Category: Panamagate

Categories
Panamagate Politics

Sobering thoughts at a rally

sobering_akkuza

The Panama Papers affair is bigger than Malta. Much much bigger. The data leaked from the offices of Mossack Fonseca covers decades of information and has an effect on people worldwide. Rich people worldwide. The social and political effects are only just beginning to snowball and the high profile case of the Icelandic Prime Minister will surely not be the last by far. There is much that is surreal about this business including the fact that many seem to be surprised about the goings on in a tax haven state like Panama (and not just Panama). The informed citizen of today still has the capability of striking you as being somewhat naive about the truths of the world. It’s OK to watch your James Bond and Mission Impossible movies or read international espionage novels were money is ‘wired’ away at the touch of a button into secret impregnable accounts on the other side of the world but then it is suddenly surprising to find out that fiction has been mirroring reality all along and that foremost among the crooks are a band of money-crazy politicians.

The world wakes up once again (for the nth time) to the reality that the real conmen are those who are creaming off the luxurious part of our collective earnings while the normal citizen is being right royally rogered. It would seem that the banking and property bubbles were not enough and that just as we were beginning to understand the nuances of Hollywood’s The Wolf of Wall Street and The Big Short we were supplied with enough new stories to merit a marathon of docu-flicks. It’s a world-wide issue – from Brasil to New Zealand to Panama to Malta questions are being asked of a political class that has been caught short one time too many. Which brings me to Sunday’s national(ist) protest. I’d like to share some notes and thoughts that were inspired by the rally – before, during and after it happened. Here goes:

