Speaker Anġlu Farrugia has turned down a request to name a hall in parliament after Daphne Caruana Galizia. His reason was that this “could be perceived as eroding the impartiality of the House of Representatives”.  He dug deeper. “The decision was being made on the basis of upholding neutrality”.

The Labour cabinet including Carmelo Abela, Rosianne Cutajar, Edward Zammit Lewis, Julia Farrugia Portelli, José Herrera and Owen Bonnici all defended Farrugia’s decision repeating the same spiel – it was Farrugia’s prerogative.

None ventured an opinion – was this the right or wrong decision? Do these people think at all? Like the speaker, they would rather bury her forever. She had caused them no end of trouble with her supernatural ability to expose the truth even after her assassination.

Meanwhile all around the world, Caruana Galizia was being honoured.  The European Parliament had no qualms about neutrality when it named a hall in its Strasbourg building after her with her portrait hanging in honour of her bravery. At the European Parliament’s Brussels building a permanent exhibition ‘immortal truth’ pays her tribute. 

Transparency International honoured her with its anti-corruption award. The American Society of Journalists and Authors awarded her its prestigious Conscience in Media award. She received the Holme Award, the Tully Award, The Golden Victoria 2018 award and a special award at the European Leadership awards.  The world celebrated her “courage, sacrifice and commitment to the truth”.

Why does the world honour her ultimate sacrifice while our speaker and his Labour colleagues fear her spirit?  Because the speaker fears the truth and the democratic principles that enable the truth. For him and the Labour cabinet truth is a menace. He has assiduously suppressed it – ironic for a speaker of a European Union state parliament.

But this is not a normal European state. Farrugia was made speaker by the most corrupt politician Joseph Muscat, to silence him. After being sacked from deputy leader, Farrugia threatened to spill the beans on Muscat’s dodgy deals with big business. When rewarded with the role of speaker and his daughter appointed magistrate, Farrugia buried the truth – he failed to cooperate with the Caruana Galizia inquiry.

Why does the world honour Daphne’s ultimate sacrifice while our speaker and his Labour colleagues fear her spirit?- Kevin Cassar

In his previous life as police inspector Farrugia had arrested the 19-year-old Caruana Galizia in a dark, faeces-smeared cell for 27 hours and then forced her to sign a false confession which he had written himself. She had been accused of 11 trumped-up charges including assaulting a police officer, PC 710.

In 1984 Magistrate Scicluna threw out of court the “confession” that Farrugia produced as evidence against her because it was false and obtained through use of threats.

His authoritarian 1980s streak continued to surface repeatedly as speaker.  In October 2013 he ruled that Simon Busuttil’s allegation of “political interference” in the John Dalli case constituted a breach of privilege. Police commissioner John Rizzo had revealed that he had been authorised to arraign Dalli. Muscat replaced Rizzo and the case was dropped. When the opposition objected Farrugia shouted “whether you like it or not that is the ruling”.

Speaker Anġlu Farrugia. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

Ten days before SOCAR won the scandalous bid to supply Malta with natural gas, Farrugia was in Azerbaijan monitoring the election that gave Muscat’s friend Aliyev a staggering 85 per cent majority. Farrugia described the elections as “fair, democratic and transparent”. The OSCE reported “widespread irregularities, ballot box stuffing and fraudulent counting”.

In 2015, the speaker reported Busuttil’s driver to the police who swiftly requested a magisterial inquiry. The reason – €70 worth of fuel was consumed each week for the leader of the opposition’s car. The Labour Party pounced – Busuttil had “chosen his driver and this was a serious error of judgement”, a “serious case of fraud”. Within months the inquiry was concluded. There was no case against the driver and the matter was closed. The innocent driver was left humiliated.

In December 2016, Farrugia ordered MP Jason Azzopardi to retract a statement alleging that then justice minister Owen Bonnici had lied to the Public Accounts Committee.  The minister stated that Henley and Partners only received four per cent commission from €650,000 for each passport. But they were actually granted an additional four per cent commission on government stocks which the minister had omitted.

Farrugia’s actions became more undemocratic. In March 2018 he prevented Busuttil from asking whether Keith Schembri owned a Dubai or Pilatus bank account. The speaker decided that this was not in the public interest.  He commented that “parliamentary questions must have a factual basis and not seek confirmation of media rumours”.

In October 2018, he prevented MP Karol Aquilina from asking whether Muscat would publish the Egrant report and who had access to the full version. Farrugia concluded that “such questions were not relevant within parliament”.

In November 2019 the speaker rejected a request by the opposition leader for an urgent debate on the political implications of the developments in the Caruana Galizia investigation.  Farrugia denied the request as “it might jeopardise the case”. 

At the same time he called for steps to be taken against “those persons who exceeded the limit”, referring to protesters outside parliament, and “caused damages to a representative of the people”. The damage displayed in parliament – a jacket soiled with egg yolk.

Farrugia’s mission has been to consistently shield his benefactor Muscat from the most fatal weapon – the truth. 

As part of this mission he has inflicted on Caruana Galizia and the nation the indignity of refusing to name a hall in parliament in her memory.  But spared her the ultimate indignity of having a hall named in her honour by the man she considered “an insult to parliament if ever there was one”.

Kevin Cassar is consultant vascular surgeon and former PN candidate who resigned from the party in 2017.