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16 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 20 OCTOBER 2019 INTERVIEW INDEPENDENT MP Godfrey Farrugia, now having resigned as the flag-bearer of the party he himself founded only two years ago, looks back at what he claims is his "turbulent po- litical career". Farrugia, erstwhile Labour MP who followed his partner Marlene Farrugia's exit from Joseph Muscat's party into the PD, is proud of his political footprint and for having left his integrity intact in the process. But with regard to life in politics, now fast approaching its expiry date as the MPs give notice of their last legislature, Farrugia says he experienced the grim reality of seeing ide- alists degenerating into pup- pets. "I resigned from Partit Demokratiku so that fresh new faces could enjoy leading a clean-slate party without being potentially held back by a poli- tician with a history," Farrugia claims – who only last June as PD leader was outvoted by his own party's candidate Camilla Appelgren in the European elections. "It was a natural progression in the party's evolution that I step down so that new lead- ership can spearhead a total rebranding of the party in the image the electorate requires it to be to vote for it. If PD was to have ample time to decon- struct and reconstruct itself so as to be a more popular force by the next general election, there was no time to waste. "I have been stating for many months that for PD to be seen as a credible alternative – it must have a front bench of new faces backed by a potential backbench of other fresh faces. Since many potential con- tributors seem to be hovering on the flanks but never taking the step forward to participate openly in the political arena, where they are sorely needed, I thought it rational to remove myself, a politician with a his- tory, from being a potential deterrent to the influx of these people," Farrugia said. Farrugia, a former health minister who lost his job in a Cabinet reshuffle to become Labour whip, says his biggest moment of regret was not giv- ing a vote of no confidence to Konrad Mizzi, the then energy minister embroiled in the Pan- ama Papers scandal, and even- tually became the subject of an inquiry into Dubai company 17 Black. He also claims he regrets not calling out Labour MP Joe Debono Grech for "his shame- ful behaviour in the House" where, among other things, he made a verbal threat of vio- lence to Marlene Farrugia dur- ing a sitting. Yet these are regrets which politicians are not remembered for, where the benefit of hind- sight does little for the measure of a man. "My moment of triumph was when I found the courage to walk away from the health min- istry and refuse the social poli- cy and environment portfolios as soon as I was certain that the trajectory that the executive was following was not in line with my way of doing politics," Farrugia insists. "Throughout my professional and political career, I took great care to pre- serve my integrity." Partit Demokratiku was founded in 2016 after Marlene Farrugia had already exited the Labour Party on the back of mounting criticism of their environmental policies and the demerger of Malta's planning and environmental regulators. Godfrey Farrugia joined right on the eve of the 2017 election. "It was not the change of port- folio that tipped the balance towards deciding to leave the executive arm of government. It was the way government was handling accountability and transparency and the way that Keith Schembri, an unelected government official, seemed to set the agenda and hold sway over all decisions taken at the office of the Prime Minister." "The saddest thing in my political experience has been watching people I used to think were worth looking up to de- generate into puppets, giving up their dreams, to hold on to power," Farrugia says, remem- bering his resignation letter to Muscat in which he lamented that some governmental direc- tions seemed to border on the illegal as the OPM took more power for itself. "With certain reforms found- ing new authorities, I expect- ed that the politician would no longer be the centre of all things but this didn't happen. It's as if everything had to be controlled. The government was essentially a good one, but bad behaviour was not sanc- tioned in a timely manner… we lost our moral fibre," he had written. Farrugia says he joined La- bour in 2013 thinking the so- called 'Taghna Lkoll' slogan was a break from partisanship. His own first foray into politics had been as an independent candidate for the Zebbug local council elections, where he was elected mayor with over 1,000 votes. "This is what attracted me to join the Labour movement in 2013: the apparent resolve to take Malta to the next level and to do away once and for all with divide-and-rule politics. Unfortunately, it turned out to be only a propaganda smoke- screen for Joseph Muscat and the Labour Party to gain power. "I have learnt how fickle hu- man nature is and how easily power causes humans to mu- tate into lesser, insignificant beings: empty versions of ho- mo sapiens… I have served the country with complete loyalty, never giving in to the pressure generated by dirty manoeu- Former PD leader Godfrey Farrugia says his exit from party politics is not leaving the f ledgling Democratic Party high and dry. But did he owe the PD the courtesy to stay on up until the election to help them gain traction? A grim view of power David Hudson dhudson@mediatoday.com.mt