People first
Harry Vassallo
The Greens in government or even the Greens in Parliament are
prospects which could make the forthcoming election far less boring
than it seems at present. In the event of a Nationalist victory, the
most ardent of Nationalists may sigh in relief but once that first
breath is exhaled and the danger of a Labour government is averted,
the next five years will stretch out in dismal déjà vu.
Are Labourites truly excited by the prospect of a Labour government?
They are all convinced that it is about time that there was a change:
the Nationalists have been there too long. They also dread the
consequences of yet another defeat. Still, assuming a Labour victory,
once the dancing for joy is over, what do they have to look forward
to?
It takes very little pressure for even committed partisans of the
other two parties to concede that, change in government or not, the
essentials of the problems we face will not change.
What may leave us all excited, baffled, on tenterhooks or
exasperated, depending on where we stand, is the prospect of Green
success. Alternattiva Demokratika today is nothing like the party
that contested the elections in 1992, 1996, 1998 or 2003. It is still
not a political party with the weight and clout of its competition
but it has come a very long way, becoming an acknowledged threat to
the status quo. The PN generously concedes by proposing to implement
our manifesto second hand. Both the PN and the MLP graciously concur
that it is probable that neither of them will scramble over the 50
per cent mark in the next election.
The Greens could break through in any one of the 13 separate
elections that will take place in a few weeks or months. If we can
break through anywhere, we can break through in several places. In
theory, the 2000-3000 votes necessary are available in each of the 13
electoral districts.
The more Greens make it to Parliament, the greater our chances of
being part of the next government. AD would join its counterparts in
Italy, Finland, Ireland and the Czech Republic. It would make life
interesting for everyone.
Dozens of issues frozen in the glacial dam of political stagnation
would break loose, bringing our political reality in touch with our
social and economic reality. It could be very disorienting for people
who have come to regard as normal situations as surreal as Lm10 a
year rents and the absence of divorce and almost complete government
disinterest in renewable energy.
As the ice melts, a major reform will also become possible: the
present talk of a Whistleblower Act, a Freedom of Information Act and
a law regulating the financing of political parties will become much
more than a promise. With 20 years to do it all, with the Greens
demanding such basic reforms for the whole 18 years of their
existence, the PN comes around to them on the eve of an election
knowing that they will not be in place until afterwards, maybe. If
the Greens are elected there will be no maybe. With such fundamentals
in place Malta could become another place altogether.
There will be no ifs and buts about investment in renewable energy
either. For the 34 years since the first oil crisis, Malta has lost
opportunity after opportunity to develop its unquestionable potential
in this sector. We have the world’s third costliest electricity bill
and we are bottom of the list on renewables.
The energy issue is symbolic of the obstinate refusal of government
after government to catch up with the times, to acquire a
contemporary outlook on development. Both the other parties are still
stuck fast in the post-war paradigm that allows irreversible life
quality and environmental sacrifices in order to achieve economic
development.
It is possible and absolutely necessary to make progress without
incurring permanent losses. There are huge gains to be made from
optimising the use of our resources which have been on full waste
levels for decades. Whether the resource in question is land, energy,
housing or minerals, a change in attitude will almost immediately
reap very significant rewards simply because we have been obstinately
wasteful so far.
On coming to power in 1987 the PN ditched its old-money support and
opted for the dominant construction millionaire milieu. It was
traditional PN pragmatism. I have no doubt that Labour, for all its
rhetoric, will do precisely the same once it comes to power. Nothing
will change.
The only possible challenge to the stranglehold of the construction
lobby is through the election of the Greens to Parliament. It could
happen before we wreck it all and hit rock bottom. All it takes is
2,000 votes here, 3,000 votes there. There were 23,000 options
exercised in favour of the Greens in 2004. It would take a fraction
of that support to change our political landscape for good.
Above all, the change would affect the use of our primary resource:
humans. The Greens in Parliament and, better still, the Greens in
government will oblige all political parties to take one or two steps
backwards butting out of our private lives. There will no longer be
the totalising one-party government that demands and expects to be
everywhere and do everything.
It will mean that, perhaps for the first time in our history, people,
as people and not in function of their loyalty to this or that
political party, will come first. We can look forward to the active
suppression of cartels in business, to the respect of private
citizens in securing their rights whether pension rights, social
assistance, support from the police or simple courtesies in the
everyday interface with authority.
I dream of a time when the first option of most citizens when facing
some difficulty is not to resort to a politician; of a time when
remedial systems not only exist but actually work, work fast and are
known to be effective. I dream of a time when a possible alternation
in government creates neither hope nor fear that one’s support
network will grow or decay. Yes, it is all a very long way off. Not
even a massive Green influence could change things overnight.
However, it is no empty boast to say that only a Green presence in
decision-making can set the ball rolling in the right direction. No
Green presence and we will not even begin to begin, in the next five
years, perhaps not even in the next decade.
We Greens will always be the smaller party. Domination and exclusion
is not in our nature. We can oblige our much larger partners to learn
to adopt our stance and reduce them to our condition: respectful
dependence on our volatile support, the fullest accountability
permanently. What is inevitable for us becomes necessary for them
also. For our colleagues in the leadership of the other parties this
is the worst possible scenario, altogether new and possibly
terrifying: people first, as people not as partisans and clients. For
Greens, it is the way it has always been.
Imagine the day after the next election: peace and quiet heralding a
new era of sober government, the whole political class subdued at
last. The true victors will be people, ordinary people, all of us
from every walk of life. We may want to stop and ponder the landscape
before us before venturing on, knowing that at every step each one of
us will wander further and further away from intrusive political
influence. Our children will grow up to regard the stifling
stagnation of extreme polarisation as a forgotten phase in our
development, a relic of our past as remote as colonialism and the era
of political violence are to today’s voters.
It is my dream and I have found it worth living for every day of the
past 18 years. Not everybody may share it. There is no need. A mere
handful of us can make it happen. The option before us is between a
false fear and the hope of a prize of which whole generations have
been deprived for far too long. It is not at all difficult to decide.
Dr Vassallo is chairman of Alternattiva Demokratika - the Green
Party.
www.alternattiva.org.mt, www.adgozo.com
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[...] People first by Harry Vassallo For the 34 years since the first oil crisis, Malta has lost opportunity after opportunity to develop its unquestionable potential in this sector. We have the world?s third costliest electricity bill … [...]