During a recent radio programme, one of the speakers told this joke: a man, trying to impress a woman, told her that he was a politician and honest. She replied that she was a prostitute and a virgin.
This is a good starting point for a discussion on the nature of power in a democratic system, where votes and favours are too often transactions between individuals and voters, parties and funders, governments and investors.
This can be taken as a criticism of democracy itself but the alternative is much worse. Long ago, what we would call today a mafia boss decided to call himself a king. Anyone who objected was clubbed to submission.
Soon he wanted his son to succeed him, however incompetent he was; he decided that his ‘blood’ was better than other people’s. So he invented the concept of blue blood. Subordinate mafia bosses became aristocrats and that was that.
As an analogy: no doubt Donald Trump would like Ivanka to succeed him if the unthinkable happens and he were to pass away. Dynasties are born every minute, be they political or monetary.
History is one long story of one elite eliminating another elite and enslaving the rest. But human beings are not necessarily this bad. Sometimes, a society tried to put a stop to this system by placing a limit on the rule of one or group of persons and, at least, allowing the possibility of change through democracy, where everyone has a stake in the political power system. The American and French revolutions spring to mind. They virtually invented the concept of human rights. We take these freedoms for granted and rarely reflect on them.
Every voteris a lobbyist
In practice, two basic models have evolved: the American with a separation of the legislative from the executive and from the judicial; and the British system, where the legislative and executive are intertwined. Neither system has proved itself impervious to the temptationsof clientelism.
In the US, you have to be very rich even to run for power. This may sound contradictory in the age of Facebook and so many success stories of entrepreneurs. But, in reality, to spread your ‘message’ you need massive amounts of money. Adverts cost money. To acquire and retain power you need the lobbyists.
If you are not a Mike Bloomberg or a Trump you have to fund your campaign and promise favours to those with the money. Money and power are virtually synonymous in a capitalist system. The vast majority of politicians are the slaves of lobbyists. Children are gunned down in schools but the National Rifle Association is the biggest provider on the electoral money market.
In Malta, the situation is not dissimilar in practice, perhaps even worse. For every voter is a lobbyist. Perhaps because of size, most electoral campaigns of individual politicians succeed or not depending on the quid pro quo of getting my son a job – or I will vote for someone else, usually running for my own party or (if the needs are dire) even switch parties. Party loyalty itself is very often the result of a nannu having received a favour by someone in the past.
The cliental system is ingrained not just in Maltese politics but in the Maltese mentality. Ideology, or the image of what society should be like, takes less importance than practical matters. Is this inevitable, given human nature?
It is not the first time that a Keith has given a job to a Matthew. But this situation is indicative of a huge flaw in Maltese society: its education system.
It is no wonder that we are so low in the PISA scale given the lack of critical thinking skills of our population. We are, I believe, 10th on the prosperity index in the European Union and we would have a much better score if we were not so abysmal in education.
Would a critical society have voted for a man who used different yardsticks for different ministers? His level of competence in economic terms? Or if you had to judge the Labour government’s success on the basis of GDP or economic prosperity?
Do not get me wrong, creating prosperity is crucial to generating wealth before one can distribute it. At least, many people think so, especially if you think your happiness depends simply on your spending power.
The point is that consumerism rules, OK! A socialist party that confuses monetary wealth with real wealth, the wealth of the human experience, is in a sorry state.
It is true that the government has done a lot for the cultural sphere but, sadly, it has been lacking in others, including the environment. And all because of the intimacy of the relationship between business and politics.
The business class is not as interested in the integrity of developing humanity to its full as it is in developing mammon. In a society whose structure is basically cliental, where the quid pro quo is not simply Ukraine or Trump, corruption is not inevitable but highly likely. People will still rather vote for favours than integrity. Narcissists and sociopaths will still find political power desirable and not care a fig for integrity.
We need analysis not political trumpeting. And such analysis will inevitably lead to a re-examination of our Constitution and a re-education of our society. A sort of moral rearmament. Why allow part-time legislature or membership of Parliament for more than two terms?
Joe Cauchi is the former head department of English at Giovanni Curmi Higher Secondary Naxxar.