At a Nationalist Party convention in Gozo, a University lecturer suggested that the Gozo Ministry should be abolished. Guest speaker George Vital Zammit said: “People have to succeed under their own steam and not kept at the mercy of a minister. Unfortunately, treating Gozitans differently through a dedicated ministry reinforces this practice.”
Dr Vital Zammit made the suggestion at an event organised by the very political party that set up the Gozo Ministry 30 years ago. Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil distanced himself from the idea but was not against keeping the Gozo Ministry in check. But what about other government ministries?
It is true that Gozo, being an island, has unique circumstances. Once there was a Gozo council, an idea resuscitated a few days ago by Gozo Minister Anton Refalo, in a rare public comment. But councils do not change realities on the ground. Job opportunities are scarce in Gozo and young people often settle on the mainland to pursue a career.
A Maltatoday survey found that most Gozitan youths believe that success is heavily dependent on one’s political connections. It is immensely preoccupying that the younger generation should think this way.
Political patronage, or favours, are nothing new. Back in the 1980s, when there was tight government control on practically everything, obtaining an import licence, a telephone line and a television set required the blessing of a government minister. In the run up to the 1987 election, the then Labour government irregularly employed thousands of people in the public sector to boosts its chances at the polls. It nearly succeeded.
The gradual liberation of the market by the successive Nationalist governments did away with many unnecessary artificial controls that bred abuse, discrimination and possibly corruption. But political patronage never went away. The island is far too small to erradicate clientelism.
The high economic growth of recent years should have eased pressure on the government to try to provide job opportunities directly. There is even a sizeable immigrant population on the mainland helping to meet labour demand and keep the economic engine going. But not so in Gozo, where the population is ageing, which makes a dedicated ministry there unique, at least in scope.
As in the 1980s, scarcity and ministerial patronage is a very bad combination. The solution, however, may not lie with removing the ministry itself but with removing the scarcity. The Nationalist Party is planning to draw up an electoral programme specifically for Gozo, which would keep a future Nationalist minister for Gozo more than busy, given that s/he would have to implement an electoral programme that changes the demographics.
But, in reality, it will not be the removal of job scarcity or of the Gozo ministry that would rid the sister island of the plague of political patronage. It is demand for patronage that must be stopped and the expectation that people think they should be treated better than others, by virtue of their political allegiance or connections. That is a tall order.
Nearly a quarter of a century of Nationalist governments did not rid the country of this terrible colonial mentality and Labour has not improved matters at all over the past four years.
The customer care service offered by ministries is just a polite code for political patronage and petty politics at its worst. The government does not have ‘customers’, as it claims, but a people to serve without discrimination. If the Gozo Ministry is to be removed, then all government ministries can follow suit.