Opposition must be given real political space

After the 1998 general election, the Nationalist government lost no time in drawing up internal rules for the appointment of political staff at each and every ministry.

We came to know of this only through a reply to a parliamentary question made in that legislature. The report carrying these rules, running into 119 pages, is dated Ocotber 29, 1998.

I bet the MPs had not even had time to warm up their seats before the government set about to set up the political structures through which it could win another victory in five years' time.

The prime minister was allocated a complement of 30 persons, each minister a complement of 21, and each parliamentary secretary, a complement of 11. The last formed Cabinet is composed of the prime minister, 13 ministers and five parliamentary secretaries.

In all, they must have an allocation of about 280 persons, the majority of whom carry out political duties - implementation of the electoral programme, political communication, attend to the needs of constituents (personal favours), giving directives to civil servants, meeting businessmen to finance campaigns, doing personal errands, such as driving family members, in short, whatever the boss orders and is in the national interest!

It is estimated that total direct expenditure on these 280 political appointees comes to around Lm2,000,000 every year. This is paid out of funds collected from our direct and indirect taxes. These funds are spent to make the government of the day looks smart and to garner more votes for the next round.

To this sum, one has to add the cost of first-class cars, telephones, mobile phones, internet services, office space, operational expenses, lunches, dinners, receptions, gifts etc.

The opposition leader is allocated a car and a driver... as if his duties are to go round the island! In many countries with whom we will be joining forces on May 1, 2004, the opposition parties are given political and administrative assistance to balance out the advantage that government has through its political and administrative structures.

I strongly believe the Labour Party must embark on a political campaign to win the support of public opinion for a more balanced and democratic set-up between the government and the opposition.

Basically, an opposition leader should be given a staff complement equivalent to that of a minister (21 persons) and a budget in order to be able to carry out his functions from a dignified office at the House of Representatives.

The function of an opposition leader is a constitutional. It must be given a new political dimension if we are to move to a less divisive political system.

To this there must be further rules of governance. For example, in the UK, the rules have been established following several reports produced by the House of Commons where a select committee on public administration dwelt in an extensive manner on the information and communications services provided by ministries/departments.

This came about following the harsh criticism of Alistair Campbell, the Chief Press Secretary to Prime Minister Tony Blair. Further reports from the UK parliament had led to the enactment of the new political parties and elections act, as well as a new referendum act. On the basis of these extensive reports, rules have been established that all "political appointees" must resign as soon the official writ is published. This is what Nick Jones had to say in his latest book Campaign 2001:

"Campbell had resigned that morning from his post as Chief Press Secretary in line with the guidance issued to the 79 political appointed special advisers recruited to assist Blair and his ministers. Special advisers had the status of temporary civil servants and as their annual salary bill of £4.4 million was paid for by the taxpayers, the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Richard Wilson, had reminded them that they had to resign if they wished to help in the election and that they would be required to 'physically have left' their department before embarking on the campaign trail.

"Sir Richard has stipulated that Campbell and his colleagues must surrender all government property, including mobile phones and pagers, and that they would no longer have preferential access to government papers or officials. It was not only the special advisers who had a sudden change of role to contend with. Civil servants had been preparing for the expected cut-off point for several days; as soon as the election was announced they had to seize advising ministers and do no further work on new policy initiatives."

All this means that political appointees must resign from their positions within government and most of them are in fact recruited by the party machines to carry out campaign duties on behalf of the their party - but of course paid by the party.

The same thing goes for permanent civil servants. They are strictly forbidden to carry out initiatives that give an advantage to the party in government.

Unfortunately, this is not what happens in Malta. The 280 political appointees in the various ministries are the same persons that carry out the campaign on behalf of the PN, well assisted by a web of other blue-eyed staff recruited in the many agencies and authorities that have been set up in recent years.

In the referendum and the general election campaign, the prime minister's campaign was mainly organised from his office in Castile. In fact, it was more of a prime minister's campaign than a campaign by a leader of a political party.

Political maturity does not imply an opposition saying yes to a government programme. Political convergence implies that the government must be able to create the right conditions for the development of fair and equitable democratic institutions.

In today's political situation, there is no room for further political arrogance and it is high time that the government gives a clear sign that it believes that the opposition must be given real political space in the country.