A sharp fall of 17 places in an index measuring public trust in politicians, carried in the World Economic Forum’s latest competitiveness report, has barely raised any reaction. As expected, the government ignored it altogether and chose instead to pat itself on the back for an improvement in the overall ranking, with one minister even calling this a “notable development”.
Rather than analysing the reasons for the fall in public trust in them, the politicians themselves would seem to prefer to sweep the finding under the carpet, wrongly thinking perhaps that once the electorate voted them into Parliament they are doing a fine job. Yet, it is clear that, despite voting for them, they do not think highly of them, as the fall from 74th place to 57th suggests.
One general reason usually given for the loss of trust in politicians is that most of them choose to go into politics for self-aggrandisement rather than for being of service to the community. Such generalisation does not do justice to those who truly regard their work as politicians as a vocation. But few believe there are many that fall into this category.
What has given politicians a bad name are the misdemeanors in which some are, or have been, involved, the manner of their actions, the poor quality of their contributions in Parliament, and, in quite a number of cases, their arrogance.
Labour has not helped raise the standard either, as its lack of good governance in the first legislature of Joseph Muscat’s administration has shown to a remarkable degree. Winning wide support to its intentions to adhere to the strictest rules of transparency, accountability and meritocracy, it soon lost its way and made a mockery of the very principles it fought so hard to get elected.
From one example of bad governance to another, leading to the revelation that a Cabinet minister and the Prime Minister’s chief of staff had been found to have registered companies in a tax haven, the situation deteriorated to an extent that the country began losing further trust in its politicians. The Prime Minister helped lower the bar to good standards even further when, instead of sacking both the minister and his closest aide, he kept both.
The country is reaping the result of the government’s waywardness in this regard. Not only that but the same World Economic Forum’s competitiveness index has also zeroed in on favouritism in decisions by government officials. Malta’s place in an index measuring this has fallen 10 places. Corruption has also been identified as the seventh most problematic factor for doing business.
The economy may be doing well but such findings surely cannot enhance Malta’s image. The index comes less than a month after no fewer than 30 non-governmental human rights organisations represented in the Platform of Human Rights Organisations in Malta lambasted the government over its lack of transparency and accountability, describing this as a threat to human rights.
What is truly amazing in this scenario is how Justice Minister Owen Bonnici, writing about the Public Administration Amendment Bill in this newspaper, has had the audacity of projecting his government as a champion of efforts aimed at promoting transparency and accountability.
No wonder people are losing trust in politicians.