Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/594552
14 35YEAROLD Aaron Farrugia has not even sat down before he starts firing off at the dearth of political awareness he is meeting on the streets, complaining that politicians are feeding off opiated voters who only clamour for cosy government jobs and subsidised housing. A self-declared 'people person' with a fondness for Tony Blair, Farrugia is keen to tell me that he has not been specifically 'asked' to contest the elections. He wants to dispel the impres- sion that his long-time activism for the party (he has served as deputy mayor in Ta' Xbiex and on the Labour executive com- mittee) means that he has been anointed. As a person who spe- cifically wants to be in politics for the long haul, he tells me that it was he specifically who asked to be considered for a candida- ture, a decision that has yet to be made by the party. But he still is very much part of the new generation of Labourites that was drawn to Joseph Mus- cat's leadership bid. As a youth party member, Farrugia assisted in Muscat's leadership campaign in 2008, and later was education secretary in the Labour executive apart from handling the compila- tion of the 2013 electoral mani- festo as secretary, and running Labour think-tank Fondazzjoni Ideat. Today he serves as CEO of the Malta Freeport regula- tor – hand-picked of course by the new Labour government, a skewed aspect of meritocracy which he is however keen to talk about later on. For now, as we sit down to talk about his desire to be elected to parliament, we talk about his slogan 'Era Gdida' (new era) and his conviction that politics needs seriously intelligent people who can talk policy, and not just win a popularity contest. "The country needs a new era of politicians. Not just politi- cians who get chosen simply for the amount of jobs they dispense, the housing they find for voters, or the myriad favours they do for them. We need politicians who can offer expertise, and we need people to decide who their MPs are according to their expertise. People will still get what they want: they will get jobs if they have politicians who can gener- ate economic growth and give results," Farrugia, an economist and now fresh out of law school, says. Farrugia knows the culture of political patronage and clien- telism is ingrained in the way the Maltese do politics. "It's a daily experience for me. People tell me, 'sure, we like you… but can you find my son a job, can you get my single-moth- er daughter a house, if you help us we will help you'," he trails off and shakes his head. "It's a race to the bottom. Politicians are being chosen not because of their poli- cies, but because of the amount of favours they can do for people. And this is made even more pos- sible with Maltese politicians be- ing 24/7 available and visible in a small country like ours." Despite being close to the La- bour caste of Muscat supporters and a familiar face to Labour vot- ers, Farrugia claims he shuns the Maltese popularity contest. "If the electoral system stays as it is, this mentality will never change," he declares. "Not that it will change any time soon," he adds. On the first district he wants to contest, Aaron Farrugia's 'rivals' will be his own party candidates: incumbents Louis Grech and José Herrera are deputy prime minis- ter and a junior minister respec- tively, while GP Deo Debattista will surely defend his patch. With his political affectations being of the cerebral kind, Farrugia says winning hearts and minds is only down to sympathetic faces and patronage in overdrive. "My race is not against Mario de Marco or Claudio Grech… but with those from my party, with my same values. How are going to distinguish ourselves? By go- ing on Kalamita [One TV's mid- day parlour-of-Labour] to talk about haemmorroids and giving out legal advice… is this how we are going to decide who our poli- ticians are?" So he turns to the electoral sys- tem, which he says is the crux of the entire patronage shebang. "We should ditch the 13 districts, and instead have one district for each elected MP… say, 60. The party interviews the candidates who want to the sole selected candidate on each district, and only one candidate is fielded for that one particular constitu- ency. So voters can only choose a politician from a party, and make their choice because of the differ- ence between them, not because of the favours they dish out," Farrugia says, with some give- or-take on how a parliamentary majority could be formed with a system that could deliver super- majorities. But that's all stuff to be ironed out by the maths guys. What the system needs, he says, is to get rid of the inter-party ri- valry that makes patronage such an essential part of being elect- ed. So his rival will not be Claudio Grech, I tell him, who finances his own foundation with his MP's salary to dish out iPads to kids in Valletta schools. And it's here that I learn that Farrugia has his own personal foundation, the Fondazzjoni