When one is part of a team, internal discussion is vital. Criticism and arguments are an essential part of communicating because it is impossible for a diverse group of people to always see eye to eye. A team where the members blindly follow their leader is no team at all. In fact, it would be a total failure because of all the talent and potential that is wasted.
I believe that this is the spirit behind the email exchange initiated by MP Jean-Pierre Farrugia. Why should an MP not be able to disagree with something that is being proposed by his or her party? Who said that blind obedience and acceptance are desirable traits in those who represent us in parliament?
If anything, what is most worrying in this story is the fact that the parliamentary group has not met since December. This situation paints a picture of a team where discussion is stifled and the members are feeling alienated. What else could have led to JPF telling the Prime Minister that “in 14 years I very much doubt if you ever lent me an ear?”
JPF was naïve to forward his email to all and sundry in the parliamentary group. It has been clear for a long time that there are elements who are leaking interesting titbits to the press and he should have realised that it would not have taken more than a second for them to hit the forward button to send his relatively hot missive to their contacts in the media.
What we must not lose sight of is the fact that the general gist of what JPF had to say was quite admirable. The man clearly understands the impact that the proposed health reforms will have on people who are struggling to make ends meet and he is speaking out on their behalf.
He is right. The idea that only people who have a pink card will be entitled to free primary healthcare is alarming.
He is right. General Practitioners will be overwhelmed when people start calling them 24/7 for all their medical emergencies. They will switch off their mobile and they will raise their prices. So families who do not have pink cards will end up in a catch-22 situation. No access to health centres and no access to their overworked GPs!
Jean-Pierre Farrugia did not betray his party or his leader by sending that email. He was fulfilling his role as the people’s representative and if he has no access to his leader other than email, what was the man supposed to do?
So it is ridiculous that he has had to issue a public statement declaring his loyalty to the Nationalist Party led by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi.
It is not his email which threatens the stability of the government. It is the lack of cohesion in the parliamentary group and the infighting in the party. Instead of governing, our elected leaders seem to be wasting their time squabbling and arguing about chess and monarchies.
I think they need to take off for a weekend break all together, set up some team-building exercises and some workshops and get these issues off their chests.
You never know, they might actually discover that they still like each other after all.
Some arguments really do not add up… The Church’s Pro-Vicar Anton Gouder made some very interesting statements during a recent debate. He said that “the physical and mental health of family members was better, the family’s financial situation was better, they had more success in life and more satisfying sexual relationships that those who are not in marriage, like cohabitation”.
Furthermore he added that studies show that married couples were “happier, more emotionally and physically sound, live longer, suffer less long-term illnesses, and recover from certain diseases more quickly.”
Even more positive is the fact that “in marriage, there is less probability that children are aborted and less probability that they are abused or abandoned.”
When I hear such statements it makes it very difficult for me to understand why the local church is fighting so hard against divorce. After all, many people in Malta are forced to co-habit and have children outside marriage because they simply do not have the option of re-marrying.
Would it not be healthier for them – emotionally, physically, financiall and sexually – if they could stop co-habiting and remarry?
Last year over a thousand children were born outside wedlock. Many of them are the offspring of separated people who have found a new partner. Dun Anton Gouder tells us that these children are at risk – however he does not agree with the necessary legal structures being put in place to allow their parents to marry.
So we have hundreds of families in Malta with no legal recognition, exposing them to several problems.
How does any of this make sense?
Any comments?
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