The new parliamentary session has opened with the House having recently made progress in its institutional set-up. Most notably, it has been hived off from the civil service and enjoys autonomy in areas such as staff recruitment and conditions of work. 

That is as it should be. With its crucial role of keeping the government in check, being overdependent on the hand that feeds it does weaken the bite.

And yet, the officer who has just been elected to preside over parliament, the speaker, is appointed and removed at the whim of the governing majority. Despite this important role, the speaker does not enjoy security of tenure either.

Ahead of the election of Anġlu Farrugia, the Nationalist Party had asked for the bare minimum in a democracy structured like Malta’s – an independent and impartial speaker.

Some democracies give the speaker a political role, in that they can set the agenda of the House of Representatives and generally direct what is debated and enacted. The US Congress is a case in point. 

"After nine years at the helm and given the justified criticism of Farrugia’s handling of controversies, the time has come for a change. As it is, the new legislature has started on a wrong footing"

In Malta, the speaker’s role is severely limited. The speaker speaks for the House and ensures that procedure is observed. Speakers rule prima facie on privilege complaints but they have no say on what is debated in the chamber. Even if a serving MP, a speaker can only vote when there is a tie.

The speaker’s powers were recently increased after he was made president of the House Business Committee and House Standards Committee.  

The latter role landed Farrugia in deep controversy during the last legislature as he was invariably viewed as siding with the government when debate was held and the committee voted on ethics breaches by MPs. The controversies involving Joseph Muscat and Rosianne Cutajar come to mind. 

In the former case, Farrugia ruled that Muscat could not be summoned by the committee to be questioned on his role – while in office – when Konrad Mizzi was granted a tourism consultancy contract on grounds that Muscat was no longer an MP. 

Months later, Farrugia was seen as having let Cutajar off with a slap on the wrist after the standards committee found she had breached the code of ethics. He also came across as heavy-handed in the way he dealt with murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia’s son when he criticised his methods.

After the Cutajar controversy, Opposition leader Bernard Grech proposed a change in the composition of the committee so that the majority of members would not be MPs and would by appointed by agreement between the government and the opposition. And the speaker would be excluded from its chairmanship. It was a suggestion worthy of consideration.

It is time to review the way the speaker is appointed. Practically all those who have sat in the chair since parliament was established in 1921 were politicians. Some were serving MPs, others were former ministers and MPs who failed to get re-elected. Others were candidates. All were associated with the ruling party. Their appointment was therefore always viewed with suspicion. But they were given a chance to prove themselves. Some actually distinguished themselves although, invariably, disagreements broke out as tempers flared during debates.

Farrugia has gone too far down the path of disagreement and the opposition has no confidence in him at all. 

In November, we recalled that when Farrugia was elected speaker, he compared his role to that of a judge and swore to carry it out with impartiality and dignity. Yet, he fell far short of the standards he set for himself.

After nine years at the helm and given the justified criticism of Farrugia’s handling of controversies, the time has come for a change. As it is, the new legislature has started on a wrong footing.

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