Anton Buttigieg. "Look, I don't have the money to give people iPads or supply concrete for the Hamrun foot- ball nursery," he starts off. "The foundation is there to improve people's quality of life. So I ap- ply for EU funding so that we can organise parental courses to help them identify learning disabili- ties in their children at an early age. We have signed an MOU with an employment agency so that we forward CVs to them and have them in their database, and we have another MOU with a school sponsoring courses in IT and English. For them it's corpo- rate social responsibility. I help out with my contacts. "But I do believe in empower- ment, and that's where I see my role as an MP. "I meet people who really need help. The Cottonera area has its social stigma, but the problems in the first district (Valletta, Flo- riana, Hamrun) are also there and less visible. I have met people with little aspirations or who are in precarious employment, and when I see their children I just ask myself what kind of future they will possible have. My kid is 3 now, and she has all the love and help she could possible need. And when I see these kids, that's when I say that I am pleased I'm heading into politics, to work for these people." Farrugia singles himself out as someone whose political ambi- tion is to make parliament his second home come the next election, and here we broach the issue of salaries for MPs and ministers. They must rise, he says, otherwise the game will be run by businessmen and lawyers with safe war-chests. "Salaries make a difference. You need a worthwhile remuner- ation that attracts the best minds. The Gonzi administration went about it the wrong way because the salary increases were made behind people's backs. Labour capitalized over the issue. But Muscat has proposed a special- ized committed to analyse what politicians need and what they deserve. I think Labour over- stressed the 'negative' of Gonzi's salary increase, and for now, we cannot move forward on this is- sue. But I think the committee should start discussing the issue of remuneration." Neither has Muscat done him- self any favours by allowing former parliamentary secretary for the elderly Franco Mercieca to retain his surgery, in an excep- tion to the code of ethics barring ministers from private employ- ment. "I think he had to choose. You're either going to serve your coun- try or your sector. And I think the latter is where Franco's forte was [Mercieca is a specialist oph- thalmologist]. I think a politician has to be full-time, accessible to the people, and one who retains a work-life balance… you can't be an MP with a legal practice in the morning, constituency visits in the afternoon, and parliament in the evening." Again I ask whether Muscat and so many appointments of Labour activists to boards, com- mittees and other public com- pany boards, has only fed the im- pression that the state's coffers were opened up to the select few. Take MPs who serve as chairmen of government companies; don't they double up as the much-ma- ligned parliamentary assistants Gonzi created in 2011? "Parliamentary assistants used to do nothing. They were created so that MPs could take an addi- tional salary home, while today we have part-time MPs chairing public companies. Money has been saved by having no parlia- mentary assistants and instead having the MP's income supple- mented by being of service to the country." Farrugia however says that much of the criticism about La- bour's meritocracy pledge, ig- nores the realities of political ad- ministration. "Every government needs people it can trust, espe- cially in sensitive entities. Now with the Central Bank, the MFSA and the NSO, these sensitive posts were retained by incum- bents," he says as he digresses to recent revelations of employees leaking data to the Opposition. "I worked with the NSO for years, and it would have never crossed my mind to be disloyal to my em- ployer. But that is also why cer- tain positions have to be manned by people of trust." So we turn to his €50,000 post as CEO of the Freeport regulator. "Yes I was handpicked," Farrugia says, ready to engage in an expla- nation. "In my position, government is putting logistics forward as one of the sectors the country wants to see growing. The government needs not just somebody who is competent – and at 35, believe me, I don't want to fail in this role but have results that speak for themselves – but also some- one who shares its vision to drive the sector forward. And that's what I am doing, reviewing Free- port legislation with my minister (Herrera) for plans for a free- Interview By Matthew Vella maltatoday, SUNDAY, 1 NOVEMBER 2015 Politics is his calling How are going to decide who our politicians will be? By going on Kalamita to talk about haemmorroids and giving out legal advice? ON ELECTIONS He will have a future in Europe, possible getting a real portfolio in the European Commission or leading the S&D or the Party of European Socialists ON MUSCAT'S FUTURE