What happened in parliament on Thursday 7 May was utterly shameful, both on the deputy Prime Minister, Dr Tonio Borg, who invented a story on the Hon. Justyne Caruana’s vote on the motion moved by the leader of the Opposition. As well as the new speaker Dr Michael Frendo, who slipped badly by deciding to listen to the recordings of the vote, after Dr Tonio Borg had falsely alleged that Caruana had voted “No” on Dr Muscat’s motion about the Auditor General’s report on the contract entered into by Enemalta with BWSC.
It is quite obvious why Borg invented the story about Caruana’s vote. He had heard parliamentary secretary Mario Galea vote “Yes” in favour of Muscat’s motion and hence knew that the government was going to lose the vote. So by falsely alleging that Caruana had voted “No”, Borg offered the chance to the Speaker to suspend the sitting and say that he was going to hear the recordings of the vote, when all he had to do was to check the voting list of the clerk of the House, who had called out the name of each deputy and recorded their votes on her list, including that of Caruana! Instead of doing this, Michael Frendo chose to ignore that list and instead listened to the recordings thus falling for the ploy invented by Tonio Borg!
It is simply incredible to what extent this government is ready to fudge things in order not to lose a parliamentary vote. What is even worse is that the government is helped by whoever is responsible to ensure that the parliamentary procedure is upheld without fear or favour. Those who stoop so low for purely patrician political reasons do not deserve to be addressed as “Honourable”!
There is more than enough stench emanating from the Auditor General’s report, which proves that the contract signed by Enemalta with BWSC stinks to high heaven. So perhaps it was fitting that BWSC’s stinking contract was signed and sealed by the government’s sordid antics in parliament. No wonder that Caruana has declared that she was the victim of a “frame-up” in parliament.
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