Editorial

It is hardly surprising that leading politicians would not agree with any notion that politics in Malta is facing a crisis. For if they were to admit to a crisis, they might automatically be held as prime protagonists in the situation that led to the crisis.

Having said that, it does not follow that politics in Malta is facing a crisis. But it would be even more surprising if one were to deny that there is in the country today a growing disenchantment with both politics and politicians.

The disinterest shown by university students in the debate held on campus a few days ago on whether or not Maltese politics is facing a crisis is not in itself indicative of the disenchantment shown with politics and politicians either. We believe it has more to do with general apathy among students. Often enough, university students have shown they are only interested in the subjects they are studying for their degree and isolate themselves, sometimes completely, from the rest of the thinking world. This is evident from the way they answer questions on matters of social and political interest when they are approached by people carrying out surveys.

This may appear as a sweeping generalisation. It is not meant to be. But how can the utterly poor attendance at the debate be otherwise explained? Of the 8,000-strong student population, only about 150 attended. And a good number of those who attended were not all that keen to keep listening to the leaders up to the end either. Even so, it can hardly be correct to measure the state of Maltese politics by the degree of attendance to political debates by university students. If, then, one were to go by the turnouts at elections, it would be clear that there can certainly be no crisis, not when, as Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi pointed out, the Maltese still go out to vote enthusiastically.

Dr Gonzi made two other points. Firstly, he said he did not exclude that certain sectors were no longer interested in politics. And secondly, that most parliamentarians belonged to the younger generation, which showed, he said, that politics still attracted young people. More than disinterest, there is, as we have remarked quite often in recent years, growing disenchantment. This has arisen out of sheer disappointment at the way politicians deal with matters of national interest. Again, it would be wrong to generalise or to say that there are no times when the two parties represented in Parliament rise to the occasion and agree on matters of vital importance to the country.

But this is often negatively counterbalanced by the fact that in their quest for power the parties keep the political situation in the country boiling all the time, to the ludicrous extent that the people feel entrapped in a political machine. The next general election is as yet three years away but the way politicians from both parties speak today makes it look as if it is round the corner. This is preposterous and may well lead to a general deflection in the work that has to be done to rectify problems in the shortest time possible.

It is a situation of the politicians' own making. What Dr Gonzi said at the PN general council last week, that he would rather change things for the better and lose elections than win them by deceiving the people, is precisely the sort of language that helps restore faith in politics and politicians.