Local councils comedy

The more time passes, the more Sicilian we are becoming. Recently there was a revelation about the late Archbishop Gonzi and his attachment to the British tradition in Malta, and his disappointment that the British presence was disappearing at the time. Some aspects of our behaviour were then still inspired by the British tradition. Not that we have become European. We are simply becoming more Sicilian.

Let me not be misunderstood. By "Sicilian" I do not mean the great characteristics of Italian citizens who were born on that island, most of whom migrated northwards and established themselves in high places in alien cities, or made an international name for themselves in the arts. These are just a minority. By "Sicilian" I mean what an ordinary American would understand - tactics for tactics sake, hidden deals, tight lipped silence, and all the trappings to present a respectable façade.

Politics has also been infected. Gone are the days when there could be a straight fight on important questions. Now everything has been diverted towards other objectives. No, we are not really Europeans, we are Sicilians.

The recent episode which saw the Nationalist Party withdrawing candidates in two local council elections smacks absolutely "Sicilian". When this happened I was abroad, and only got to know the details later in the week.

A few days earlier I had been listening to speeches from the government benches applauding the Nationalist Party for having taken the initiative to set up local councils, spread democracy, bringing government to the people by the people, and all those slick slogans which, in theory, may appear sound.

Only a few days passed and there was a tactical move. Whatever may be said in Sicilian fashion, this was a tactical move for the Nationalist Party, which did not want to have any contest in the local council elections of Marsa and Zejtun.

The truth

The truth is that the Nationalist Party forgot all the principles that in an election for a local council, the citizens have a right to choose not only between candidates from one party or another, but also between individuals in the same party.

The truth is that although the façade is that of the citizens administering their own community (even though in a restricted way), the idea behind local councils was that politically it could serve as a thermometer of political favour or its opposite. One should recall that the Nationalist Party had jumped on the local election results of 1998, and started calling on the government to resign because the result went against the MLP, then in government.

Now the Nationalist Party knows its approval ratings more than people suspect. It does not want to admit that the machinery that it created should prove that it is in a minority. There is no other reason why four candidates should have been withdrawn.

Take the case of Zejtun. There the Nationalists were definitely going to be in a minority. At most it would have elected two councillors out of nine. This time it was possible to have just one. Rather than take that risk, in a Sicilian fashion it was better to present the façade of withdrawal rather than suffer defeat.

But let us take the argument that the citizens have the right to choose their councillors on the single transferrable vote, one Labour candidate rather than another, or one Nationalist candidate rather than another. That choice for the Nationalists in Zejtun has been eliminated.

Percentages

Eliminating two important local councils with a definite majority of Labour votes, has another Sicilian aspect for the façade. When it will come to percentages of votes, only those votes cast will be taken into consideration, and for anyone who has an idea of averages it is clear that if you eliminate two batches of predominant red, the blues will not seem to be in a minority, or with the same margin.

This is typically Sicilian. The Nationalist Party wants to cheat itself into believing that it did not fare badly, because votes count. In Sicilian fashion, tactics have prevailed.

Whatever may be said, I do believe in not tampering with a democratic process, with all its defects. Once tampering starts, democracy becomes a game, and a dangerous one.

The Nationalist government, just two years old, may have another result which puts it "nationally" in a minority. People still remember the result of last year's local elections held together with the election for the European Parliament.

What Sicilian excuses are we going to have this year?