Simon Busuttil reached out to political cynics and “genuine Labourites” yesterday as he lauded the Nationalist Party’s latest proposals as a break with the past.
The PN leader said the more than 100 proposals were aimed at addressing the lack of transparency, poor accountability and slacking good governance that eroded people’s trust in politicians.
Addressing PN supporters at the party headquarters in Pietà where the document was unveiled, Dr Busuttil also made a pitch for those he described as “genuine Labourites betrayed by Joseph Muscat”.
In a throw-back to Dr Muscat’s pre-electoral rallying cry of creating a movement bigger than the Labour Party, Dr Busuttil asked his supporters to embrace Labourites. “We have to be a party for all Maltese not just Nationalists.”
He also saluted former Labour MP Marlene Farrugia, whom he described as the voice of genuine Labourites, and praised her for showing courage in Parliament.
The now-independent MP resigned from Labour and voted with the Opposition on amendments to laws setting up a new planning authority and a distinct entity to oversee the environment.
Going through the salient points of the proposals, Dr Busuttil said the document was “a breakthrough” and “radical”.
We have to be a party for all Maltese – Busuttil
Acknowledging past mistakes, he said the proposals showed the PN wanted to do things differently and was now acting as an alter-native government.
Some of the proposals are innovative, such as that 50 per cent of public appointments consisting of women. Others are likely to prove controversial, like the setting up of a Citizens Rights Ministry that, among other things, will centralise complaints and the appointment by two-thirds parliamentary majority of the civil service head, the police commissioner and the army commander.
The proposals are not cast in stone and the party will discuss them with civil society
Some proposals are provocative like the requirement that media organisations belonging to political parties be legally required to respect balance.
Yet others are rehashed versions of proposals made in the past and never implemented such as the removal of parliamentary immunity from civil libel and the election of the President by a two-thirds parliamentary majority.
Dr Busuttil said the proposals were not cast in stone and the party would discuss them with civil society.
He pointed out that the electorate would face a stark choice in the next election; a difference in mentality. “We have a choice in the next election; we can compete with Joseph Muscat by being as or more corrupt than him or by being correct. I refuse to win by being dirty,” the Opposition leader said, adding he trusted the electorate with making the right choice.
He insisted with party supporters that doing things “the correct way” was “the only way” under his watch.
Dr Busuttil also challenged the Prime Minister to withdraw the appeal filed by the government in response to a Constitutional Court case that had awarded the PN two extra parliamentary seats.
The government appealed and the case is still pending.