Watch: ‘Break The System’ – PN MP Mark Anthony Sammut Calls For Radical Political Reform
PN MP Mark Anthony Sammut has called for a radical overhaul of Malta’s political system, including an end to party donations, state financing of political parties, full-time MPs and significantly higher salaries for ministers.
“Political reform must become part of what the PN represents,” Sammut said on Net TV. “When the people took to the streets to remove Joseph Muscat from office, I gave a speech stating that it is no longer enough to try and fix the system.”
“I said that since the system led to a murder [of Daphne Caruana Galizia] the time had come to break the system.”
He said that although the PN forms an integral part of the political system, it must ultimately be the party that destroys it.
“We must put an end to the donation system and introduce the concept of state financing to ensure that political parties don’t depend on third parties and can focus fully on the common good,” he said. “This is the PN’s official position as asserted in two General Councils.”
“We also require a full-time Parliament to ensure that MPs don’t need to rely on another job to increase their take-home pay or find donations for their campaigns.”
“Politicians deserve resources and good salaries, and the current salaries of ministers are ridiculous. We don’t want a system whereby the minister earns €50,000 but then tries to earn a 10% commission on every contract or tries to give his wife a €70,000 job so that he can keep up.”
Sammut argued that ministers deserve a higher salary than the CEOs they appoint, who often earn up to three times as much as they do. However, he said this should be coupled with enhanced scrutiny and accountability on public spending, so as to ensure ministers don’t misuse taxpayer money for their own benefit.
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