Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1496177
LAST Tuesday Nationalist Party MPs failed to show up to a par- liamentary Consideration of Bills committee to discuss extending the arrest period allowed with- out a formal charge. As a result, the chairman, Michael Farrugia, had to suspend the session. The Committee was to discuss a government plan to allow po- lice to detain certain criminal suspects for a maximum of 102 hours instead of the current max- imum of 48 hours. Justice Minister Jonathan At- tard alleged that the PN is split on how to respond to the gov- ernment proposal saying that 'the Opposition informed us that there was internal disagreement within the party on the issue', fuelling speculation about the party being split on the issue. He described the Opposition as be- ing 'inconsistent and mediocre'. PN whip Robert Cutajar claimed later that the government had 'verbally agreed to postpone the committee meeting' while the Committee chair, Michael Farru- gia, said none of the PN commit- tee members had ever requested to postpone the meeting. Changing the maximum allow- able period of arrests without a formal charge in court requires a change in the constitution, and therefore the proposed amend- ments must be backed by the Opposition if they are to become law. But PN MPs Joe Giglio, Mario de Marco and Carm Mifsud Bon- nici have already spoken against the proposal describing it as 'ex- cessive'. The constitutional provision is meant to limit the power of the police so that they cannot arbi- trarily arrest people and leave them rotting in a prison cell. Obviously, it is a very important safeguard afforded to Maltese cit- izens to protect them from police abuse. The proposed amendment therefore means an increase in police powers, even though such increases would have to be ap- proved by a magistrate, according to the circumstances of the case. In days gone by, the police used to release arrested citizens when the 48 hours elapse and subsequently they would arrest them again for another 48 hours. Sometimes the time between the release and the subsequent ar- rest would only be a few minutes! This practice was declared un- constitutional by the courts. There are good arguments in favour of the government's pro- posal but there are also good arguments against it. The PN is, perhaps, caught in a quandry. But dithering is no option. Just when according to the polls, the government has drasti- cally lost support, the PN manag- es to depict itself as just a rudder- less group of people who cannot agree about anything. No won- der that the PN still cannot gain ground. This is the result of weak lead- ership. Good political leaders always avoid their party being seen as dithering on some issue or other. People cannot respect and support a party that dithers in this way. They want strong leadership. During the Fenech Adami years, the PN used to claim that it was a broad church that under- stands the hopes of different cit- izens with different backgrounds and interests. Admittedly, all of them were galvanised into action together because the end of the Mintoff era was a common ob- jective. Internal disagreements were tackled ably by the leader and decisions on the party's stand were taken collectively by the parliamentray group or the party executive, in the short time that circumstances allowed. Not all decisions were necessar- ily the right ones, but the party never came across as dithering and undecisive. This is what is happening today. While the current administra- tion is continually losing approv- al, the voters who are abandoning Labour do not know whom to turn to, even when the so-called duopoly has been the basic politi- cal situation in Malta for so long. The PN should be spurred to understand this basic need for strong leadership. Bernard Grech says that his background is one where compromise is par- amount. But for a political lead- er, being strong and determined cannot be disdained. For the PN, the road back to winning more support implies more internal discipline on what and how MPs say when they express their thoughts, quick immediate responses to govern- ment proposals, and the promise of a better experience of life with the party in power. Instead it keeps dithering about many issues that crop up. Italian food tradition Giorgia Meloni's government has backed a bill that would ban laboratory-produced meat and other synthetic foods, highlight- ing Italian food heritage and health protection. If the pro- posals go through, breaking the ban would attract fines of up to €60,000. Minister Francesco Lollobrigi- da, a Meloni colleague, who runs the rebranded ministry for ag- riculture and food sovereignty, spoke of the importance of Italy's food tradition. The farmers' lob- by praised the move. Agriculture lobbies have col- lected half a million signatures in recent months calling for protec- tion of 'natural food vs synthetic food', and Prime Minister Gior- gia Meloni is among those who have signed. The proposed bill came hard on the heels of a series of govern- ment decrees banning the use of flour derived from insects such as crickets and locusts in pizza or pasta. Ministers have cited Ita- ly's prized Mediterranean diet as their motivation for both meas- ures. Mr Lollobrigida: 'Laboratory products do not guarantee qual- ity, well-being and the protection of the Italian food and wine cul- ture and tradition, to which part of our tradition is linked.' The proposals, that have been approved by ministers seek to ban synthetic foods produced from animal cells without killing the animal, and would apply to lab-produced fish and synthetic milk too. Last November, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared cell-cultured chicken for human consumption after "care- ful evaluation". In 2020 Singa- pore gave regulatory approval for lab-grown chicken meat to be used in nuggets. So far no approval has been authorised within the European Union, but within the European Commission it has been suggest- ed that cell-based agriculture such as cultured meat "could be considered as a promising and innovative solution... for healthy and environmentally friendly food systems". Paolo Zanetti, the head of dairy industry group 'Assolatte', praised the government's deci- sion. He told financial newspaper 'Il Sole 24 Ore' that milk produc- ers were facing a paradox. On the one hand his colleagues were being asked to invest in making their product more environmen- tally friendly; while on the other 'investors with no scruples' were promoting a product that was anything but natural 'under the pretext of protecting the envi- ronment'. 7 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 2 APRIL 2023 OPINION A dithering and undecisive PN Michael Falzon micfal45@gmail.com The PN managed to depict itself as just a rudderless group of people who cannot agree about anything