Every year the Nationalist and Labour parties hold fundraising jamborees on Republic Day, and every year, without fail, there’s a great amount of fuss kicked up over these awful events of kitsch and cash.

There is no way that the €467,880 raised by the PN and the €336,635 raised by Labour come from Jessie’s coffee mornings or Jesmond’s football tournaments- Claire Bonello

There are the people who tut-tut about the insensitivity shown by the big political parties when they hold these kinds of activities in the run-up to Christmas, thereby diverting funds which could be donated to more deserving charities.

Then there are the people who are thrown into paroxysms of disgust at the naffness of it all. The fundraising marathons are a bit like those pizzas with multiple toppings where everything lurking in the darker recesses of the fridge gets chucked onto the pastry in a culinary mess.

The spectacles offered at the Nationalist and Labour headquarters run on the same lines. Anybody who can twang a tune on a guitar gyrate a bottom in an approximation of a dance, gets called in to help distract from the dreariness of watching politicians answer phones or receive wads of cash from excited donors.

Although the events are billed as dance and music spectacles, they are anything but spectacular or even watchable except in an ‘It’s so bad it’s good’ way. By all accounts these fundraising marathons make for a dismal viewing experience (though anybody in his right mind would be out in the sunshine, not glued to the screen).

The other type of criticism levelled at these type of activities is that they provide a forum for the PN and the PL to hoover up donations in a manner that is not at all transparent.

This is the criticism which holds most water. There is nothing stopping any organisation from holding the tackiest kind of fundraiser at any time of the year it deems fit. It’s useless arguing that the major political parties should hold back from guzzling up euros which could otherwise be donated to charity.

Political parties are not in the business of being nice or outstandingly ethical. They’re into vote-catching and filling war-chests for expensive electoral campaigns, so don’t expect them to hold back if there’s the opportunity of filling their coffers. Quite clearly, both major parties believe that all is fair in love and war and fundraising, and if they find willing donors, these spectacles are bound to continue, tackiness notwithstanding.

Celebrity has-beens warbling out of tune may be mildly annoying; however, the PN and the PL’s foot-dragging when it comes to declaring the sources of their donations is far more serious. It betrays their unwillingness to reveal who really pulls the party strings.

For although much is made of the thousands of party faithful who have gladly given their-earned money for the greater good of the party, this is hardly a realistic depiction of what really goes on.

There is no way that the €467,880 raised by the PN and the €336,635 raised by Labour come from Jessie’s coffee mornings or Jesmond’s five-a-side football tournaments.

As anybody in the fundraising business will tell you, it is practically impossible for a large organisation such as a political party to stay afloat if its main source of income are these small activities. At a certain point you’re going to have to find some corporate sponsors for a major cash injection or financial survival turns into an endless series of cake sales, bazaars and sponsored walks.

Both the major parties have realised this, and though some of their income is the so-called ‘ftit tal-hafna’ (small donations from many donors), the bulk of it is made up of large donations made by businesses and industry.

Now there is absolutely nothing wrong in donating money to causes one considers deserving. But these big donations aren’t made simply on the basis of ideological leanings or because businessmen think the government is swell or the opposition promising.

Big donations come with big strings attached and with the implicit understanding that donors will be looked upon favourably when it comes to the awards of tenders or the issue of permits or licences.

Even if nothing of the kind is actively sought out, funnelling money to the two major parties is a way of ensuring that donors will have some form of influence on lawmakers. In effect, they are buying influence.

I find the fact that businessmen try to do this far less shocking than the fact that there is such widespread complacency about it. The issue of transparency and political party funding doesn’t even register on people’s radar.

Though they may assume that businesses are the pipers who pay the politicians and call their tune, they fail to see why it is so important to follow the money trail and see which businesses are being rewarded for their donations.

That’s why the situation continues to perpetuate itself and why come December 2012, there will be yet more political fundraisers and we can keep up the pretence that the PL and the PN are raking in thousands on the backs of the party faithful.

cl.bon@nextgen.net.mt