  • Panamagate has brought Malta to yet another important cross-roads of its political history. These litmus tests have been scattered over our relatively short life-span as a sovereign nature. to Once the consequences of certain decisions are calculated, once the effects are factored in and once a new beginning has been undertaken, history will show that there was a “right” and “wrong” side to the current events (with all the concessions that we can make to the subjective nature of such interpretations). There was an appeal to that feeling mostly by Marlene Farrugia with her battle cry (or shriek) of “Hawn jien” (Here I am) – emphasising that this moment is one of those times that people stand up and be counted. (Also emphasising rather ironically the obsession with “Fejn kont?” (Where were you?) that afflicts political debates that put much value into unswerving loyalty to beliefs – also known as the tal-Barrani Syndrome). Citizens have begun to understand the consequences of a lax polity that has no sense of merit, no intention of accountability and no respect for the common good. Those citizens are being called in action to halt the slide to mediocrity of politics. If for nothing else, Panamagate is serving as a huge eye opener.
  • Maltin Onesti. Maltin li jhallsu t-taxxi. The rally was inevitably tinged with a partisan flavour. The call of the party is difficult to suppress and Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici’s words flow through the veins of many who were eager to rekindle an enthusiasm that had for so long been dormant if not absent. Ejjew nazzjonalisti, ejjew bil-bnadar taghkom, ejjew bl-eluf minn taghkom, f’dis-siegha tat-taqbid. To be fair the effort to de-party the event was all there. The only flags to be seen were the red and white of Malta and the only hymn to be heard other than that posion for the ears that goes “We the people” was the national anthem right before the Leader of the Opposition spoke. So far so good. What jarred ever so slightly were those calls for honest tax-paying Maltese that seemed to be an appeal to create a dichotomy between good and evil that is ever so present in our political discourse. The greatest risk was that this self-arrogation of purity and righteousness would distract from the real message. After all there was no need to set such a high standard for the crowd – it is not the moral and righteous standard of individual citizens that is being questioned here but the dealings of a minister of government, the PM’s chief of staff and the PM himself by vicarious responsibility (until now). It is not the case of “he who is pure throw the first stone” – that is the wrong lesson to impart to the crowd. This is all about accountability in a normal liberal democracy where the people, taxpayers and all, have the right to call for the dismissal of a Minister caught in circumstances such as Mizzi’s.
  • That is really the point of it all isn’t it? There is a sense of inevitability about the fact that Mizzi and Schembri will eventually resign. That sense of inevitability is inspired by the simple reason that their position became untenable from the moment that they chose to set up a financial structure as has been discovered. There is no need to find money or treasures, no need for tax audits, no need for declarations, no need for any of all this. The mere fact that they thought of using a structure that can only exist to keep something hidden (whether in the past or in the future) is enough to make them unfit for any purpose that requires public trust. Our Prime Minister knows that his position only gets worse every day that he does not take action on the matter – and when I say worse I do not only mean among those who attended the national protest but also, as is becoming increasingly obvious, among his own supporters.
  • There is a reflection that is hard for the nationalist party to swallow. It must be made. We did not get to the national protest on April 10th thanks to anything that the nationalist party has done. The huge mass of people calling for the ousting of Mizzi and Schembri (and Muscat) were there because of a much bigger series of events that began when somebody signing off as John Doe offered to pass on a huge amount of sensitive information to a journalist working for the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The Panama Papers have exposed the inadequacy of key members of our government and to this day threaten the very existence of the government itself. What about the PN? The PN was already on the road to recovery – its proposals on Good Governance in less suspicious times were a good start. It could not but try to take the lead on this matter and as a responsible opposition it is pressing for immediate action. In doing so it must be wary of sensationalism and of the trap of falling into the old political game. The people are fed up with politicians trying to take them for a ride. In 2013 the people handed Muscat an incredible majority exactly because they felt they could no longer take the arrogance of the nationalist government of the time. Questioning their choice today becomes a futile exercise if what is offered as an alternative to the current mess is more of the same.
  • The main lesson to be drawn here is that the nationalist party must brush up its act if it is preparing to lead with New Politics. New Politics means not being drawn into the partisan mud-slinging game by Labour’s diversion tactics. It also means building up on ideas and strengthening the values it represents by showing that it is a party with a national interest at heart and not a self-serving machine of the kind that is now anathema to most voters. To prepare for this it must already think beyond Panamagate because if the events ahead are truly inevitable and foreseeable then the PN must be prepared with a project of its own and also be prepared to listen to those who for too long have been sent to the margins of politics and who have ideas of real reform that could revolutionise the landscape. Yes, the PN might have to be prepared to become a smaller but stronger part of a renewed political landscape.
  • As for Labour. Labour was not present at the national protest. We were regaled with a national conference brimming with Soviet Style optimism and standing ovations. Konrad Mizzi was one step short from being awarded the Soldier of Steel Medal (but that is usually awarded AFTER you lose your place) and his failure to bear responsibility angered quite a few of the Labour delegates and MPs. This turmoil is just the beginning for the labour party. The Taghna Lkoll philosophy has failed and not just because of Panamagate. Panamagate served as an eye opener to uncover the many things that Labour has been allowed to get away with until now. Ahead lie battles for the soul of the party and do not expect the current power circle to let go lightly – there are too many interests involved. There will be blood – of the political kind as Chris Cardona would say.
  • One last word on the media. The nationalist party committed a horrible faux pas by conflating the Jason Azzopardi libel case. The crowd outside the law courts was a throwback to the medieval era, that same medieval era where Chris Cardona’s rhetoric belongs. Doorstepping irritating journalists aside there is something extremely worrying about the state TV’s reluctance to properly report the daily changes in Panamagate. Also worrying where the calls from the Labour corner of the crowd to somehow stifle any international coverage or reporting of the situation. It would seem that there are still exponents who rue the absence of a law on foreign interference – even Chris Scicluna was targeted for sending a factual report to Reuters about the national protest.

I’ll stop here for now. We’ve got weeks ahead of more exchanges and more information to discover. We are definitely living in interesting times.

Categories
Panamagate Politics

Here come the doorsteppers (I)

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Politics has reached a shallow point in Malta. We’ve all heard that phrase by now. Trust in politicians on the island has gravitated towards the same low point as has been shared for a long time and for different reasons on the rest of the continent. We’re slightly delayed – it has only just begun to dawn on a large part of the population that “the Game” has nothing to do with power and that the alternating race to mediocrity is only destined to produce more of the same, but different. At the same time as this great realisation is happening – within the confines of cliche’ ridden appraisals that your average citizen is capable of – there is still a strong pull towards the partisan DNA that is, much to the chagrin of Andrew Borg Cardona and Charles Mangion, programmed into the vast majority of the voting population.

It’s not just Konrad Mizzi who is afflicted by the mysterious “internal conflict”, it’s all bona fide “partitarji” on both sides of the political chasm. Labourites cannot believe that their government is coming so close to repeating the short stunt under Sant… one mega-crisis and it’s all over. Deep down they all see the horrible error in Mizzi’s ways, even they understand that the Energy Minister’s position is untenable but they are loath to admit it. The pull of the party is too huge and trumps all. The Nationalist party card bearers also have a dilemma of their own. They’d love to see the back of this government but they are still not 100% convinced that their own party is good enough to lead and many have still not understood the modus operandi of Simon’s politics.

