Jumping back to the future

The two main political parties will soon elect their general secretary. The general secretary is the person responsible to keep the party machine in shape and to drive it in the right direction at a steady speed. Both the PN and the MLP seem set to move forward by jumping back into the past. The Nationalist Party will elect either a sitting MP or a wannabe-MP. There are precedents of the former, not so much of the latter. The Labour Party will either be confirming its sitting secretary general or, possibly, electing a wannabe-MP itself. Either way, the parties will be making a decision to fit their successful candidates into a high political profile. That is not necessarily what they and, thereby, the country require.

The crafting of a party's politics is very much in the hands of its leader, with the close involvement and support of the deputy leader(s). They have their advisers as well as various think-tanks on the many aspects of dynamic policy making and also a tight policy unit to filter and refine think-tank proposals for the leadership to digest, as well as to come up with their own proposals. Ideas may flow from discussions in the party executive, which shouldn't merely digest what is put on a plate before it. Ultimately it is the representatives of the party membership, the delegates or councillors, who will approve official policy. But the running lies with the leadership.

The general secretary need not and had better not be part of that running. His (her) job should be to run the party machinery, to be the party's effective chief executive officer.

Political parties have changed, Alternattiva Demokratika aside. Parties used to be run by volunteers. In comparison, today's MLP and PN are conglomerates. Volunteers remain very important. But the parties require permanent staff to man their shiny headquarters, their daily and weekly newspapers, their TV and radio stations and, to a much or lesser extent, their commercial companies.

This side of the political business requires a business approach, one defined by a manager who knows what business planning and running is all about. He cannot do it all on his own. He will require a small core of professionals to assist him. But he has to be in focused charge. That is a role very distinct from the carry-over still attributed to the general secretary position. A person can have a very good political apparatus of the mind but be totally illiterate when it comes to running an enterprise.

The general secretary of our two leading political parties is tasked with being on top of the managerial side of the political enterprise, simultaneously with being a key part of the party team that takes political decisions. There could be those able to fulfil both functions. Even so, a separation of responsibilities would make the running of our main political parties more efficient. It should also help them improve their revenue-generating capabilities, rather than leaving them dependent on string-tied business handovers and multiple donations from their supporters, whose pockets are presumed to be cornucopias.

The division of labour I am suggesting will not come about this time round. The parties will simply move by jumping into the past. It still merits, I suggest, thinking about. Especially by the MLP, where the posts of deputy leader for party affairs and of general secretary represent a duplication of effort, with their holders bumping into each other, to put it delicately.