dr Dalli is shadow minister for the public service and government investment.