Political parties and the local councils’ earthquake

A ‘report’ on The Sunday Times (5 September ) under the heading ‘Were the bishops right on councils?’ recalled that way back in 1993 Malta’s bishops had opposed the involvement of political parties in local councils – something that is normal in every country where there are local councils i.e. everywhere else in the world.

I could not believe my eyes when I read that the journalist had asked the two now retired bishops (Mercieca and Cauchi) whether they felt their stand 17 years ago was vindicated ‘in the light of the political storms involving councils.’

The basic assumption behind such a question is incredible: the integrity of a person depends on whether he openly wears the badge of a political party. If one does, is he/she more susceptible to temptation and wrong-doing than if one were not? Whether a mayor or councillor abuses of his/her position does not depend on whether he stood for election on a political party ticket, rather than as an ‘independent’ – as the journalist seems to unwittingly imply. It depends on the character of the person.

Political parties may be accused of picking the wrong candidates in their enthusiasm to field a formidable array of choices for the electorate to choose from even in an insignificant local council election; and by hindsight it is obvious that in some cases they should have known better.

However there is a positive flipside to all this. Mayors and councillors who put themselves in an untenable position were asked – even forced, perhaps – to resign by the party in whose name they had contested the election.

Had these been elected on their personal merits only and not on a political party ticket, there would have been no Paul Borg Olivier or Toni Abela taking disciplinary steps against them.

Would that have been better? Certainly not! I am sure that many would not have bothered to resign, claiming innocence. The discipline inherent to one’s belonging to a political party is a positive aspect in the so called local councils ‘earthquake’. That is not to say that those administering this discipline are perfect or infallible. Call it a necessary evil, but without this discipline the long-term effects of the ‘earthquake’ would have been worse.

Would the back-stabbing and dirty tricks, evident today even between councillors of the same party have evaporated into thin air if all councillors had contested the council election on an ‘independent’ ticket’? Of course not! Human beings with defects remain human beings with the same defects, whether they carry a political badge or not.

Seventeen years ago, the bishops were absolutely wrong in their stand on local councils. Whoever gave them the advice to speak out in favour of political parties being kept away from local councils was mistaken.

The defects and mistakes of humanity should be attributed to humans and not to the badge – political or otherwise – that they wear. The Church, of all institutions, should have known that.