Offending Democracy in the Name of Democracy

6^th October 2006

The Malta Independent - Friday Wisdom

There are all indications that the government is keeping its options open when presenting the budget for 2007 later on this month, that it could well be the last one before the next general election.

Not that this is a constitutional requirement as the election could be held in summer 2008, leaving calendar space for another pre-election budget this time next year. But the rumblings and the posturing indicates that the government is planning a juicy budget on the expectation that if we make the grade for joining the euro in January 2008 it could slot a general election in autumn 2007, making the euro issue a main platform that distinguishes the two main parties, hopefully pushing into the background other bread and butter issues about which the government earns no stripes.

Even the hard-core grass roots of both the main parties seem to be gearing swiftly into election mode. The attendance at the PN festivities to mark the Independence celebrations has been much larger than any other held since the last election. These manifestations are mostly aimed to keep the troops warmed up for the approaching challenges and the size of the crowd in no way reflects the popularity or otherwise of the party at national level.

The same can be said of Labour’s telethon collection on the same day. It has surpassed handsomely the amount collected in similar events of recent past held in September when many families are hard pressed with extra expenses to prepare their children back to school. Again, this is sort of preaching to the converted and is no reliable thermometer of how the party is faring at national level.

Elections come and go and the question of how political parties, the main instruments for the practical execution of democracy, fund themselves remains obscure. We have learnt nothing from other countries whose societies really prize living in a true democracy in order to bring political party funding under the spotlight. If not in the control of the amounts which are donated or “lent” to the parties at least in the level of disclosure of such donations or loans.

It is odd that whereas our two main political parties rarely agree on anything, on the question of their financing they seem to agree fully to keep them out of the public eye as much as possible. It is particularly strange that the Labour Party seems happy with this situation when it is clear to all who can add two and two that the PN is enjoying a great advantage on availability of financial resources.

As a minimum, those who truly believe in democracy should push for radical changes in the way our political parties finance their activities. There is no question that the normal running expenses of large political parties like the MLP and PN requires substantial funding which is hardly covered by membership fees, fund raising activities and genuine small donations through telethons. Financing elections, especially general elections, involves a bill that runs into the hundreds of thousands of liri and could even reach millions if the individual political expenses of the candidates and their “friends” are added on.

Surely democracy needs formal safeguard to see how this funding is being procured. We need safeguards to ensure that there are no strings attached and that such funding is not conditioning our political parties to restrain their freedom of execution of the political mandate they win, for which they should be responsible only to the people and not to their financiers. Otherwise, the basic granular principle of democracy that we are all the same and have the same democratic rights, which is expressed in the form of one-person-one-vote, irrespective of social status, becomes a mockery.

Otherwise, we will have a situation where our government is not chosen by the people through free execution of their democratic expression, but by commercial interests who invest their money in the political party that best protects their interest in order to create a more effective, and more expensive, media campaign. There is no question that modern society is influenced by appearances and perceptions skilfully delivered through mass marketing methods. Such methods could cover up own weaknesses and augment weaknesses of opponents.

Surely there must be enough influential people of goodwill who are prepared to take up the challenge to raise public awareness to the risk for effective democracy if political financing should remain shrouded in obscurity. Surely as a country, we ought to force our political parties to make full disclosure of donations in excess of a certain relatively small figure, to prohibit all loans other than those covered by a registered hypothec, and to have their finances audited by the National Audit Office to ensure compliance.

I appeal to H.E. the incumbent President and their Excellencies Presidents Emeritus, to take some initiative to pull the country out of its inertia and use the weight of their position to shed light on this dangerous obscurity. Otherwise, we will continue to offend democracy in the name of democracy.