Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/785757
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 12 FEBRUARY 2017 News TIM DIACONO LAWS should be enacted to safe- guard politicians from "uncalled for intrusions" into their private and sexual lives, according to the parliamentary secretary for plan- ning, Deborah Schembri. In an opinion piece for the Times of Malta, Schembri warned that the "constant breathing down politicians' necks" over their pri- vate lives is discouraging people from running for political office. "Is it in the public interest what Kama Sutra positions our minis- ters are capable of contorting into and whom they decide to indulge with in tantric pleasures?" she wrote. "We are all human; we go through life making mistakes and, hopefully, learning from them as we go along. We are not perfect, none of us, politicians or other- wise. We have pasts and we have histories, marriages that went wrong, messy love stories, feel- ings we shouldn't have but can't control. We're humans, we're not machines, none of us have spot- less private lives, and no future person, politician or otherwise, will either. "If we keep this up – this con- stant breathing down politicians' necks when it comes to private life – no one will be interested in giving their services to their coun- try." "The time is ripe for this country to enter into a serious discussion about this matter. Laws should be enacted to safeguard politi- cians from uncalled for intrusions into their private and sexual lives. Much of what is written about politicians is meant to catch the attention of the masses or provide for their distraction from impor- tant issues, providing fodder for the eight o'clock news. But there's much at stake, and realizing it quickly and doing something about it is very much in the public interest." Schembri was writing in the wake of as-yet unsubstantiated allegations by blogger and Malta Independent columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia that economy minister Chris Cardona had visit- ed a brothel while on government business in Germany. Cardona has vehemently denied the charges, has sued Caruana Galizia for libel and has requested that the courts slap a €45,000 garnishee order on the blogger to ensure she pays up if she loses the case. Schembri threw in her own two cents as to why the story has proven so popular or – in her own words – "got the country's hor- mone levels up". "All it takes… is one blogger backed by a few sordid politicians and fewer still behind-the-scenes movers and shakers frantically clicking away on their laptops and raising hell about an alleged sex scandal. "Anything sexual throws peo- ple into basic-instinct mode: they can relate to it. Some do because, no matter what kind of fuss they make about it, no matter how horrified and in awe they seem when they hear details of sexual bravado or secret sexual encoun- ters, they've probably been there and done that and secretly thank whatever god they believe in that they didn't get caught," she said. "Others relate to it because they understand that nothing cries 'hu- man' like 'sex'. It's our reason for being in this blessed world in the first place and some surely think it would be a great way to get out of it too." 'Schembri admitting that Cardona went to a brothel' – PN MP Schembri's comment sparked criticism from the Opposition, with Opposition MP Claudette Buttigieg arguing that Cardona's alleged brothel visit is in the pub- lic interest because it was made when he was on an official visit and that he lied about it. "All politicians and people in a public position are subject to public scrutiny and should set an example in society," she told Mal- taToday. "People who have things to hide should not be in public life. Deborah Schembri's statement to- day sends a different message than Chris Cardona's. It seems that she is admitting that he went to a brothel, but insists things should be kept private. "We want to increase scrutiny, not decrease it – Schembri's is the second step after Cardona's gar- nishee order, and it is clear that our government is in a moral free fall, down a very slippery slope. Our democracy is now threading on dangerously thin ice. People are shocked and very angry, and they expect us to behave better and make tings right again." Nationalist MEP Roberta Met- sola also criticised Schembri's call, arguing in a tweet that it is in the public interest to know if a minister visits a brothel, pays vul- nerable women and lies about it. Front Against Censorship ac- tivist Ingram Bondin tore into Schembri's comments, arguing that public scrutiny into politi- cians' private lives may be justi- fiable because their private lives could impact their judgement on public matters. "A deliberate confusion is be- ing created between the intrusion in someone's private life and the fabrication of a story about some- one's private life," he wrote. "It is my opinion that the press should offer no comfort to this unde- serving political caste, especially to one which has made a virtue out of complete unaccountabil- ity. Instead it should prepare for a relentless attack on freedom of speech which will undoubtedly contain further restrictions in addition to those being presently mentioned in public." Junior minister calls for laws to protect politicians from intrusion into sexual lives, PN hits out Deborah Schembri