Judging by recent polls, it looks like significant change in Malta’s politics is unlikely in the immediate future. The change that so many say is urgently required appears to be elusive.
But this is by no means a fully accurate picture. Significant change is already underway and there is little that the government can do to stop it. Malta’s politics are now firmly in the spotlight locally and internationally and this reality offers not just hope but also expectation.
Change is now a Maltese political buzzword. Gone is the catchphrase “change and continuity”, replaced instead with “now all has changed”. But the challenge remains – will that change be purely cosmetic and superficial or real and substantive?
The government and the Labour Party are travelling at speed up a cul-de-sac and this is evident to all but the most hardened party faithful. Our country is politically, economically and environmentally broken and no amount of political spin can change that.
While the storm clouds have gathered, there are important signs that signal hope.
Malta’s greylisting by the FATF and its blacklisting by the British government, with the subsequent downgrading of the country’s outlook by ratings agency Moodys, are but one such cloud.
To counter these developments, the government is being forced, often grudgingly, to effect real change. Regulation, enforcement, institutions and key personnel are already changing in response.
In turn, and quite rapidly, this will have a growing impact on the darkest dimensions of Malta’s financial sector, thus jettisoning key aspects of the ‘Muscat’ economic miracle.
At another level, so much sleaze and criminality have been exposed in the past few years that no government (no matter how far ahead in the polls) would dare go to the country with an election slogan ‘more of the same’. In the wake of the public-inquiry report into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, change will be the next election buzzword.
The once unassailable Muscat/ Mizzi/Schembri brand has become a liability instead of an asset. Current and past members of the government are working diligently to distance themselves from that brand but inevitably not everyone is fooled. The current cabinet remains hugely compromised and is visibly struggling with its inner conflicts and demons. Political cracks are becoming visible and these will grow apace.
Caruana Galizia’s murder was intended to silence not just her but also critics, inquisitive journalists and the independent media. Just a few short years later, its effect is the exact opposite. Attempts to muzzle real journalism have failed; independent local and international analyses of Malta, its economics and politics remain active and robust.
In the absence of a political opposition able to threaten the government’s hegemony, civil society organisations and NGOs have stepped up. Despite constant attacks, these organisations continue to monitor, critique and campaign on a host of issues pivotal in a functioning democracy.
Crucially, environmentally inspired opposition to current policies and practices is deep and growing rapidly and now embraces critics and activists of all political hues. Church structures, local councils, mayors, local residents and Malta’s vibrant environmental movement have become increasingly effective in promoting change.
Change is already underway in Malta; it is as inevitable as it is unstoppable
Political polls seldom capture the inner thinking or turmoil of citizens faced with traditional loyalties alongside increasingly negative realities. Evidence already exists of a sizeable demographic no longer satisfied with Malta’s traditional binary politics.
Rather than shrug our shoulders when confronted with a broken democracy, arguing that there is little that can be done, it is time to engage with the change underway and amplify its impact.
Change is already underway in Malta; it is as inevitable as it is unstoppable. How we each relate to that change is a matter of personal choice.