Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1270964
10 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 19 JULY 2020 OPINION Kurt Borg A truly democratic civil society is our only hope IS there no such thing as soci- ety? No there isn't, Margaret Thatcher had famously said in an interview with Woman's Own magazine in 1987. This statement marked a culmina- tion of neoliberal politics, where competitive individualism and market logics permeated all spheres of society, privileging business interests and harming community ties. A key question to be asked is how speaking of 'society' can be politically and progressively mobilised in such a way that it is rooted in neither an exclusion- ary discourse of national identi- ty, nor in a neoliberal capitalist realism. In the current political climate, both locally and globally, to speak of 'community', 'collectiv- ity' or 'social group' has become ridden with the danger of this discourse being used to justify xenophobic sentiments, or to be seen as promoting potentially divisive identity politics. Any fo- cus on mutually exclusive iden- tity groups, indeed, serves to hinder democratic debate and contestation. This is why it is important to protect and defend the idea of civil society, or at least clarify its meaning, which is an often-mis- understood notion. Civil society is that crowded space between government, the business sphere, and the do- mestic sphere. It is a space com- posed of various democratic organisations beyond the realm of the state itself. Civil society is an important basis for dem- ocratic politics since it secures the possibility to contest prac- tices of power, lobby, holding politicians and public officials to account, and to stand for free- dom of expression in the public sphere. Philosophers and social the- orists, ranging from Aristotle to Hannah Arendt and Jürgen Habermas, have all defended a notion of the public sphere. They regard this social space as an important realm where the individual can voice their con- cerns feel part of a community, and ultimately flourish in socie- ty. While some theorists speak of a nation-bound civil society, others call for a pan-European and global public sphere. It is very important that the discourse and practices of civil society have been at the centre stage of local politics, particular- ly since the Panama Papers saga started. The so-called Civil Soci- ety Network and other organisa- tions have been instrumental in mobilising people to protest due to the various outrageous and scandalous revelations that have haunted Maltese politics in the last few years. While the efforts and politi- cal activities of such organisa- tions are to be applauded, it is also important to recognise the dangers of styling oneself as the representative of civil society. These organisations face crit- icism when they appear to hi- jack 'civil society' and to present themselves as its 'face'. While this criticism is often made by those who want to discredit any civil society ef- fort that attacks their favourite party, some of this criticism is valid and justified. Many peo- ple still feel uncomfortable with having someone like Ma- nuel Delia being perceived as a leader of such efforts, who many simply regard as an Aus- tin Gatt protégé. I am not saying that a person with a partisan background should be automatically ex- cluded from civil society efforts. However, such efforts suffer when the public perception of them is that these protests are organised by the 'usual suspects' (disgruntled sympathisers of a particular faction of the PN), who behave and speak in an elit- ist and classist manner, and who propound an image of Daphne Caruana Galizia which several disagreed with for a variety of reasons. Therefore, it is unfortunate that so many of the civil soci- ety protests have been solely spearheaded by the same or- ganisations. A better strategy to mobilise people is to diversify the speak- ers and include other civil so- ciety organisations not as mere supporters of the protest but as full organisers. For civil society to be true to its name, it needs to capture the variety of voices and the different reasons why people would protest, and not seek to augment a homogeneous under- standing of civil society. Indeed, civil society constantly needs to reflect on its own mechanisms of exclusion in order to become fully democratic. Now, I am not presenting this criticism to undermine past and present civil society efforts. To the contrary, I strongly be- lieve that, as the Ombudsman summed it up, it was an organ- ised civil society that brought down a very powerful adminis- tration. Malta lacks a lively cul- ture of protesting: some people are still afraid to show up at protests lest they face personal repercussions, while politicians (including the current Prime Minister) described protests as provocations, and Tony Zarb (a supposedly left-leaning un- ionist-turned-consultant to the OPM) called women protesters prostitutes. As scandal after scandal has been revealed, a dangerous aura of normalisation has been creat- ed, as if it is normal that people in office create highly suspicious off-shore financial structures; as if it is normal that politicians can be dangerously friendly with dodgy businessmen; as if it is normal that a politician does not resign unless they have to leave office to be dragged to prison; as if anything goes. Besides the financial and po- litical price of corruption, the post-2013 administrations have dangerously used the "tagħna lkoll" discourse to discredit any critical opposition. A rhetoric of loyal servants and traitors was continually bandied about, and even in the lowest political moments, few Our politicians have made a joke of institutions, procedures, décor, political debate and partisan politics. This is what will continue to dominate the political landscape if it is not for a strong democratic civil society