Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/874823
14 For many years, AD-The Green party was regarded as 'the new kid on the political block': a small political movement attempting to force a radical shake-up of Malta's traditional bipartisan system. That perception may now need to be redefined. Other parties have since joined the fray, and AD itself has been rocked by a number of poor electoral performances. Some even question whether it can continue to survive in the long term. Dr Cacopardo: what is your own take on AD's situation? Why is the party's outlook so grim at the moment? The reason for AD being in its present situation is that it has not focused sufficient attention on its organisation. AD has developed its political platform, to such an extent that it has considerably influenced all other political parties, as well as the national agenda. But due to the fact that it has been internally allergic to organisation, it has not devoted enough time to its internal party structures... in order to have its members, and those sympa- thetic towards the party, working round the clock to garner support. That is what politics is about. Po- litical activism is dependent on or- ganisation. And unfortunately, my predecessors focused a lot on polit- ical platforms... which bore consid- erable fruit... but not enough time to developing an organisational structure. In the three months since the election, we have been analysing and discussing this; I have already been deputy chairman for a number of years, and I have already set in motion the process of addressing this issue. Obviously it will take time... nothing is done overnight. But we have started ad- dressing the issue... When you say 'we', who are you referring to exactly? 'We' means the officials of the party. The present officials, and those who will become officials in future. Because there is continuity from one set of leaders to the next... Isn't that part of the problem, though? You yourself were deputy leader for a long time before assuming the leadership; the same was true of Arnold Cassola before you. Admittedly there have been new faces from time to time... but the core of AD has remained more or less the same for years now... I can't agree. I myself was an out- sider when I joined AD... That was a long time ago, though... It was nine years ago. There is al- so an internal regeneration within the party... Is there really, though? From the outside looking in, I haven't seen much evidence of regeneration over the years... That's because you haven't thrown the spotlight on the evi- dence. We had the youngest can- didate in the last election. I don't think it's fair not to acknowledge that. Obviously we are a small party; we don't have the large num- bers... yet... But that's why I'm asking the question. You say it's 'obvious' that AD is a small party. Why should it be obvious? AD was founded in 1989, and almost 30 years later it is still swimming in the same electoral waters. Why hasn't the party substantially grown in all this time? As I said, we've suffered from an organisational problem. And we are determined to address that. I have already set the ball in mo- tion... Meanwhile, there are also questions surrounding the core identity of AD. When it started out, AD was very much an environmentalist party... at a time when (let's face it) some of the concepts you were talking about were alien to Maltese politics. Times have however changed since then: now, all parties are at least aware of 'the environment' as an issue. This surely creates new challenges for AD... Of course it does. The other par- ties pay lip service to the environ- ment. There are a number of issues they address; and a number of oth- ers which they ignore, or address in the opposite way they should be addressed. But AD has not just been an environmental party. En- vironmental issues are the core of AD as an ecological party. But there are also issues of governance, accountability, transparency... and also civil rights. They could be de- veloped much further than they have been so far. But it takes time to develop things. One must also remember that we are working in the context of a very conservative society... Well, that's another thing that's changed since 1989. Society is nowhere near as conservative as it used to be... It's changing, true. One example was the divorce referendum cam- paign [in 2011]. That was a turning point in favour of what I would call 'ethical pluralism'. The divorce ref- erendum was the loudest declara- tion so far that things are changing. Obviously, the focus on the day was divorce; subsequently, it moved on to issues of civil rights: particu- larly issues related to gay rights. It can move in other directions, too. Change creates an appetite for more change... It also creates opportunities for small parties. Larger parties tend to be wary of minority issues, because there is a danger of alienating their grassroots. Small parties don't have that problem... they can attract support by being outspoken on unpopular issues. Is AD looking to capitalise on the changes Maltese society is going through? And would that include changing any part of its core identity? I don't think it is an issue of chang- ing the core identity. It's more about developing the message. The message can be developed further, as I've already said. One of the is- sues that needs to be addressed is the call made earlier this week from the youth Parliament on the need to discuss abortion... Traditionally, that issue has always been used as a political weapon against the party. When you say abortion is 'one of the issues to be addressed'... how does AD intend to address it? I think we need to ignite a na- tional debate. This debate needs to be ignited on the basis that Malta is a country which has ethical plu- ralism. This means that there are parallel sets of values: what's ac- ceptable to you is not acceptable to someone else, and vice versa. That leads to the corollary: is it right for the State to take a decision on your behalf? Or should it be pos- sible for you yourself – affected by a particular decision – to take that decision? I think that is the train of thought that needs to be further developed. In fact, one of the arguments that was raised in the divorce referen- dum was: if divorce was introduced, it would lead to ethical pluralism. And that is in fact what happened. I think that is healthy. At the end of the day, ethical pluralism means respecting the opinion of others. It's useless to talk about 'freedom of expression', if you then try to sti- fle ethical pluralism... On issues like abortion and euthanasia, however, the discussion is bound to be constrained by the fact that Malta has very draconian laws... The laws are not as draconian as they are made out to be. For exam- ple, one of the things that is often said is that it is not possible to have an abortion even when the moth- er's life is in danger. That is not correct. In fact, there are medical procedures, in use even in Maltese hospitals, when – under the guise of something else – abortions do occur. But it has to be hidden... Yes. The point is, there is a hypo- critical facade.... a hypocritical fa- cade behind which everything is happening. So what are described as 'draconian laws' are practically toothless. When one sees the UK statistics for persons coming from overseas to carry out abortions... and adding to them the possible numbers of those who go to Sicily... I have been informed that the num- bers are much higher than those in Finland: which is the most liberal state when it comes to abortion in the EU. This means that we have a problem. It has to be addressed through proper public discussion... AD is often – to its credit – the party calling for public discussion in Malta. Yet it remains under- represented in public debate. Do you think AD is deliberately excluded from, for instance, the media? Of course. We are continuously left out by the media. Often by the independent media, and by the political media only when it suits them. Because when it does suit them to give us coverage, we are headline news. Obviously, it de- pends on us to make ourselves as relevant as possible. But the party also appears to be entirely absent from the media circuit. Other larger parties have their own newspapers and stations; AD lacks the resources to compete in that sphere. Also, AD has to date resisted the lure of Interview By Raphael Vassallo maltatoday, SUNDAY, 17 SEPTEMBER 2017 One of the things I tell my colleagues is that we cannot play in the Premier League, when we are equipped as a fourth division team. We need to upgrade ourselves at all levels A fourth division team in When one sees the UK statistics for persons coming from overseas to carry out abortions... and adds the possible numbers of those who go to Sicily... This means that we have a problem. It has to be addressed through proper public discussion ABORTION ORGANISATION