The time would have been ripe for reasoned debate centred around reform and improvement. Politics, particularly party politics, is in the doldrums. Anyone with a brain between their ears could tell that the sell-by date of mediocre politics is long past. Reasoned debate and rational argument are what the doctor ordered – it’s the right medicine for both parties internally as well as for our institutional set-up. Rational and reasoned debate requires information and an exchange of ideas and programmes with the best for the country being the ultimate goal.

What we have got instead is the return of the non-political exchange. Politics with a big P has been thrown out of the window and the machines of spin are out all over again because as soon as a moment of crisis brings the faint glimmer of a possible election round the corner our parties do what they do best – entrench and send out the soldiers: in this case one important element are the “doorsteppers”.

It’s not a new breed of political animal. The latest morph on both sides are Mario Frendo and Nicole Buttigieg. They are sent to the enemy lines in search of the soundbite that can be processed and fed into the propaganda machine. They form part of a wider circle and game played by the politicians themselves who hide behind feeble excuses, half-truths and word games to destroy any possibility of debate. We’ve seen them before. Joseph Muscat was one of them himself. Ministers and shadow ministers on both sides of parliament began their career as doorstepping journalists of sorts, as did some of our MEPs. I remember one of the earlier morphs of these doorsteppers in the form of Simone Cini who shadowed Eddie Fenech Adami all the way to PN mass meetings provoking the worst out of the worst.

It’s weird. Even the language of the two parties switches away from real meaningful essence and we now hear of accusations of “fascism”, “return to the eighties”, “stifling of speech” and more. The nationalist party brouhaha about the use of criminal libel was surreal for example for it really begged the question “What did you think of criminal libel in the 25 years that you were in government?”. Someone from the Independent did bother asking Marthese Portelli only to get some long-winded non-reply based on “just look at the good things we have done in those years so please just ignore the way we looked away from any possible reform”.

“Concentrating on the good we did” seems to be the new karma. Konrad Mizzi is magically oblivious to his textbook case of “things not to do unless you want to lose your position as minister”. He still thinks that it’s a conspiracy by the PN to remove what he believes is the best performing Labour cabinet member and nothing more. Aside from the fact that his own admission of naivety should suffice to make him lose any possibility of sitting in ANY position of public responsibility, his excuse seems to have gone down as sufficiently plausible with the rest of the PL crowd. Now he’s probably on his way to being anointed as a soldier of steel.

So we are down to looking at the doorsteppers. Planted in the middle of crowds who have the collective political nous of a football hooligan they will “interview” and provoke for the sake of getting a snapshot of the worst of the worst of the opposite party’s supporters – oblivious all the while to the fact that they could very well have sampled someone from their own inner circles with very much the same results.

… to be continued

Categories
Corruption Panamagate

The Price of Time

the price of time _ akkuza

Take a step back. Try to disentangle your brain from the bombshell of Panamagate as it unfolded in Malta. Now take a look at Prime Minister Muscat and his reaction to the whole business over the last seven weeks. In Malta Panamagate came early, probably prematurely. Konrad Mizzi got an early warning of the dangers to come when Caruana Galizia dropped some hints about the information that had come to her possession. “The lamb for Easter would come from New Zealand” was the coded message that set alarm bells ringing in Mizzi’s head. Mizzi had been handed an unexpected advantage – unlike the bigger heads that were to be shaken on the night of Sunday 3rd April he had been handed a lifeline from the quarters he’d least expect. Mizzi and Muscat had been gifted a precious amount of time to work on a defence.

Time. That’s the point here. Timing was crucial and every minute gained to work on the alibi was worth a mountain of gold. Nexia BT, Brian Tonna, Keith Schembri, Kasco, Panama, New Zealand, Adrian Hillman, more Konrad Mizzi. The news trickled out slowly as Caruana Galizi’s blog turned gatekeeper of the leaked information for a period of time – at least until the international bomb would explode thanks to Süddeutsche Zeitung and ICIJ.

This gift was a godsend for Muscat and Mizzi. We were regaled with the “declaration of assets”, the “family planning” and the “full collaboration” stories. Muscat could sit and watch and do what he does best: gauge public opinion. Better still he could shift the goalposts of assessment. It would no longer be about the existence of a structure using jurisdictions that have a notorious and shady reputation. It would become a case of whether money would be found in Panama or New Zealand. Muscat would skilfully manipulate the discussion until the question of Mizzi’s suitability as minister (and Schembri’s as Chief Advisor) would hinge only on whether any corruption could be proven.

