Two by two

Parties are a political reality but not a political necessity. We have had governments with no parties. We did not like it much but we managed just the same.

In recent days I have heard it said that we have managed very nicely with the two-party system. The prime minister was heard to say that it has given us political stability.

It has also given us weak governments hanging onto power by slivers of advantage over their rivals and steering their way to the next election by pusillanimous policies to avoid irking any section of society.

Years of neglect have left us with a heritage of problems which neither the MLP nor the PN has had the courage to face since neither could afford to raise their head over the parapet and engage with challenges that would cause the slightest upset.

Bipolar politics has riven this country into two camps so detached from each other that they have different recalls of recent history based on the two contradictory propaganda machines that have determined their access to information.

Worst of all, bipolar politics has robbed us of 50 per cent of our most precious natural resource, people. The winner-takes-all system drives people to hysterics at election time not because they fear the implementation of the other party's economic, social or other policy but because they fear they will be effectively excluded from participating in the economic or political life of the country for the subsequent decade or so.

Mistrust constrains this country to run on half steam at all times: a luxury we can ill-afford. Those of us who founded Alternattiva Demokratika 14 years ago were sick to death of this extravagance. We identified bipolar politics as the country's major ill.

It remains the major political issue in the country. Fourteen years of close acquaintance with the inner workings of Maltese politics have not changed my opinion.

Since it is commonly perceived that any one of the MLP-PN parties may take full control of all the powers of the state, big business is constrained to take out insurance. Hence the million lira election campaigns we have witnessed in recent years. This is politics, this is Maltese political reality. The mass meetings, long speeches about values and democracy are just a circus we tolerate.

This is not a democracy. It is an oligarchy in democratic dress. Money rules this country and the function of the traditional parties is to absorb as many diverse interests and opinions as they can and pacify them by focusing their energies on the artificial and sterile polemics raised by the professional spin doctors. The main thing is to feed the phobia of the other party.

Never mind discussing basic issues. Never mind doing something about them. The main thing is to keep the show on the road. Circuses, feel-good factors and welfare handouts to outdo the world's major economies are what wins the next election.

AD is my ideal party to break the stalemate of Maltese politics. It has the potential to drive a wedge between the majoritarian parties and to rob them of their sole party government ambitions. That, in itself, would bring about a major political change altering the mindset of voters and politicians alike. If it does not happen this election, when? How many lives have you got to live?

Sometimes you are the only one in a position to save the situation. The first to notice that the train is heading towards a broken bridge. You do not have to be the bravest, the best, or the most intelligent. You have a choice whether to pull the chord or not. Dither and you are dead.

You are afraid to make a jackass of yourself if you are wrong. You have to decide. Nobody can make up your mind for you. Hesitate long enough and you do not have to. Better a live jackass than a smart corpse.

AD is a tool, your tool. You are free to use it.

Dr Vassallo is chairman of Alternattiva Demokratika - The Green Party

www.alternattiva.org.mt