Myriam Spiteri Debono in her letter ‘The national interest’ (May 10) said: “It must be acknowledged that the scenario of having two main political parties is very difficult to dislodge”. So she suggested that “one must look at the formation and organisation of the two main political parties and how these are serving the national interest”.
Clear signs are emerging that Malta may find itself, as in many Western-type democracies, with a coalition government not many years from now. There is concrete evidence that the two main political parties thought there was going to be a coalition government in 2008.
Coalition governments imply compromise and elected parties have to find common ground to govern together. ‘Together’ is the key word. A very hard task indeed, but doable.
This is the political situation in Europe’s largest democracy, Germany, where the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats, the two main political parties first, in turn, governed with the small liberal party, then finished having to form a grand coalition together. They have been governing together for some years. This happened also in Britain a few years ago when the Conservative Party had to govern in coalition with the Liberals. This has been the case in Italy ever since the end of World War II. It is also so in Belgium and has been so up to a few days ago in Austria. Greece is there also and Spain is now moving in that direction.
Covenantal politics is when people in politics create cooperation by joining together in a moral association
It is alleged this type of government brings instability. This may well be so but there is evidence, as well, that one-party governments degenerate into corruption.
So the two main political parties in Malta might as well start committing themselves to thinking and planning in terms of governing with other political parties. To work together.
This enforced necessity may be looked at as coming close to the covenant type of politics associated very much with the attainment of the common good.
Political parties, however, should do so not because they are forced but because they resolve to start believing that this also is a good political working relationship to aspire to.
“It’s time to come together,” shouted the Eurovision Swedish presenter in first evening of the contest in Sweden.
After World War II, Germany, France and Italy, the protagonists of the harshest war in European history, agreed that a new kind of politics had to be adopted in Europe to avoid other devastating wars.
So they started by agreeing to set up the European Coal and Steel Community to work together, achieve a common aim, and build a “new home”, which had to be built by them, together.
A noble aim, a dream, which must have looked unattainable when first conceived but which today we know is a reality. The European Union today has 28 countries working together, with others aspiring to join. For this purpose they even agreed to surrender a part of their sovereignty, and teamed together to pull the same rope and arrive at an agreed destination.
Economist Joe Zahra wrote last year that in a number of Western democracies “politics has degenerated into a bundle of sleaze, corruption, deceit, manipulation, and ‘scratching the surface’ where vice has taken over from virtue”.
He commented at large on forging a new politics, in a book published in 2015 containing essays titled Blue Labour in UK. It sets the scene for a new way of doing politics in a difficult time when established politics and politicians are losing their credibility and being criticised for losing touch with reality. He observed that their space is being taken up by populist and nationalist parties on the extreme right or left.
According to British and Commonwealth scholar Jonathan Sacks, in his book The Home we Build Together, liberal democracy has tended to concentrate on the individual. That is when the concept of covenant comes into play: the idea that all of us must come together to ensure the dignity of each one of us. Covenant is the politics of the common good.
Covenantal politics is when people in politics create cooperation by joining together in a moral association, talk together, work side by side, and act by consensus, because there are things they care about together. This, while respecting the freedom, integrity and difference of each.
Probably this is happening already in the family, health, environment and social affairs committees of the Maltese Parliament.
It’s time for all political parties in Malta to really come together, perhaps, first, through the proposed Convention on the Constitution, by agreeing to increase the institutions which are put in place by a two thirds majority in parliament. We already have the posts of Ombudsman and the Auditor General appointed in this way.
The good news is that the new Commissioner for Standards, according to a leading government spokesman, will very soon be appointed by a two thirds majority in Parliament.
Tony Mifsud is a social worker who studied at Plater College, Oxford.