It’s not the point really. Put simply both the Minister and the Chief of Staff should have resigned the moment it is was clear that they set up companies in dubious and shady jurisdictions. Whether there is any money to be found (and so much time lapsed till the international machine would actually be set in motion that it is doubtful whether any money would have stayed put so long) is irrelevant. The Panama Papers have shown that. Once the news was out, politicians the world over were slammed with big question marks on their head. The responsible politicians among them have already borne the consequences. And Konrad and Keith?

Konrad and Keith had the benefit of time on their side. The parameters of the discussion had already been shifted with the artful use of propaganda and party machinery. The question had already become whether or not any money would be found. Muscat had managed to shift it all to the far-fetched finding of a smoking gun. One wonders whether Konrad and Keith would have survived the onslaught had their names figured for the first time along with the rest of the ICIJ releases and not a good seven weeks before.

Which is not to say that both Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri are out of trouble. In any decent democracy they would already have been long gone. A decent Prime Minister would have distanced himself from members of his entourage who opt to create such structures in dubious jurisdiction for whatever reason and with whatever intent. He’d do it for his sake and for the sake of his party in government.

Muscat still needs to buy time. The rumblings within his own party must not be comforting. The Süddeutsche Zeitung journalists claim to have “several weeks” of news to release so the Panama Papers are not going to vanish overnight. The more politicians abroad fall thanks to these Papers the more pressure there is on Muscat and Mizzi’s “alibi” regarding the mythological hidden millions that are supposed to be hidden or absent.

Muscat needs to continue to buy time as he has done in previous scandals – notably the Manuel Mallia issue – the bonus time that he was graced with thanks to the early release of the information in Malta has run out. Now that the Panama Papers scandal is an international hot potato Muscat might find that buying time will become more costly. Distraction tactics, mud slinging on the opposition and fact twisting all have an expiration date.

He probably knows that when that time runs out he might find that the writing has been on the wall all along… that Mizzi and Schembri’s position is untenable and delaying the inevitable is disrespectful to the electorate that put Muscat into power, including those who tried their luck for the first time.

Next time they might not be too audacious.

Categories
Panamagate

No flowers in Panama (II – fertile soil)

panamaII_akkuza

So the national protest against corruption is at three o’clock. That gives me ample time to feed you a few more thoughts and even to stop for a pasta al ragu’ half way through.  Much has been said about what the protest is for. Much more about whether the nationalist party should really have the gall to protest in the first place given their “record on corruption” (insert varying degrees of appreciation as to what constitutes proven corruption). Cassola’s AD have taken the PN to task for daring to call the protest “national” and, I assume, for hogging the limelight in this case. The Independent has just put up Daphne Caruana Galizia’s take on the issue and – just from the headline mind you – it would seem that hers is an appeal for the good of the nation to come out and protest the doings of the evil. There was also much fomenting and discussion on the social networks, particularly from the corner of the “Civil Activists” – an interesting new breed of politician or activist if there ever was one – about the issue. Theirs did smack a little of the Podemos/Cinque Stelle type of calling that is popular on the continent at the moment – riding high on the waves of disillusion that are reserved for the whole political caste.

So what is the man in the street to do with all this? At times like this I wish I had an eidetic memory and I could recall the conversation between the Commie Artists who kidnapped Clooney’s character in the Cohen Brothers’ movie “Hail Ceasar!” (fantastic by the way) which I only just watched last night. The bit of the movie I’m referring to brilliantly parodies the high-brow discussion among “activists” intent on bringing down the latest detested social order – in this case capitalism with a big C. Clooney’s clueless character tries to assimilate their ideas for his own purposes and ends up discussing the virtues of shaving a fellow actors’ back with a razor before being bitch-slapped back into reality by the Studio Chief a few movie minutes later.

Unfortunately my memory is only turning for the worse so you’ll have to go check out the movie itself. The man in the street though. What of him? At times like these the protest option might make sense to more people who are “disgusted” at the way politicians are managing the affairs of the state. The anti-politician sentiment is high and the theme of anti-corruption hits home hard. Aside from the partisan call, a national manifestation of discontent at the way things are going (and have been going) is just what the doctor ordered. To that extent you can understand the qualms that persons like Carmel Cacopardo, Arnold Cassola or the “civil activists” had about going to such a manifestation once it became clear that the PN would be the main actor in the proceedings.

