Unequal reps

The grains of time never stop falling, yet the passing of the years does not always bring much change with it. I am reminded of this truism by the ongoing flurry regarding unequal treatment to Members of Parliament presumed to be equal in every respect. Not all those elected to the House can retain their previous employment, not even when they have the same employer - the state, via its various operational arms.

Some years back the Speaker took the initiative to request a respected former MP and (at his own choice, briefly) minister to look into the situation. Joe Micallef Stafrace looked. He saw. He reported. But his arguments have not conquered. Two MPs, Mario Galea, Nationalist, and Joe Abela, Labour, who only coincidentally both come from the same constituency, had the same paymaster before they were elected. They served the public in the state hospitals.

On making it to the House they could not remain in their previous employment. They were public officers and, according to the Constitution, they had to choose between being MPs or remaining employees of the state. Unless they find private employment they have to make do with an MP's salary, in contrast to the majority of their colleagues in the House who retain their pre-membership employment.

Other MPs, such as Marie Louise Coleiro, are in the same boat. Examples from the past include Maria Camilleri, who had to leave the school she ran for the Education Department when she was elected in Labour's 1996 victory.

Mario Galea and Joe Abela are particularly peeved. They hold that not only are they denied retention of public employment, but also suffer discrimination thereby. For the situation is that, say, a consultant who serves in the state hospitals (and lectures at the University) can remain in employment, as at least two did in the recent past. The two complaining MPs are not by any means suggesting that was wrong - they merely call for equal treatment.

Their point could be illustrated in other areas. Whereas, as in the case of Maria Camilleri and others, a teacher cannot teach in state schools and be an MP at the same time, a university lecturer suffers no restriction against doing both. Examples from both sides of the House are on record. In fact, ministers have been known to sit in the Cabinet while continuing to guide University students into the future.

Broadening the observation, one can point out that whereas Ms Coleiro, a civil servant, had to leave her employment on becoming an MP, there are various civil servants serving their locality as councillors, though local councils, have been made an integral part of the political divide and endless confrontation.

In part this situation owes its origin to the time when Malta was a British colony. At the time it was to be found not only within the local civil service, but also among the sector of local civilian employment with the British Forces or ministry branches. Unequal treatment prevailed at that time too, as I found out when I gingerly stepped into the electoral scene.

When the 1962 general election was called the Labour Party, labouring under the bishops' wrathful interdict, was not quite swamped with leading and lesser lights in society coming forward to stand in its name, and thereby gain the distinction of being voted for only under the pain of the local version of mortal sin. At a sparsely attended meeting of the national executive of the party held at Mayfair House in Old Bakery Street, Valletta, a sheet of paper was passed round.

Lorry Sant wrote something on it, as most of the others sitting round the table had done, and passed it on to me. It was a list of names.

- What's this, I asked from the innocence of my 23 years.

- We're going to be candidates at the general election, said Lorry from the maturity of his own 24 (just).

- Not me, I said. I had been writing extensively in the Labour media for several years and was secretary of the Labour League of Youth. But I was terrified of ever having to stand up and give a speech in public. There's nothing I have to offer, I told Lorry.

- Go on, he said. We have to make up the numbers.

Soon after that evening I found out that, if I was to stand, I would have to give up my employment as a clerk with the Air Ministry Work Dir-ectorate branch in Malta. Dom Mintoff, the party leader, intervened, confirmation if any was needed that he had great difficulty to scratch up a team of candidates.

I was subsequently allowed to take unpaid leave of absence for the duration of the campaign, and would have to resign - without right to reinstatement - if I was elected.

To everyone's astonishment except Bertu Hyzler's, who pushed to help me get second preferences to his own firsts at Qormi, I was elected in the casual election to fill his seat, since he was successful in two district. I stood for that casual election more out of anger than expectation.

A party bigwig had told me that the national executive had told Dr Hyzler to give up the Qormi seat to give a chance to another former Labour minister, who had lost his place at Zebbug to another new arrival, Philip Muscat. He pressed me not to put my name forward.

Having borne the interdict and mortal sin, braved being variously insulted, stoned and spat upon in the street, I felt the party big gun took me for a patsy, a role I have always declined.

I became an MP, but lost my AMWD job because I had been employed as a 'non-industrial'. Those who were employed as 'industrials', like Lorry Sant and Rokku Abdilla, could stand for the election, sit in Parliament, and remain in employment in the Admiralty dockyard.

On and off I argued within the Labour Party, and on occasion in Parliament against the injustice of unequal treatment, and more so of denying a substantial part of Malta's citizenry the right to try to serve the people as an MP without giving up one's job. My words fell on unreceptive ground, even within the party.

In my short tenure as minister of finance and economic affairs following the 1996 election I came across two fresh examples of earnest young men - Bertu Pace and Carmel Abela - who had to give up their jobs on becoming MPs in that year's cull because they were employed in the public sector. This time, they were in banking: one at the Bank of Valletta; the other at Mid-Med Bank.

Behind the scenes I pressed for an agreement between the unions in the banking sector and the employers, for whom I was responsible through the Economic Affairs side of my portfolio. Through it Bertu and Carmel could return to their job after only a short gap. Later on, when Labour lost the 1998 election, Leo Brincat could return to Mid-Med Bank and remain an MP.

Personal involvement can only illustrate the argument, which Mario Galea and Joe Abela are propelling into public view. Public opinion needs a broader picture, framed in the context of the public interest.

Does it help the general interest to restrict or somehow inhibit the democratic access to membership of the House of Representatives, thereby not allowing it to be as representative as could be? Conversely, does it make sense to have MPs - the epitome of the partisan political activist - working in the public sector where partisanship should have no foot in the door?

The start to any attempt to give answers, I feel, should be from the principle of treating equals, equally. A nurse, a therapist and a consultant all come in contact with the public, in the same manner that a university lecture, a teacher and a headmistress all come in contact with students. Local councillors who are in public employment, the bulk of whom represent a political party, cannot be viewed differently from civil servants who make it to Parliament.

The key consideration, really, is the individual behaviour in his job of the individual elected to political office. I am not aware that there have been complaints that consultants, lecturers, and bankers who simultaneously served as MPs or Cabinet ministers abused their position. I am certain that currently barred MPs could - and would do their utmost to do so - serve the public and the government of the day that employs them with detachment and fairness.

If one builds in the condition that it would be natural to keep out of bounds certain areas of the public service to sitting MPs, continuing to keep them out merely denies the general services the full use of the island's restricted human resources.

The efforts of Mario Galea and Joe Abela may not attract much active support. The political parties and Mr Speaker should take the lead.