Sep 16 – Number Six: “It Is Hassan Nahon Who Should Apologise"
The Government says that it considers that the reaction of Indpendent Member Marlene Hassan Nahon following her exchange with the Minister for Education Gilbert Licudi is “completely exaggerated and over the top” adding that this is nothing more than a “deliberate ploy on her part to play the victim card and in this way cloud the real political issue at stake.”
A statement released this afternoon continued: “The plain fact is that Parliament is not a theatre or a debating society and politicians, however new, are expected to display a level of political maturity and a basic knowledge of reality. For many decades, both in this Parliament and in others, in Government and in Opposition, Members who are not on their feet and whose microphones are switched off have been known to have made aside comments.
“The truth is that Ms Nahon Hassan had insinuated that Minister Licudi was either misleading or, worse still, lying over an answer that he gave to Parliament on the topic of school meals. Ms Nahon Hassan stated as a fact that the Minister was saying something different now to what he had said some months ago. She would not accept the Minister’s word that this was not the case. Ms Nahon Hassan was clearly unprepared for the Parliamentary session, had not done her homework and had not consulted the official record of proceedings in Parliament before stating that the Minister had said something different to what he had said previously. The Minister had to read out the official extract of the relevant proceedings of Parliament in order to prove to Ms Nahon Hassan that he was not misleading the House because what he said then was in fact exactly the same as what he had said yesterday.
“It is a very serious matter for a Member of Parliament to accuse another of misleading Parliament. To do so without checking her facts and getting those facts wrong when a simple look at the record of previous proceedings would have confirmed that the Minister was entirely consistent in what he had said is inexcusable. It is therefore Ms Nahon Hassan who should apologise.”
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