Yes, that argument is understandable insofar as it represents a refusal to exchange with a part of the body politic that not too long ago was associated with the ills that are being protested against. I am not talking about the trumped up analogies that we are seeing in today’s papers such as the ridiculous stories about Anne Fenech’s law firm’s Panama affiliations. The servants of misinformation would gladly serve the interests of Labour by pushing such non-stories to their front pages. After all Anne Fenech’s supposed failure was a declared income from declared work for government. She was not a minister, there are no Panama companies in her name or on her behalf, she was not involved in multi-million agreements that might raise the suspicion of illicit commissions.  The Anne Fenech allegations do not hold water and frankly only show the desperation of a Labour government clutching at straws.

There is something more deep rooted in today’s protest though than a mere excuse for partisan flag waving. The protest will gain real sense if it is taken over by different actors in society who want to pass a clear message to the political class. Never mind that it was called and organised by the PN and Simon Busuttil. The message is that change is needed, real change – a change that brings about an intense effort to tackle corruption head on. It is not just nationalist party sympathisers that should be out calling for that change. This is the moment for all those who normally sit on the sidelines of politics – either because they won’t dirty their hands or because they cannot be too bothered – to remind our politicians that the power they wield is one that is borrowed from the sovereign people. The message that should be coming out clearly from today’s protest is that the system that has allowed  corruption to fester our body politic must be changed.

The real meaning of today’s protest could have been, could still be, a clear message to those politicians who want to listen that the only way to battle corruption is to adhere to clear commitments to change the system that engenders and promotes it.

A soil that is fertile for corruption

purifying the soil

It is not too late to get this agenda going. It is not too late to force the agenda of change onto our political parties. For a long time this blog has felt that driving a wedge between the two parties would be the trojan horse that initiates overall changes to the system. That project has proven impossible because the odds are set too firmly against that happening. The truth is that a third party wold be attempting to work within the very system that is built to reinforce the distribution of power in a winner-take all mechanism while at the same time facilitating the creation of power networks. A third party has no chance. Let us take a step back and briefly look at how our government and parliament are formed.

The PL and the PN have built electoral structures around the 13 -district electoral system. Candidates are chosen and groomed in accordance to their district utility – the bigger the heavyweight the more votes can be attracted to the party cause. The candidates themselves have over time morphed into clones or robots with similar catchphrases, similar lingo and similar ambitions. Ultimately a candidate would aspire for first a backbench role, then a step up the ladder to a parliamentary secretariat and then hopefully the ministry and the inner sanctum of the cabinet. The higher up the echelons the more power to trade, the stronger you get in your circle of networks.

Above all this system is a mask that creates the illusion that there are actual policies that will be followed, actual roadmaps to be walked along and actual deliverables to be delivered. This is the packaging lie that is sold to the voter. There is even talk of a manifesto – a collection of promises according to which a party will govern. The truth is far from that though. The real groundwork is the weight that can be wielded in your district, even as you climb up the ladder via backbench, secretariat, ministry, the truth is you are still gunning to please your powerbase – that is how people like Silvio Parnis become politicians – they are good at pleasing powerbases. Occasionally you will get a fluke favoured by the leader who is clumsy at the district level PR but will still get votes because he is pushed as a star candidate.

All the effort that is required to get into parliament involves also deals with “support structures” – businessmen, canvassers and lobby groups.  These will hang around after election having bought themselves a pass into the network of power. That same power that is distributed without any care for values, principles or real roadmaps. In the case of PLPN the end of ideology mattered little for the structures were in place to keep feigning a liberal democratic alternance. No need to be socialist, democrat or whatever – the us and them atmosphere made us all forget the complete and utter absence of vision.

How do we change all this? Off the top of my head I can think of a few basic constitutional/electoral changes that would revolutionise our parties and our politics by forcing them into a new mindset. here goes:

  1. The removal of districts from national elections.
  2. The introduction of party lists elected on the basis of proportional representation into parliament (with a minimum threshold of between 5% and 7%).
  3. The introduction of technical ministries with ministers chosen from outside parliament but accountable to parliament.
  4. (A corollary of 3) MP’s who become ministers should resign their place in parliament.

