Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/664438
14 POLITICAL parties may not al- ways be quite as entertaining as parties of the more festive variety. Both, however, are equally tricky to actually get off the ground. Long before even getting down to the logistics, there is the small question of what the party actually commemorates. That, traditionally, is the starting point of every new party. What are we celebrating, any- way? Or, in parties of the political variety… what does this party actu- ally stand for? It is usually here that the analogy breaks down. In years gone by, the question seemed simple enough. The socialists were on the left and the conservatives on the right. All that, however, seems to have shifted out of place over the years. Not only have mainstream parties largely lost sight of their original raison d'être… but judging by recent controversies, politics itself no longer seems to serve its traditional purpose. It is this situation, roughly, that Marlene Farrugia and I have been discussing prior to this interview at her St Julian's home. Immediately, a contradiction swims into view. Farrugia's plans for a 'new political movement' stem directly from the identity issues that plague the two major parties. There is evidence that a large number of voters – large enough to sway an election by a landslide – just no longer identify with the traditional 'Labour/PN' di- vide. Yet Farrugia's own party has so far not (apparently) come up with any clear identity of its own. How can it expect to gain the trust of the elec- torate, if as yet we have no idea what this party actually stands for? And for that matter… why is there so much need for a new political force, in a country that is already overflowing with politics? "First of all, I'm seeing an unprece- dented situation in Malta at the mo- ment. We have a party in govern- ment that won an election with such a huge majority, that you'd expect it to govern comfortably for at least 10 years. On the other hand, we have a party in opposition that, because of the magnitude of its defeat, would normally be expected to take 10 years to get its house in order. "What happened? The govern- ment which came into power with a majority strong enough to imple- ment those reforms – and let's not forget that is why this government was elected in the first place – has failed to implement the most im- portant ones. Yes, it has delivered on some promises of reform; its perfor- mance in some areas has been very good. But the overarching factor – which is good governance, transpar- ency, accountability, meritocracy, etc… – on these, the government has failed. And it failed big time…" Apart from the 'teething problems' that Farrugia – a dentist by profes- sion – expected, there was the fail- ure to actually do things differently. "I expected we would learn from our mistakes. Instead, things have dete- riorated. Scandal after scandal after scandal… But it's not just scandals. We tend to focus only on the big things, when for many people it is the little things that matter more. If you have someone who spent his or her entire life studying out of aspi- ration for a better future; and, when the times comes for this person to take up the deserved position… he or she finds that someone less quali- fied has been appointed as a 'person of trust'. These are things that, cou- pled with the bigger scandals, erode public trust in government… Is this a reference to any specific case? "It applies to a lot of cases I know. I can mention one example: at Arms Ltd, for instance, when applications for promotions were issued, people who were qualified – and had been preparing for the opportunity for years – found themselves bypassed in favour of less qualified appoin- tees. Apart from the fact that this al- so undermines the institution itself – by having less competent people in key positions – you will also have the demoralisation of a lot of human resources. Worse still, it devalues the currency of education. After all, how do people build a better future? By studying, learning, by getting an education. By disregarding this, we are changing the meaning of edu- cation… and this is very dangerous. This is why you hear some people reasoning that it would pay them more to get a job at a ministry, than a degree at University…" Panamagate, however, was the proverbial last straw. "We can all see that he [Mizzi] ac- quired a company in Panama when he was still minister… a minister who conducts massive transactions in the government's name… and the same minister who still hasn't published any of the government's energy procurement contracts. We're tired of calling for their pub- lication in parliament. Publish them, if you've got nothing to hide. Other- wise, you're only giving the impres- sion that you do have something to hide…" All this, she adds, gave the gov- ernment an opportunity to show off its clean governance credentials, as promised before the election. "It failed," she concludes simply. This leaves us with the Opposi- tion: and commenting about Farru- gia's political aspirations, PN leader Simon Busuttil seemed (at least, to me) to strongly hint that she should join the PN instead. Does she share that interpretation… and if