As people get flooded with electoral pledges that get bigger with every passing day, they are trying to understand what has brought the country to the state it is in: a premature election in the ‘best of times’. It may be the best of times for some but it is certainly the worst of times for the country’s institutions that faced a similar meltdown when the Labour Party last managed to spend a full term in office: 1981-87.
Three NGOs spelt it very clearly in a joint statement last weekend. Successive governments, they said, have strengthened power structures with the aim of “self-preservation, obscuring the lines separating the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government”. The country’s institutions are failing to fulfil their roles of preventing and addressing abuse of political and administrative power, Aditus Foundation, Integra Foundation and the Critical Institute said.
Given the mood of this election campaign, it may be said they state the obvious. But they went further. They blame the country’s educational institutions for failing to create a nation that is inquisitive, that expects better from Cabinet ministers and MPs, that strives for the common good and that does not accept impunity.
Missing from our educational institutions, the NGOs said, is critical thinking, active citizenship, social responsibility, community feeling and awareness of human rights. It is a damning indictment and the evidence is all around.
The NGOs stress they are not aligned to any political party. That does not make their statement any less poignant or political.
The country’s institutions have been weakened because people allowed them to get weakened. They elected politicians that undermined institutions before their very eyes. They accepted it all with a complacency that would have made our past colonial masters green with envy.
Past Nationalist administrations had failed to ensure the independence of the institutions, to make them “Labour-proof”, as party leader Simon Busuttil put it. He now has a long, hard job ahead of him should he win the next election, to bring credibility back and to set up structures that would ensure that the meltdown this country has witnessed would never happen again.
Most of all, a new government must ensure the right people are appointed to head the country’s institutions, people who would not bow down to pressure, who would not resign but stand up for what is right. That is a tall order.
The bishops, in their brief pastoral letter on the election, called upon the faithful to choose people of wisdom and integrity, who treasure and embrace ethical values. Most especially, the supreme value is the protection of human life, they said. But there are many other fundamental values that are clearly lacking.
A critical electorate, as suggested by the NGOs, maybe even a cynical electorate, would go a long way in improving political standards.
Only with an inquisitive electorate would the unacceptable become repugnant and cost votes.
Only a critical electorate can think independently and not taint opinion with allegiance.
Only a mature electorate can stop a government in its tracks, prevent abuse even, because governments would know it would not be tolerated.
Given the utter failure of many of the country’s institutions, and people’s reluctance to speak up, this sounds like a dream but a dream worth fighting for.