This Saturday, as Maltese citizens, we are called to the polls to exercise our fundamental freedom of the right to vote and elect those whom we want to govern our country. This is the practice of democracy at its most basic level.

Our bishops have asked us to shoulder our responsibility correctly. “This responsibility demands also that we vote according to our conscience, which means that in front of God we recognise what is right and true, and therefore choose what is truly beneficial for the common good and for a just society” was the key sentence in the bishops’ pastoral letter.

In common with other nations, the day before the election is a day of silence from political activity, supposedly to allow voters time  for reflection on the who can best serve the common good. In a culture almost dominated by social media this is both anachronistic and quasi-impossible to control. Besides this, house visits for electioneering purposes have never been prohibited; nor billboards removed.

Taking decisions ‘according to our conscience’ is even more difficult due to the ‘amoral familism’ that is so entrenched our Mediterranean culture

It is ridiculous to say that citizens’ duty to reflect responsibly can be served in a last day of reflection. First of all, the bishops spoke of voting according to one’s conscience. It is unfortunate that many still confuse conscience with feeling. St Thomas Aquinas defines conscience as the “application of knowledge to action”. The relativistic plus post-truth culture that permeates our society has debased knowledge. Hence the search for knowledge has become a most difficult labyrinthine and intricate exercise.

And even if one has all the necessary sources of information, one’s knowledge will definitely be obscured by an ‘I’m all right Jack’ philosophy of life. This philosophy is not so alien to the Christian “din l-art ħelwa li tatna isimha”. Taking decisions “according to our conscience” is made even more difficult due to the widespread ‘amoral familism’ that is so entrenched our Mediterranean culture.

The patron-client relationship has created a false sense of loyalty that has debased the very concept, as one can see in such sayings “Iddardarx l-għajn li tixrob minnha” (do not disturb the stream that you drink from) and “bus id li tixtieqha maqtugħa” (kiss a hand that you would wish to see chopped off). This type of loyalty is not a virtue but a survival kit.

This ambivalent ethic has definitely impaired consciences, and influenced the workings of democracy, including the electoral process. To move out of this morass, Malta needs much more than an election. Pietism, quietism and philanthropy will not solve our deeply rooted national malaise.

We need to practise the teaching of Pope Benedict XVI: “Charity in truth… is the principal driving force behind the authentic development of every person and of all humanity… Charity is at the heart of the Church’s social doctrine… I am aware of the ways in which charity… continues to be misconstrued and emptied of meaning, with the consequent risk of being misinterpreted, detached from ethical living and, in any event, undervalued. In the social, juridical, cultural, political and economic fields… it is easily dismissed as irrelevant for interpreting and giving direction to moral responsibility.

“Through [the] close link with truth, charity can be… an element of fundamental importance in human relations, including those of a public nature. Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality… to be filled in an arbitrary way. Truth frees charity from the constraints of an emotionalism that deprives it of relational and social content.”

Fr Joe Inguanez, a sociologist, is executive director of Discern.

joe.inguanez@gmail.com

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