The idea is to topple the whole vested interest idea on its head. A politician who aspires to become a representative in parliament would want to be just that. A place in parliament is a place in the legislative and (through its committees) a place on the bodies that scrutinise the operations of the executive. Political parties would present their programme of government to the nation and be voted into parliament accordingly. It’s not who you’re voting for that counts but what you are voting for. Citizens would be obliged to scrutinise electoral promises more seriously and would be less concerned with getting their “champion” into parliament on his way to a superministry.

Proportional representation means that parliament is composed according to votes obtained nationwide and composed of members intent on being parliamentarians above all else. Technical ministries would allow for the appointment of people who are competent in their respective fields and not limit the pool to elected members of parliament intent on widening the gays for their district powerbase. A technical team of ministers is also accountable to the parliament in the fulfilment of the electoral promises made by the party in power – parliamentarians would fulfil their functions in that sense too.

Of course these ideas are just a start and I am open for discussion. The thing is though that implementing such a list of changes would require having a party on board that is already within the establishment. Getting a party like the PN, or hopefully even the rebel side of the PL that has had enough of what we have seen until now will require engagement and not distancing. That is why I disagree with the Cassola’s and Briguglio’s of this world who seem to believe that there is a hope for intiating the change from without.

It is time for the different forces of society who time and again have advocated the need for change and for reform to take the bull by the horns and to engage with the forces within the two major parties. The next step would be to get these elements of PN and PL on board and make these changes their own for IMMEDIATE implementation. It is the responsible, practical and probably, only way forward.

Protesting is not enough. Concrete proposals for change and obtaining the commitment of the current political class would be a giant leap forward. We know there is evil afoot. It’s no use crying about it or playing the happy revolutionaries, it’s more useful to engage and begin the change.

Categories
Panamagate Politics

No flowers in Panama (I – the seeds)

filpanama_akkuza

It’s Sunday morning and the nationalist party is gearing up for what it dubs a national protest against corruption. The Sunday papers are full to the brim with opinion articles, spin and (if you look really hard) factual reports about the issue that has a name: Panamagate. Over the week the men in Castille shifted through deny, downplay, riposte and finally deflect and distract motions. Nothing seems to work, and rightly so, because the issue is national, important and immediate. Mark Anthony Falzon’s column in the Sunday Times best explains why in the small picture Konrad Mizzi’s position is untenable. Falzon’s column can be added on to an earlier post in this blog explaining why even before delving deeply into Mizzi’s doings we could conclude that he was unfit for purpose. Mizzi, not Falzon.

I did say small picture though and I was careful when I said that. Don’t get me wrong, Panamagate is a scandal of gargantuan proportions. We are still coming to terms with the ramifications of what it all really means in terms of this government’s general program. Indian frauds and Azeri business deals have only just been brought into the fray while the feeble counter-ripostes from the government side have included reminders of how ex-Nationalist ministers (Ninu Zammit in particular) held millions in accounts abroad before being granted an amnesty by Joseph Muscat’s government. So yes, of itself and within its confines Panamagate is huge and insofar as the story of this bumbling government is concerned it should be a huge blow to its overall credentials for governance.

There is a bigger picture that we should objectively be looking at. It’s a wider look at the nature and workings of our body politic as a whole – beyond Panamagate, beyond the other PL government scandals, beyond the cases of corruption of ex-PN ministers that have come to surface and might yet surface. The bigger picture should be what the whole business of running our democracy is all about and understanding how it could be improved – not for the sakes and interests of the duopoly and a bit (I’ll get to that “bit” later) but for the sakes of a young Republic that needs renewal and revival.

Sunday’s protest is supposed to be a national one against corruption in politics. J’accuse is taking this cue in this time when trust in politics and politicians to take a wider angle look at what is happening, at how we got to Panamagate and the options of where we can go from here.

Getting to Panamagate

sowing the seeds of bad governance

Corruption. It did not start with Konrad Mizzi. It will not stop with Konrad Mizzi. At the heart of corruption is the misuse of the powers that have been entrusted in the hands of those chosen to administer the state on behalf of the people. This is, in essence, why and how corruption exists. Do not only see it in monetary terms – the pilfering of funds isn’t half the full story. Corruption is the abuse of trust pure and simple. It is the use of powers that have been lent to you in order to give, grant or allow things to people who do not deserve or would not have deserved such things had they gone through the right channel. Corruption is nepotism. Corruption is legislating as a favour for an interest group. Corruption is closing one eye. Corruption is abusing of the rules in order to get your way. Corruption is the conscious fettering of one’s discretion. Corruption is the creaton of networks that favour closed groups without transparency or merit.

