"Democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." It is difficult to dispute Churchill's statement. As such however, democracy's only real force is that given to voters on voting day. It is only through our vote that we can truly give a forceful message as to our political mood, and the intervening years are at best only pseudo-democracy.
In the forthcoming election the dominant theme seems to be change. This is the slogan adopted by the MLP, with its ‘new beginning', but also by the PN, which seems to be admitting past mistakes by maximising the focus on its leader and hiding his largely ineffectual team of ministers. In actual fact, change is what we do need; by both major parties. Malta has for too long alternated the MLPN in power, with its consequent and oft shameful tyranny of the majority. It is a situation that both parties are perfectly happy with, and they are doing their utmost to preserve the status quo. In the process, they have killed off the possibility of claiming to have democratic credentials. The MLPN have hijacked the electoral system by agreeing to agree...that any other party represented in parliament would threaten their hegemony.
This is why I will be voting for the small party which most closely represents my ideals at this point in time, and that party is Alternattiva Demokratika. Of course, AD does have its flaws and inconsistencies, and in no way could it govern this country on its own. But what it is certainly capable of is being the representative of thousands of people, regardless of whether this occurs as part of a coalition government or with a seat in opposition. This is why I am utterly disgusted that the MLPN have reduced my vote to a lesser one by their reforms of the electoral system. They have not provided for the possibility of a third party being elected to parliament thus risking a constitutional ‘crisis'.
More frustratingly, they have 'gerrymandered' the 9th and 10th districts by separating Sliema and Swieqi, where the AD voter base is concentrated, thus making it even more unlikely that an AD candidate will reach the astonishingly high 16% or so threshold within the district. They could have so easily created a system whereby the party with the relative majority is always guaranteed enough seats to govern steadily, whilst introducing at the same time a national minimum threshold in the region of 5% (as proposed by the 1994 Gonzi Commission) which would ensure parliamentary representation were this percentage of votes to be achieved.
They could have also decided to ask me on voting day which party and leader I prefer, and then which candidate I would like to represent me. That would make me equally happy, and if they really wanted to make my day, Malta would constitute a single district allowing for perfectly proportional representation, killing the second bird with the same stone by eliminating the clientelism of district-based voting.
Yet the MLPN insist on doing their best in trying to keep a third party out of parliament, and thus denying adequate representation to a considerable section of Maltese voters. Joe Saliba argues that it is the people that have chosen to have this system, indeed the people within the parties. This is very typical PN reasoning, just as when it declared that the people who voted to join the EU (like myself) had given the PN a mandate to defend spring-hunting's continuing existence!
Ultimately, Maltese politics needs a good hiding and the only way of communicating this is by voting against the traditional parties. The MLPN are both in desperate need of change, and it is hoped that the voting public really send their message home in this election. Dr Gonzi has proved himself to be a brilliant politician, and I do credit him with certain successes especially as regards his finance portfolio. However he has not read the clear and prolonged signs that most of his ministers performed abysmally, incompetence coupled with conflict of interest. The PN also desperately needs to realign itself to the progressive liberal movement which is the only one which can really take this country foreword, and rid itself of its arrogant hypocrisy constantly insulting people's intelligence.
The MLP, despite its good intentions, has once again shown the limitations of its head Alfred Sant, an undoubtedly academically intelligent man yet an inept leader lacking charisma. The 10-year plus period of character assassination by the PN media machine hasn't exactly helped his cause either.
The bottom line is that performers within the Maltese political scene need to mature and become more tolerant of the other side, putting an end to the ‘us and them' mentality, while the hysteria and adulation by voters with regard to our politicians needs to come to an end for us to progress. Despite the shock expressed by friends of mine on both sides of the political spectrum that an ‘intelligent' person like myself would not vote for the party they support, I like to think that there are many more like-minded people, non-aligned voters who really do attempt to analyse the issues and make an informed voting choice, at least considering to vote for any and all candidates as I will be doing.
There really is no right or wrong in the choices one may make, and it is imperative that people are not intolerant of my right to democratically express myself as I see fit, being the true Europeans that we so proudly claim to be. I want my vote to be represented in parliament as much as anyone else does. I want to live in a truly functional European democracy. That's why I want my right to vote back!
Mark Sciriha is a former editor of The Insiter,a university students' publication, and is currently completing the final year of his LLD degree