Most conspiracy theories sound like science fiction. A few are so daft they take on a life of their own because their idiocy is so endearing. But then sometimes you wonder if the idiots are those who think conspiracy theories are stupid.

Take a look at Malta and its politics. Remove all shades and tinges in your specs. Forget your allegiances or your antipathies.

Go back to Independence: there have been 12 elections. There were six Nationalist Party victories and five Labour ones. Labour won the infamous 1981 election according to the statute books and the Electoral Commission. Voting-wise the Nationalist Party won it outright.

Any conspiracy there?

The Nationalist and Labour parties have always perpetua­ted the two-party system. An untouchable rule for them is the ‘alternanza tal-poter’ (alternation of power).

In simple words the unwritten rule is that if the PN isn’t in power then by default Labour is and vice-versa.

That Labour took so long to win back power was more due to Labour’s unelectability than any change in the twin-party hegemony.

This is where our society is failing. Politics is at the full ser­vice of the two main parties and not at the service of the common man and woman.

The two political behemoths pay lip service to everything connected to democracy and the rule of law. But it’s lip service and nothing else.

Today the Labour Party is failing on various counts of demo­cratic credentials: that is beyond a fact. Yet the PN is anything but Malta’s shining knight. When the PN was in government, and now in Opposition, it doesn’t stand for the complete defence or promulgation of democratic values.

Both parties fight each other tooth and nail. Sometimes they’re at it in full visceral mode and sometimes they’re like a couple of old toothless dogs just putting on a show.

They don’t fight for democracy in motion. They want to make sure they keep their own, near-total control of all that happens or is important on these islands.

In the past, both parties failed us. Unless something resembling a nationwide change happens they will go on doing so. They will continue to enjoy a complete pig-out whenever they are in power.

Even in electoral terms, the two parties have fudged along. This shows how badly they do things and how their main concern is to cling on to power at all costs.

To show historic and constitutional meltdown, we always speak of the 1981 electoral result. Labour got their electoral victory after they gerrymandered the districts. This resulted in the sad situation where a party that had the minority of votes won more seats.

We, the people, need a major political shift. Not to left, right or centre, but away from the politics that keeps the tribal leaders at the helm in perpetuity

Yet in 1971 the Labour Party won the election by a historic five votes which, had they gone to the PN, would have meant the same result as in 1981. That time round the PN tried its hardest to keep its hold on to power. They didn’t worry that gerrymandering was detrimental to the man in the street whose vote becomes a farce.

Two results – one actual and one just missed. They stem from the fact that the parties never tried to solve the terrible way the State chooses our Electoral Commission.

Whatever happened after the 1981 debacle, and with new constitutional changes to the electoral legislation, the selection of the Electoral Commission was never properly discussed. And neither has the way the electoral system works.

The parties keep blaming each other for the impasse. The real reason is that the status quo sees us boasting a hodgepodge of an electoral law, and this suits the two big parties.

With proper safeguards, no Electoral Commission would have been part of the gerrymandered elections of 1971 and 1981. The Commission would not have been a tool in the parties’ hands to manipulate to their own nefarious benefits.

All this should teach us to look back, reflect and change our old-established ways. We should change the status quo. Parties should not anoint themselves shields of our democracy and act as the only safeguarding agents of our democratic process.

We need different structures in our system which are not easily changed or swayed by the parties. This would give us a better life, a life which lets us breathe properly.

We, the people, need a major political shift. Not to left, right or centre, but away from the politics that keeps the tribal leaders at the helm in perpetuity. Only then can we enjoy the right to have people in positions of trust chosen for their aptitudes not their attitudes. Only then can we, the people, enjoy the freedoms and constitutional safeguards that are so lacking.

These changes call for deep and proper thought and discussion. We need people to tackle this raging bull which has kept the whole political divide in place. We need to firmly establish better people to decide our lives, present and future.

The conspiracy of the parties might not be cemented with blood deals but it definitely resembles it. We cannot keep messing with our political institutions and pushing them to the brink of collapse. We must change our attitude and make sure that our people at the top do not dance to the tune of whichever of the two parties is in power.

Only then will we have moved on and be a flourishing democracy. This is common sense; it is not reinventing any wheel. It is turning the wheel in such a way that our way of life is not ruled by political anomalies.

Anomalies, coincidences and strange twists are instruments in the arms of the power-hungry parties and this is worrying. It also starts making you think that after all it is not a wild conspiracy theory that the two parties are the best of buddies.

Only when common sense rules will we, the people, truly be free to choose political parties. And not necessarily the same old two.

Compiled and written by a team of people who believe in Common Sense. E-mail them on maltacommonsense@gmail.com or see more of what they believe here: www.facebook.com/maltacommonsense.

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