Let the sun shine as brightly as possible – but not to make hay. Rather, it should shine because, as Louis Brandeis, who sat in the US Supreme Court in the early 20th century, once said, it is the best disinfectant.
His point was that allowing the public to know what government officials are doing would ensure these behave correctly and ethically.
Former prime minister and Labour leader Alfred Sant said something similar in his interview with The Sunday Times of Malta: “We’re still running [the country] on old engines, old ways of doing things. We think that modernisation means digitalisation; of course, you have to digitalise but that’s not the real game. The real game is accountability, responsibility and transparency.”
He again speaks about “friends of friends”, something he has been mentioning for years. “I’ve been preaching about that – the ‘friends of friends’ – it’s a Gonzi problem, it’s a Joseph Muscat problem, a Mintoff problem, a Fenech Adami problem…” For some reason he did not move on to mention the Robert Abela administration.
He is right in noting that the ‘friends of friends’ network has no idea about transparency, accountability and the avoidance of conflict of interest, even adding that the anti-corruption mechanism in place does not work.
But, then, when questioned about his own party’s ‘friends of friends’, he refused to condemn it. No doubt, he realises that Muscat’s administration invested in the ‘friends of friends’ system and put it into overdrive and that it continues to happen under Abela. Though he does note that, as the economy continued to grow over the last few years, the ‘friends of friends’ problem “just bubbles up”.
He seems to attribute the ‘friends of friends’ phenomenon to the fact that this is a small society that depends on relationships, on a person-to-person basis. True, in a minuscule country, alliances can easily be cemented, leading to groups scratching each other’s back. Which makes it even more imperative to have robust systems of checks and balances that work and institutions run by competent people – not “persons of trust”, for which read cronies – in the most transparent way possible.
In fact, Sant deems it necessary for Malta to modernise the way its organisations are run.
Regrettably, his sweet-talking successor as party leader put his friends, and friends of friends, before the good of the country and the national interest, keeping his loyal subjects happy through his populism and ‘bread and circus’ policies.
Sant himself appears to be acknowledging this. When asked whether the proximity between the business community and the political class has become more pronounced, he replied: “Not really. It’s been more highlighted because there are interests which basically know how to control it.”
On Muscat’s watch, some were able to make hay while the sun shone, to the point that they took over control and he was either unable or unwilling to stop them.
But it need not be like that, not even in a small island. For long years, this country had been run by dangerous, violent thugs/crooks aided and abetted by some elements of the party in government and the police. That changed, practically overnight, when Sant became Labour leader and then prime minister, a feat many thought was well-nigh impossible.
So if Abela truly wants to put this country back on track again, he only needs to take a leaf out of Sant’s book and act with resolve to open all doors and windows, let the sun in and disinfect all corridors of power.