The structures of a democratic state are intended to counter, as far as possible, the possibilities of corruption. Furthermore, when such preventive methods fail, the same structures should be able to counter with a remedy – investigation, prosecution and more. The Maltese Constitution, sovereign in 1964 and republican in 1974, was built around the concept of a sovereign parliament as inherited from our colonial rulers. It is clear from a reading of the constitution that with all the mechanisms of checks and balances in place, with all the power afforded to the head of state, the main engine of the system is the parliament. It may be fettered by a few absolute majority clauses but there is no doubt that parliament reigns supreme. The power of the people lies in parliament. It’s not exactly “if parliament wills pigs can fly” but it’s pretty damn close.

Over the sixty odd years of sovereign existence our parliament evolved into a two-party structure with more and more importance given to the main parties concerned. Laws were written, amended and “abused” in favour of this dual perversion – comfortable with the notion that if the world’s oldest liberal democracy can live with dualism then so can we. While China and Soviet Russia could work with the one party system (factoid: China actually has thousands of parties but only one counts) we developed a perverse system in which the constitution and all laws enacted would be subservient to the needs of the duopoly’s concept of power. Even notions of Equity and Justice had to be based on the notion of par condicio. The PLPN behemoth was born. Electoral laws would be drafted to ensure that as far as is humanly possible only two types of interests would be represented in parliament and the rest of the laws requiring political distribution would follow suit – government and opposition making up the numbers.

Many moons ago this blog was not alone among a movement of people warning that not all is right under the PN government. Our main argument at the time was that the PN government had lost its sense of purpose – from the 1987 calls of Work, Justice, Liberty to the 90s reconstruction and growth , to the push to join the European Union in 2004, the nationalist’s had a clear direction in their mind. They were driven with that purpose and their role in governing the country was underpinned by that purpose. Once Malta had joined the EU that sense of purpose and rive was lost. The PN was doomed to falter from then on. It’s unwillingness to engage on social issues would not be the first petard with which it would be hoist. The PN would fail to admit that the system that fed the two-party alternation was eroding the nation’s backbone from within. The next decade from 2004 would be spent with the Gonzi government suffering the rot that would ensue. Left to their own devices politicians without a cause beyond their district duties and obligations end up doing what they know best – peddling in influence and toying with power.

It is not surprising that the John Dalli’s and the Pullicino Orlando’s of this world were born under a nationalist administration. In a panicked attempt to hold on to the reigns of power the PN turned a twisted form of populist – hoisting upon the electors a pick and mix of politicians that were anything but while failing to see where the real remedy lay: tackling the source of our ills – the magnet of corruption that was our political structure of networks, friends of friends and die-hard flag wavers.

Which is when Joseph Muscat stepped in. On paper it was all promise of transparency, meritocracy and a battle on corruption. The sovereign power of the people was supposed to revert to the Maltese- Taghna Lkoll. On paper. Yet Muscat operated within the same parameters as had the previous government. Worse still the new Labour team has shown that it has no capacity for self-restraint. The trough was thrown out in the middle of the brand new Castlile square and the nation could only stand back gobsmacked watching the pigs feast on it day after day. Meritocracy? Spare me. Transparency? Say what? Corruption? Ouch. Muscat’s finely honed electoral campaign was meant to work under the current parameters of electoral mediocrity. Those same parameters encourage the development of corrupt networks of dependency and trading in power. In a twisted chicken and egg conundrum it became evident that in order to take a big slice of the power cake, the networks of dependencies and IOUs had to be in place BEFORE even getting elected. The government promising transparency, meritocracy and an end to corruption had set the mold for a corrupt system before it was elected.

Meanwhile, calls by (admittedly small) sectors of society to elect the third party into parliament and break the power mold fell on deaf ears. Most times it was derided as madness and as a failure to understand that the rules only allow one winner and one runner-up. Critics missed the point. They still miss the point today when they speak of the “need of redemption” for what was done by third-way enthusiasts at the time. It is only ignorance of the system and a blind affiliation to the idea of alternation that can foment such ideas.

In 2016 this blog will be among the first to say that the third way is not the way to break the system and change it. It cannot be any longer. Change must perforce come from elsewhere. more about this in the next posts. Keep reading. And you might still be in time to get to Valletta for the protest.