If we are to agree with Abraham Lincoln’s statement, “Democracy is the government of the people, by the people and for the people”, then it is we, the people, who need to speak out loud when we realise that our democracy is failing because the rule of law is no longer adhered to. The social doctrine of the Church emphatically states: “In the democratic system, political authority is accountable to the people.”
What we have been witnessing these past few weeks both with regard to the fraudulent disability racket and the driving licence scandal is clear proof that we are living in a democracy where the rule of the day is ‘corrupt practices’.
For our prime minister to publicly state “That’s the way the political system works” when asked to comment about the driving licence scandal, where ministers and public officials helped people pass their tests, shows that we have lost our moral compass and, this, with the blessing of those in authority.
Blaming the political system for any malpractice is simply living a lie as Václav Havel expounds in his book The Power of the Powerless. We cannot go on living this lie – that all is well. It was, indeed, shocking to hear our prime minister defend the indefensible.
Rather than condemning what had happened in Transport Malta he defends the corrupt system and promotes it. “If anyone is saying that this should not apply for this country, I disagree,” Robert Abela asserted.
Where are our moral principles? Where are our norms and values which we are expected to abide by in a democratic Catholic country like ours? In their book How Democracies Die, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt state: “All successful democracies rely on informal rules that, though not found in the constitution or any laws, are widely known and respected.” They go on to assert that “when norms are strong, violations trigger expressions of disapproval ranging from head shaking and ridicule to public criticism and outright ostracism. And politicians who violate them can expect to pay a price”.
When this newspaper exposed in detail the driving licence scandal one would have expected our authorities to condemn it and promise that such malpractices would stop at once but, no, not in Malta. On the contrary, our politicians in government bragged that they were serving the people.
No wonder that Levitsky and Ziblatt comment that “one of the great ironies of how democracies die is that the very defence of democracy is often used as a pretext for its subversion”. The malicious act becomes a service to the people. What an irony.
It is time for our politicians to take heed of what the social doctrine of the Church states: “It is from the moral order that authority derives its power to impose obligations and its moral legitimacy, not from some arbitrary will or from the thirst for power and it is to translate this order into concrete actions to achieve the common good”.
We cannot go on living this lie – that all is well- Ray Azzopardi
The Church goes on to affirm that “among the deformities of the democratic system, political corruption is one of the most serious because it betrays at one and the same time both moral principles and the norms of social justice”. Have we got to wait for another scandal to be exposed by the investigative journalists of the Times of Malta before we, the people, stand up and vociferously proclaim that we want to abide by the rule of law?
The Malta Employers’ Association didn’t mince its words when it responded to the prime minister’s reaction to the driving licence scandal. “The prime minister’s pronouncement,” the MEA stated, “is a radical invitation to anarchy which encourages individuals and businesses to bypass what should be established and trusted structures to either get fast-tracked to obtain what they are eligible for, or worse, to acquire entitlements which they should never have at the expense of others.”
Not only do we need to abolish such systems if they are giving rise to corrupt practices but we also have to insist that, unless things are done legitimately and in an open manner, there is no hope that the government is going to have our backing.
These fraudulent acts should make us, as a people, ponder why they are occurring and what means should be taken to, if possible, eradicate them completely.
Havel gives us some inkling as to why society, gradually, starts losing its moral fibre. He states: “A person who has been seduced by the consumer value system, whose identity is dissolved in an amalgam of the accoutrements of mass civilisation and who has no roots in the order of being, no sense of responsibility for anything higher than his or her own personal survival is a demoralised person. The system depends on this demoralisation, deepens it, (and) is, in fact, a projection of it into society.”
It is only the voice of the people – our voice – that can bring about the desired change in our ‘corrupt political system’. If we fall into the trap and give in to illicit means to achieve our desired ends, then we ourselves are promoting the corrupt system. We become synonymous with the system.
As Havel asserts: “We confirm the system, fulfil the system, make the system, are the system.”
Ray Azzopardi is a former headmaster.