Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1188980
17 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 1 DECEMBER 2019 INTERVIEW partly about. But to go slightly beyond your question, the problem of al- lowing big business a free run of the country has resulted in excesses that are pitting the very rich against the people, fattening the former and dis- inheriting the latter. This per- haps is what the Labour leader- ship should have kept in sight when evolving into a business- friendly party. Trickle down ef- fect or not, society is composed of competing sectors and, if left uncontrolled, the strong will always win at the expense of the less strong. I mean, isn't it ironic that the grassroots of the Labour Party, its genuine back- bone, should have to grin and bear the political baggage of the greedy rich and mighty? Meanwhile, the rise of civil society movements seems to be upstaging the traditional two-party model. For instance, the Nationalist Party's cancelled a mass meeting scheduled this Sunday, suggesting that it has been overtaken by events. Do you agree, and if so, what does this portend for the future of Maltese politics? Could this be the end of the two-party system as we know it? I find 'civil society' an am- biguous term in the context of current events. The protesters are a multifarious mix, includ- ing groups that rightly prefer to take their distance from politi- cians, like Graffiti, and doubt- less a number of unattached individuals with a genuine craving for clean politics. But at its core there are the fringe Nationalist groups, foremost among which Repubblika. As for the PN's cancellation of Sunday's 'national protest', the leaders of the ongoing pro- tests did not want Adrian Delia to use the current situation to rally all the Nationalists behind him. Having taken the initia- tive out of the hands of Delia's PN, the next logical step could well be to try and take back the leadership of the party. The schism that has beset the PN since the last election is an im- portant sub-plot in the current narrative, with the actual gov- ernment crisis acting as a cata- lyst. So as far as the PN is con- cerned the ongoing events may lead to a number of outcomes, including the formation of a second rival party. One also has to see what's go- ing to happen in the PL. As I pointed out earlier, its unity is also to an extent going through a vulnerable phase, though I wouldn't say it's fragile, es- pecially now that the causes of internal disagreement are easing. Anyway, we're still far away from an election, or so it would seem, so we don't know what would be the shape of the PN – or the PL for that matter – when the time comes. There has been a lot of talk about Constitutional reform over the years. On the basis of ongoing events, what do you think the most important changes should be? Does the electoral system, in its present form, promote a political patronage culture that makes corruption inevitable? And can a new party-financing regime lessen the dependence of political parties on big business, for example? Starting with the last bit of the question, I'm sceptical about the effectiveness of party financing legislation. The little legislation we have is flouted liberally, and anyway, business donors make their donations secretly, as only the beneficiary party needs to know they do- nated. As for the broader ques- tion of constitutional reform, some things do need looking into, because times have moved on since 1974. But the electoral system? At the heart of our constitutions since 1921, we have the Single Transferable Vote (STV). Iron- ically this was imposed by the British specifically because it was believed to produce a mul- ti-party system, as opposed to a two-party one. When the Brit- ish imposed STV on Ireland, the only other country that us- es it nationally, it produced the desired result. Over here it did so for the first years and then ended up producing two-party parliaments. Each time we had a new constitution, after a pe- riod of suspension, we'd start with several parties and even- tually end with only two. So in the final analysis, unless the parties currently represented in parliament team up to pro- duce a two-thirds majority to change that electoral system, it won't change. And why would they have an interest in doing so? As for patronage, I don't know that you can attribute it to our political system. Tell me there's no patronage in Italy. In Malta political patronage goes back in history to at least the time of the Knights. It did not disappear under the British. The state was always regarded as the succour of last resort. When we started to have our own elected governments, peo- ple started to turn to their poli- ticians for patronage, instead of sending petitions to the lieu- tenant governor. But there is hope; and it's got nothing to do with the consti- tution, but with a change of culture, however gradual. I'd say there's much less patronage today than there was 20 or 40 years ago. That's probably be- cause society is more affluent, hence people are less needy, and because the state occupies a less central part in people's lives than before. What we have in our times, and this brings us back to the current state of af- fairs, goes beyond patronage. What we have is inordinately strong business groups that are allowed to ride roughshod over the common good. That turns the patronage argument a bit on its head, because people are feeling helpless in front of these groups. Why, not even politi- cians' patronage is available to protect and empower them. There will most likely be a PL leadership election in the coming weeks, and the victor will de facto become Malta's new prime minister. What would you say is the most pressing task the new government will have before it? Obviously to eradicate all traces of corruption: which is to say, corruption in the broad- est definition of the word; to root out those elements and attitudes that corrupted the soul of the party, making it be- holden to the prepotent and the rich. As long as these con- tinue to wield influence, party and government will remain susceptible to the same pitfalls that have brought it to the pre- sent pass. Tied to this is the environ- ment, the greatest failure of this administration, amidst impres- sive economic performance, it has to be said. The elevation of business interests to a corner- stone of policy has given them free rein to seize Malta's com- mon birthright, from country- side to open spaces to heritage to shoreline to the very sun- light. Whoever gets to lead the par- ty must learn to put the people back at the centre of their poli- cy. If it plays its cards right, the Labour Party may yet discover that the present crisis will have been a huge blessing in dis- guise, a win-win opportunity to govern well and govern long. reckoning