Playing Games With Democracy

Maltastar   

   

 

The state of health of democracy in Malta is precarious. As I have had opportunity to explain in my article Funding Politics of two weeks ago, the financial and power structures of the two political organisations is very much weighted in favour of the PN government and against the MLP opposition.

We have reached the critical situation where our own tax money and public funds are being used to protect government’s extended hold on the ropes of power. Tax money is used to feed the other cells in the power network of back scratching. These well fed cells then continue to support the political cell. The unconditional support extended to the government by certain sections of the supposedly independent press and by certain opinionists who contribute thereto, gets compensated by lucrative publicly funded supply contracts for imaginary consultancy and PR services.

“No space is allowed within MIC for anyone who might have any doubts about Malta’s place as a full member of the EU.”

 

 

Last week the games being played with democracy stooped to unthinkable low levels. Following the formation of a totally government appointed election commission, following the cat and mouse games being played for changes to safeguard the integrity of the electoral register and the process of fair elections, we sunk even lower by the government’s and its appointees’ disregard of the directive of the Malta Broadcasting Authority (MBA) whose task it is to keep at least some semblance of balance in public broadcasting.

Consider these facts. The government official policy is to get Malta into full EU membership as quickly as the EU will permit. To achieve this aim it set up several structures including MIC (Malta EU Information Centre) whose task is to give information about the EU in the context of membership. MIC is handed generous public funds to perform this task and it is staffed with staunch pro-EU and government supporters. No space is allowed within MIC for anyone who might have any doubts about Malta’s place as a full member of the EU.

Being a democracy the opposition in Malta has a right to hold different views on the EU issue from those of the government. It consequently pursues different policies. It is fully within its rights to do so. Various discussions were held by the Opposition with MIC seeking to allocate part of the funds it receives from government for promoting the opposition’s view-point that a special relation with the EU is better than membership. MIC consistently refused arguing that its terms of reference constrain it to allocate its funding strictly to promoting the membership option.

It is quite immaterial whether the information given by MIC is factual or biased. I have had enough experience to form an opinion that it is biased in its conclusions and skims slightly over the disadvantages tending to reduce their significance through promulgation of developments which have yet to occur, whilst advantages are over-emphasised without considering the reality that as the EU changes many of the advantages will dwindle as fast as the Lm100 million promised before the election by none other than the Head of MIC himself.

“Why should the Opposition be made to finance its own spots when the Government’s spots are financed through public expenditure just confounds“

 

 

What really counts is that there are two viewpoints on the matter and the public has a right to hear them both with an intensity commensurate to the parties’ representation in parliament or in the electoral polls. Only thus can the electorate be in a position to decide its future relationship with the EU on an informed basis.

Having made no headway with MIC and after spending nearly two years of useless negotiations leading to nowhere the MLP takes its case to the MBA, a national authority meant to protect balance in public broadcasting. The majority of the members on the Authority are chosen by government and the minority are chosen or nominated by the Opposition. In spite of acknowledging the imbalance the MBA offers a remedy through new debate programmes which in reality aggravate the imbalance. In a rare occasion of public split the Authority’s decision is carried by the Chairman’s vote as the Board is evenly split on the matter. The logic of the decision confounds whoever still has a modicum of respect towards the need to keep a balance in public broadcasting and not allow it to become just another tool in the weaponry of government to perpetuate its hold on power.

The Authority’s Chairman asks not be re-appointed, hopefully to come to terms with his conscience, and instead a retired Chief Justice is appointed as Chairman of the Malta Broadcasting Authority. Within a short space of time from his appointment the new Chairman reviews the case and, as right and reason need no force, agrees to give a very partial remedy to Labour to allow 1/3rd of the time slots on public broadcasting to be produced by the MLP at its own expense and to be transmitted on TVM, the public broadcasting TV channel.

“If the EU are serious about admitting only members with clear democratic credentials then Malta would probably be shown the red card “

Why should the Opposition be made to finance its own spots when the Government’s spots are financed through public expenditure just confounds me. Why the allocation was only 33% when Labour got 46% of the electoral vote in the last general election also begs for an explanation. Why no compensation for past one-sided publicity was given also remains a question mark. But one-third is better than nothing and Labour agrees to adopt the decision whilst maintaining its reservations.

 

 

TVM, with government blessing and the open support of the Prime Minister, defies the MBA directive and refuses to air the Opposition spots on the flimsiest of excuse. They maintain that as MIC pays for their spots so should the MLP.

TVM seem to be forgetting that citizens pay them annual license fees and demand the right to be impartially informed. TVM is no private station with its own editorial policy. I don’t expect Net TV to air the MLP spots though it would be a good sign of political maturity if they reach a deal with Super One TV to cross transmit both points of views while maintaining their editorial line.

But TVM has no editorial line except the impartiality demanded from it by the constitution and by the fact that they are publicly funded by taxpayers’ money. Once the MBA gave it a directive, which costs it not one cent to execute, TVM have no business in thwarting the rules of democracy.

If the EU are serious about admitting only members with clear democratic credentials then Malta would probably be shown the red card. But don’t expect the EU to even think of this. The PN are serving the EU’s interest well in seeking quick membership which inevitably leads to loss of our sovereignty and enhancement of the organisation’s own sovereignty.

There is a time when games have to stop. If the government insists on continuing to play these games with democracy then the Opposition has to consider seriously whether it should continue to lend a hand to the government’s claim to the world that over here we have a functioning democracy when in fact democracy is not functioning.