so, what is her 'RSVP' to this 'invitation'? "When I resigned from Labour, Si- mon Busuttil came over to me in the House and suggested I sit with the Opposition in parliament. He didn't so much invite me to join the PN… he offered me a seat next to his MPs. I told him, 'I'll stay here for now; whenever you like, you can come and sit with me instead." He just stared at me, as if not understanding what I was saying…" I must be staring in much the same way, for she spells it out to me: "If I joined the Nationalist Party, I would have been taking on the baggage I had been criticising for a whole legislature when in opposition. Be- cause, even though Simon Busuttil is trying very hard to clean up the party... we all know it is not ready to govern yet. We all know it is not a credible alternative government; because it still needs to acknowledge its past mistakes, and then to work on those acknowledgements. I keep telling Busuttil to his face: when are you going to publish your party ac- counts? Because until you publish them, you are in no position to talk about transparency…" To be fair, the PN has set itself a target date of April 30… "OK, let's see. Let's hope he does it. Because until then, I can't believe what he says. That is why I do not see how, at this moment, joining the PN would be serving my coun- try. It's the other way round. I see many people, both Nationalist and Labour… or who think they're Na- tionalist and Labour; the difference is only down to a party tribalism that comes from another age – who quite frankly don't have anyone to vote for in the next election. You might ask, what about Alternattiva? AD has existed for 30 years now. Its core manifesto has been adopted by both parties; most of the things they wanted done, have been done. But as a party, it never attracted enough at- tention from grassroots to ever form part of government. So people are looking for a new political forma- tion…" Perhaps, but then we must ques- tion why they should trust Farru- gia's party over AD… when both share very roughly the same political platform: at least, on the issue of cor- ruption, governance, etc. Why would a new party be any more effective than AD in achieving what are ultimately the same politi- cal goals? "In politics, unfortunately, there is the issue of perceptions. AD has had its share of success as a party: many of the issues they have been promot- ing have been addressed, precisely because AD brought them to atten- tion. They have pushed a lot of their own agenda onto the manifestos of the two parties. That counts as success to me. Success in elections, however, is another thing. I don't want to sound unkind, but AD has suffered too many defeats. It is too firmly associated with loss… the perception has stuck." This brings us to the identity of the new political formation itself. So far, we still have no clear vision of where it will all lead. Farrugia has already pre-emptively warned that she cannot go into too much detail regarding who – apart from herself – will actually represent this party at the polls. But she has dropped hints as to its general political direction. She has described it as a left-leaning movement, which aims to attract mostly disillusioned Labourites… "Well, what I have been saying from the outset is that this move- ment will try and do what is right…" OK, but that is in itself rather vague… "Agreed. But until now, we have traditionally always looked at issues strictly from a 'for' or 'against' per- spective. Let's take immigration as an example. People are either 'for' immigration, or 'against' immigra- tion; either 'for' or 'against' integra- tion. When I talk openly with people who clearly don't agree with having refugees becoming part of our soci- ety, I explain to them that I am also 'against' immigration. I am against the forced displacement of people. I am against countries which instigate wars that cause mass evacuation of people from their homes. I am against huge industry – which has a budget bigger than any governments – which collectively causes climate change that displaces people. We all agree that we have to fight against immigration... but not by rejecting the poor people who come to us for help. We should tackle the cause, not the effect…" Fair enough, but that only rein- forces the earlier question. If you look only at what other parties say (as opposed to the policies they ac- tually implement when in govern- ment)… they'd all agree with her on paper. "That's exactly my point. What I'm harnessing from all the discussion that is going on is that we need to do politics in a different way… to think outside the box… I know, I know… you've heard all this before…" A few times, actually. This is Gonzi's 'new way of politics', all over again… "Well, I think it is about time we made it happen. And we can make it Interview By Raphael Vassallo maltatoday, SUNDAY, 10 APRIL 2016 I meet so many people who are disillusioned, who want something different… that I genuinely think this political movement might not be the small party everyone expects it to be SIZE We can actually create the movement Joseph Muscat created, then destroyed because he didn't make it work. I believe we can make it work BELIEF Starting on the right foot