‘Tis the season of grifting | Haris Barounis

Over the last two months we have witnessed a new crop of political scandal - the benefits racket in September, and the infamous driving license scandal in October. As the whistleblower who exposed Transport Malta’s racket starts testifying against three ex-officials charged with corruption, a deeper reflection on the systems and circumstances that brought us here is essential.

These scandals fulfil all the definitions of clientelism and nepotism, which seem to be inextricably woven together in the fabric of the Labour Party. The current administration is dead-set to further entrench itself in the halls of Kastilja.

However, the government’s response points at something far more sinister. Labour officials are not even deflecting or denying the issue. Instead, the administration is shrugging off the controversy by downplaying the gravity and level of corruption at hand. This corruption is normalised not just through impunity. People are also exhausted at the constant barrage of controversy and blatant misconduct.

We are also exhausted. We are exasperated by the government’s disregard for civil society as well as the brazen use of party loyalty to close ranks and deflect all criticism. This fatigue only alienates people, whose indifference and abstention in turn props up the system. Down the line, this breeds political apathy.

Those of us who do choose to engage are subject to a sort of political gaslighting, where the realm of acceptable politics has gradually shifted to the level where overt corruption “is the way the political system works”, as the Prime Minister said.

What the Prime Minister however fails to mention is that the political system is full of politicians who have no material incentive to work on anything other than their private interests. These are the same politicians who have overdeveloped every inch of the islands. They are the ones who underinvested in public health and then auctioned it off to their friends. And they are the ones mistreating migrants on land and leaving them to die at sea. Every action betrays a clear disregard for public wellbeing and a clear admission of the chokehold that capital has on them.

When we join the dots together, we quickly realise that politics has become a means to power for power’s sake.

Politics is no longer about achieving a specific ideological vision for society. Instead, political will - both domestically and abroad - is channelled towards maintaining the status quo. It is power for power’s sake - bereft of any plan besides reproducing itself.

Where does that lead? The public is never in a position where it can contest inequities and the political elite do not address systemic inequalities. Wrongdoing remains unpunished and compounds. Injustice ends up defining our material conditions. Any challenge to the government apparatus feels insurmountable, and any effort to address it insubstantial. And then, any remedy comes in the form of means-tested, market-oriented policy drafted by four friends-of-friends.

As leftists, we call this neoliberalism. You may have differing definitions but there is no denying that the administration is becoming a reactionary machine solely tasked with putting off self-inflicted fires and creating short term schemes to appease the electoral base.

The prevalence of these schemes is not a symptom of a hijacked or misaligned system. They are not even the isolated actions of a few “bad apples”, utilising party levers to eke out the few extra votes that may allow them to remain in office for a couple of years more. These are features of a system that is unequipped to deal with ever-escalating crises. It relies on opportunistic and clientelistic relations to plug the growing holes of the social safety net and appease disgruntled or even greedy constituents. At the same time, as the elite become further entrenched, they disregard rules and procedure while the out-group suffers.

We refuse to accept this. We refuse to be subject to a system that protects the interests of a select elite through regulatory capture. We refuse to operate under the assumption that the only way to provide for the vulnerable is with quid pro quos and handshake agreements.

We refuse to allow a reality where a select few people get privileged treatment via WhatsApp chats with their local representative.

So despite how tired we feel, how we toil away in the courtrooms and in the streets, we are committed to fighting the oppression of the outrage machine. We demand that the Labour officials involved in these scandals are summoned and questioned. We demand that the incestuous relationship of the government with the police force is severed, and full disclosures are enforced when investigating corruption cases. Long term, we recognise that eliminating clientelism can only be achieved by abolishing the two-party system through electoral reform.

But the people of Malta are tired nonetheless. Their protests and objections, despite the overwhelming evidence, are ignored or trapped in an unending bureaucracy.  However, it is evident that the aforementioned escalating crises will eventually expose the contradictions of this political reality.

The edifice of respectable realpolitik is unequivocally challenged and on the verge of collapsing. Politicians, intellectuals and public figures of Malta need to consider what happens next.