Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1197486
12 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 5 JANUARY 2020 LOOKING FORWARD 20 20 8. Repubblika's challenge The civil society NGO looks set to transform into a political party in January, in what could upset the applecart for the PN. Repubblika has grown into an organised entity with a strong appeal to disenfranchised Nationalists who do not see eye to eye with Adrian Delia. Whether Repubblika can widen its appeal and rock the political establishment is uncertain but it will definitely put PN exponents who have cosied up to it in a difficult position. 9. Euro 2020 The Euro 2020 finals will start on 12 June with the opening match seeing Italy face off against Turkey. For a whole month, we will be regaled with a feast of football but this time there will not be a single host country. Games will be played in 12 cities across Europe with the final and semi- finals being played at Wembley Stadium in London. 10. Brexit The UK will leave the EU on 31 January but for the next 12 months, negotiations will be held to determine the future relationship Britain will have with the bloc. The UK will head into uncharted territory as will the rest of Europe. Uncertainty will impact Malta's economy but this will be contained, according to a recent study released by the Central Bank of Malta. Adrian Grima HAVING all the right institu- tions, all the right watchdogs and authorities, and trying to make sure they do what is expected of them is fine. But it won't necessarily fix our re- public because institutions are run by humans. And humans both shape, and are shaped by culture. And culture, as Helen Spencer-Oatey has said, affects behaviour and interpretations of be- haviour. We do need to rethink the mechanics of our republic because in some cru- cial ways they have failed us big time. But one of the issues we have been fac- ing since Independence, for over half a century now, is essentially cultural. "To really understand a culture," writes Spencer-Oatey, "and to ascertain more completely the group's values and over behaviour, it is imperative to delve in- to the underlying assumptions, which are typically unconscious but which actually determine how group members perceive, think and feel." What kind of underlying assump- tions have allowed us to get into the mess we're in? The convenient partisan blame game won't help. It never has. Independent Malta has invested heav- ily in education. Many more Maltese people than ever before read, study and travel abroad. We know all about the mistakes other countries have made in their de- velopment model. And yet we have chosen to em- brace an eco- nomic mod- el based on rabid d e v e l - o p - m e n t and the commodification of everything. This savage model is ruining our qual- ity of life. You will find all the details in the reams of environmental and social impact assessments gathering dust on the shelves of the authorities meant to protect us from the sharks. Our current Minister for the Environ- ment has patronisingly warned us to steer clear of "false nostalgia" when we protest about overdevelopment and the stranglehold of interest groups. That's very convenient. What we're talking about here is quality of life. For everyone. Whoever they are. Wherever t h e y LET me ask another question: what is the Republic? The most obvious platitudinous an- swer would be: "We are the repub- lic". But then it becomes pertinent to ask: "Who are the 'we'?" The cliché the original question in- volves is evident if one then asks: "What is it concerning 'us' that needs fixing?" MaltaToday's invitation to address the question asked us to consider it in light of issues that concern "public life in Malta: parties and financing, broad- casting, the electoral system, the courts and police, good governance in minis- tries and the public service." But this reflects a middle-class bias which, somehow condescendingly, presumes that our concerns and issues are the issues of the Republic simplic- iter... That other members of the Re- public may have other issues which they would – rightly – prioritise in terms of fixing: issues concerning the inability to make ends meet of a size- able chunk of the population; the con- crete possibility some members of the Republic face of ending up homeless when their lease terminates; the ero- sion of the spaces where many o f us live; and, if 'the Republic' is also made to include people who come from abroad and who are contrib- uting to the Res Publica through their work and activities, issues that concern their vulnerable legal sta- tus and, possibly, that of their loved ones... is excluded a pri- ori. So since (perhaps in my wishful thinking rather than in actual fact), for various moral, political and religious reasons, I would like to think of myself as supporting these most vulnerable members of our Republic, I would an- swer the question "How do we fix the Republic?" by suggesting that wages and welfare are increased substantial- ly, that measures are adopted to curb the price of rent, that public spaces are defended and enhanced, and that the rights and well-being of people who are vulnerable because they were not born on our islands are safeguarded. Reforming ministries and the public service, regulating party financing and broadcasting, changing the electoral system, and dealing with problems that concern courts and police will, in itself, achieve nothing in relation to such is- sues. Still, though not the most important issues on the Republic's agenda, mat- ters concerning the financing of politi- cal parties, broadcasting, the electoral system, the courts and police, good governance in ministries and the public service, are important and also need to be addressed. Here, however, I do not want to discuss in details what I believe ought to be done (for instance regard- ing party financing, I believe that there ought to be limits to the donations or sponsorships an individual or group may contribute to a party; that a law be enacted so that broadcast- ing outlets are forced to dis- close the individuals or groups that own them; that magistrates and judges are appointed following an examination rather than by politicians) or what I consider to be non- starters (like the silly idea that to prevent corruption, the sala- ries of politicians ought to be heftily popped up, as though corrupt politicians take bribes out of poverty! What I would like to point out is that any institutional reform, though necessary, will not be suf- ficient for good governance. That unless a number of circumstances are addressed on the ground, cir- cumstances that concern features like the clientelist culture which has been dominant on our islands for centuries; and others that concern the economy (both at end where people are scrap- ing a living and at the other end where people are competing for a tender – political patronage is advantageous if not indispensable)... any top-down re- forms are bound to fail. Michael Grech teaches philosophy at the Junior College of the University of Malta Michael Grech