Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/664438
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 10 APRIL 2016 15 happen, if we believe in it…" Therein lies the rub. Many people believed Gonzi in 2008, and many, many more believed Muscat in 2013. Why should we now believe Farrugia instead? In what way would her 'new way of doing politics' be any different from all the old ones? "It is different from inception. For the first time, all the people coming together to participate in discus- sions about politics do not come from any of the 'traditional' political backgrounds. I'm not at liberty to divulge names, but there are people involved in education, in sciences, in the arts… and no lawyers, yet," she adds with a laugh. Can she give us an idea of roughly how many we are talking about? "In terms of people directly contacting me, it's hundreds. But then we have call groups, too. In most cases, it's people looking for information, in- terested in getting to know who we are. Some people attended our first meetings, then never showed up again. It's not easy to put a number to it. Don't forget that this is not like a normal party… what we're used to is a bunch of leaders who decide things from the top down. This is different. I am first getting people together in groups, and the party is finding its formation in these meet- ings. It is through informal discus- sion that we're getting to know each other; and people can decide wheth- er they want to participate in the creation of this movement, or not." At the same time however, this as yet unborn party has already faced criticism, and not just from the two major parties. One example of the criticism is that the approach being taken seems designed to appeal to a broad church of different (and often contradictory) points of view… a groundswell movement that is unit- ed only in their discontent with the two parties, but otherwise fiercely opposed on many other issues… "I disagree that the only thing unit- ing the people is discontent with the two parties. There is also the desire for a different of way of putting poli- tics into place… not just in the im- agination, or in a manifesto, but in reality. People believe that things re- ally can be done differently. That is why the scientific input is so impor- tant to us… we have people who are used to approaching problems from practical, professional angles. As a dentist, for example, I have patients who come to me with problems. I have to diagnose those problems, and act on them. If I don't do that, that patient disappears..." In traditional politics, she quickly adds, the approach is often very dif- ferent. "With a parliament full of law- yers – no offence to them, but that's how it is – when we are faced with a problem, we discuss it, we debate it, we argue about it, we procras- tinate, we postpone… we have 45 minute speeches, which could easily be delivered in one minute… That's the kind of parliament we have. We don't want that. We want to get the views of experts, consult the people, and then act on the problem. This is also why it's taking us so long to form. We didn't want to do things just for the sake of saying 'we have a party'…" At the same time, however, this party can only realistically be formed from castaways from the two major ones. Already – and ad- mittedly unfairly, too – Farrugia's movement has been laughed off as a motley crew of rejects. In the ab- sence of any clear answer to ques- tions about the new party's iden- tity… isn't there a grain of truth to the criticism? "I see it completely differently. Everybody is assuming that, if this political force takes off, it will be something small. I don't assume that. Not because I'm a megaloma- niac…" Again, my facial expression must have given my thoughts away. No offence or anything, but it might sound slightly like megalomania, at least to some people... "I am not a megalomaniac," she repeats… with a laugh, but firmly all the same. "I meet so many peo- ple who are genuinely disillusioned, who want something different… that I genuinely think this politi- cal movement might not turn out to be the small party everyone ex- pects it to be. The way I see it, if we put our case across to the people properly, it might be a lot bigger than many expect. This is why it is clearly irking some people, who are already shooting us down. Because we can actually create the move- ment Joseph Muscat created, then destroyed because he didn't make it work. I believe we can make it work. We are starting on the right foot. None of the people who have approached us is doing it for per- sonal gain. They are all people who want to give something back to the country…" Viewed from that angle, Farrugia's big-time aspirations may not seem so unrealistic. Undeniably there is a widespread hunger for precisely the sort of change she outlines. But it doesn't follow that groundswell dis- content will automatically translate into support for the first new party on the block. Add to this the fact that Farrugia herself is no newcomer to politics. She has militated with both Labour and PN, and for this reason alone, many (on both sides) have already accused her of 'opportunism'. At the risk of repeating political propa- ganda, there has been an attempt to suggest that Farrugia's motivations are mostly personal; that, having failed to obtain what she wanted from either Labour or PN, she was left with no option but to start a new political movement… How does she respond to this criticism? "The truth is: yes, I am disappoint- ed by both parties. Yes, I did fail to get something that I wanted. I want- ed clean governance, transparency and meritocracy, from both parties. I worked for that. An opportunist is someone who stays in a party even when that party betrays the people blatantly and openly… as long as they get something for themselves. That is something I will never do." Interview It has already been dismissed as a flight of fancy… but could MARLENE FARRUGIA's new political movement really take on the two-party system where others have failed? PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD