Opinion - George M. Mangion| Wednesday, 23 January 2008

Democracy for sale

As voters have gone back to their normal work routine following the Christmas holidays they are a bit weary from the incessant bombardment of pre-election promises.
Traditionally voters are afraid of losing what is theirs by right and are always seeking to get the utmost from whatever or whoever is the party in power.
Now, as part of the EU club no effort is spared to make most of the eligible funds. With equal gusto voters sense that it is a jolly good time. A time when doors are opened to greet smiling faces and our mail box works overtime with unsolicited spam. It would appear that both major parties would soon be inviting us to social events overjoying us with generous, free or highly subsidised food and drink.
Voters are grooming themselves to be flattered and cajoled. There will be fanfare in the streets, endless political debates slotted by Where’s Everybody? on the state-financed TV station and mass meetings mimicking a never-ending samba festival.
So will 2008 see more of the same of what preceded the election in 2003?
In essence we hope that voters have reflected wisely and will avoid the spin, mirrors and smoke. Rest assured that memories do die hard. Constituents will look back, take stock of the situation, examine each party’s weaknesses and judge if rumours of sleaze and mismanagement are real or just pure scaremongering.
In the final analysis voters plumb for the next team of politicians to lead us or rather manage our taxes. Naturally, our perceptions for the next five years are overwhelmingly conditioned by our peculiarities arising out of our insularity within a densely populated and over-built island.
A lot depends on the way floating mid-stream and first-time voters react to the siren songs coming out of Pieta and Mile End. Notwithstanding the fine oratory and rhetoric, political candidates can only toe the general party dictum.
With an election looming vividly over the horizon, now expected early in Spring, the political parties are fine-tuning their propaganda machine to fire on all cylinders. No expense will be spared by rival parties to lay the ground for a victorious electoral campaign.
It is now an open secret that fat cats (read contractors and property magnates) are wooed for their generous donations. Favours need to be cashed-in. Cash registers will be oiled for maximum use but please expect no fiscal receipt. Is this right? Is this democracy dressed on a silver plate for the highest bidder?
Seasoned political observers want to see a law to govern and regulate political donations. This should broadly encompass regulating the financing of parties. In Britain we read about political scandals where favours in high places (peerages) are allegedly exchanged for cash by the ruling party.
We have no law and therefore no scandals!
Yes, political war chests are not a modest piggy bank but cry out for thousands of euro to satisfy more demanding electoral campaigns. Most donors, or shall we say the high rollers sive ‘fat cats’, remain shy .They pay their respects. All they ask when giving ‘alms’ to deep-lined party coffers is that no questions are asked. Some hedge their bets by filling more than one pot.
More reason to come clean and eradicate any suspicion of patronage. A law giving timely disclosure of audited party finances is overdue. Another aspect of fiscal morality is the policy to start paying back millions of tax arrears. The timing cannot be more propitious. Purists do complain that using taxpayer monies to attract votes betrays fiscal morality. This lofty creed dictates that a refund is payable regardless of whether an election is round the corner or not.
But life goes on and we shall see more sweeteners offered to the public as E-day approaches. Who pays for all this? It is not the mundane ‘door to door’ euro collection or subscriptions, which although help, yet do not add up.
Almost one million euro was the bill for the PN 2003 general election campaign. I imagine the MLP’s campaign was not any cheaper either. Not a whimper of protest from well-heeled party sustainers. While bi-polarity reigns in Malta it is an open secret that both parties occassionally run into deficits. Running a political party and financing its echleons plus a TV station is no joke. Treasurers don’t make ends meet by just reciting ‘ Hail Marys’.
Party volunteers do make their time available for free yet other professional staff have to be paid. Is this the price to pay for democracy?
Just like a surreal dream, power momentarily returns to the common people. Paradoxically the party cronies attribute so much power and adulation to political idols. A reality check instantly tells us of their limitations. Only empty promises fill our hearts with hopes of quick fixes.
Thank God that discerning voters don a second skin impervious to political spin and deception. Their survival instinct, honed over the years, leads them to weigh wisely and to refuse to be hood winked or to easy accept hullabaloo and hot air. They are the crown custodians and they decide who will be the next party in power.
Nobody can tell for sure when the starting gun for elections will be fired. Who wins in this tug of war? What are the odds?
Only the ballot box will tell, although both parties keep results of regular popularity polls close to their chest. Optimists herald 2007 as the year of atonement - the entry of euro. Last year exposed many reasons for us to look back with a sense of accomplishment and gratitude and to learn our lessons from past mistakes. An island - unmistakenly branded as the tinest EU state.
But is 2008 projecting to be a stressful year after all?
Not really. Look on the positive side and let’s meet the future with fortitude. Afterall democracy is not for sale... not yet!