While critical of the shortcomings of our politicians and political system, like teenagers in other 23 countries, three-quarters of our 14-year-olds believe multiparty democracy is still the best form of government. 61% of Maltese teenagers believe that the political system works well. 56% believe that MPs are good at representing the interests of young people while 64% believe that they represent the interests of people well.
Our teenagers took part in an international survey carried out in 24 countries with the theme ‘Education for Citizenship in Times of Global Challenge’( ICCS2022-International-Report.pdf (iea.nl). The survey was carried out in 2022 and was published late last year.
52% of our teenagers said that MPs treat all people in society fairly, 54% believe that MPs care enough about the interests of the people though 67% think that MPs usually forget the needs of the people who voted for them.
In the 2022 survey, only half of our teenagers said they trust the national government, 16% lower than in the 2016 survey. 44% said they trust parliament, 15% down when compared to how teenagers had replied in the 2016 survey. 64% expressed trust in the courts of justice while, in 2016, the level of trust was higher: 76%.
When it comes to traditional media, 55% of our teenagers said they trusted TV, radio and newspapers, 11% less than in 2016.
Internationally, the 2022 survey shows that the institution trusted most by teenagers was the courts of justice followed by the national government (53%), the traditional media (50%) and parliament (48%).
Trust in institutions declined between 2016 and 2022. The report recommends that we should try to understand what has contributed to this decline, both worldwide and in every specific country.
Between 2016 and 2022, our country was shaken by the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia and the Panama Papers scandal.
We need intelligent and honest young people in politics
In those six years, on average, trust in parliament and traditional media declined by 5% in all countries surveyed but, in Malta, trust in parliament declined by 15% and by 11% in traditional media.
In 2022, compared to 2016, trust in national government declined by 10% or more in Croatia, Bulgaria, Colombia and Slovenia and by 16% in Malta. 7% of Norwegian teenagers trusted their government more to reach the highest level of trust in all countries: 86%.
Our national institutions, political parties and civil society organisations should analyse this report and other surveys carried out by Eurobarometer and locally to see what steps need to be taken to reverse the decline of trust of our young people in public institutions and politics.
Taking our progress for granted
The ICCS 2022 report concludes that “the lower secondary school students... on average, had reasonably clear and consistent understandings of the essential tenets of democratic government. However, we did notice a range of responses across countries that might indicate national differences in what is expected of democratic government. Especially for the item related to nepotism in government (political leaders giving jobs to family members) we observed more variation across countries in student ratings, and in two countries (Colombia and Malta) less than half of students rated this as very or quite bad for democracy.”
Significantly, and probably very indicative of our ingrained clientelistic political culture, 58% of our 14-year-olds see nothing wrong in political leaders giving government jobs to family members.
In local surveys, 7% of our teenagers and 13% of our 16- to 35-year-olds regard corruption as one of the biggest challenges faced by the country. 12% of our teenagers and 9% of our young people see environmental degradation as harmful for the country.
Local surveys show that only around 9% of our young people (13 to 35) consider politics very important while around 26% do not consider them at all important. 8% would like to see our institutions improve.
We need intelligent and honest young people in politics. Don Lorenzo Milani, the Italian priest who dedicated his life to the poor and the disempowered, used to urge young people to ignore those self-righteous armchair critics who keep their hands in their pockets and pontificate to those who “soil” their hands with politics: “What is the use of a person with clean hands if he keeps them in his pockets? Use them!”
Pope Francis’s message at the Presidential Palace, in Valletta when he visited us two years ago is still relevant when he said that Malta “must therefore be kept safe from rapacious greed, from avarice and from construction speculation. Instead, protecting the environment and the promotion of social justice are optimal ways to instil in young people a passion for healthy politics and to shield them from the temptation of indifference and lack of commitment”.
This year, we are celebrating 60 years of national independence. Despite our serious political shortcomings, these have been the best 60 years for our people in the 8,000 years that these islands have been inhabited. Our lives have improved beyond recognition compared to how our people lived over these millennia when most of them our destiny was in the hands of those who ruled us, always putting our interests last. It is also thanks to our politicians – but not only our politicians – who built this country despite facing severe constraints creating the conditions for economic growth, employment, a welfare state and public services, among the best in the Mediterranean.
We are surrounded by countries in Southern Europe and North Africa where we used to migrate to as we had no future in Malta and Gozo. Today, we have overtaken Sicily, Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia. While we need to address our serious shortcomings when it comes to good governance, sustainable economic growth, better income distribution and quality of life, we must not take our considerable achievements for granted. We cannot afford to be complacent if we want to retain what we have achieved and move forward.
Evarist Bartolo