If the parties have lost their soul, the people have not

It is said that people get the politicians they vote for.

There is of course some truth in that statement, but frankly very few people have any influence on the choice of political party candidates in the first place.

And most people have never quite grasped that most candidates get into politics for all the wrong reasons.

The political parties, the PN and the PL, have moved to the centre of politics and appear to be entrenched there. The differences are so small that it is more a question of style.

Today we need little convincing to appreciate that the dynamics of partisan politics on both sides of the border are not at all different.  No matter how hard Simon Busuttil tries, no one will believe that if elected he will not retrace the steps of Gonzi or Muscat when it comes to partisan decisions.

On the environment, Muscat cannot quite grasp its importance or its relevance.

Both parties choose their people and reward their supporters with lucrative contracts and appointments. To a certain extent, it is to be expected that after 25 years of one government, ‘the others’ are given a chance to have a slice of the cake.

There are of course those who smell the coffee and jump ship to join the opposing party just in time to be considered part of the clan.

This I guess was apparent before the last election, with contractors, importers, traders, hoteliers and the lot migrating from their traditional home (the PN) to the traditional bête noir of the business community: the Labour Party.

The Labour Party of course went out of its way to embrace this community by opening up to their concerns and promising to work hard to trim bureaucracy.

To encourage business is hardly a bad thing, but to bend over backwards to accommodate lobbies which are intrinsically counter-productive in the long run is wrong. I guess the difficult phrase would read as, “ideologically incompatible”.

The Labour Party under Joseph Muscat espouses the thinking of being a social democratic party – he argues that he wants to create wealth to ensure that there is the money to offer a welfare system and an education system that are second to none. To have a country that is second to none.

He also embraces ‘gender’ issues like no party has ever done before.

There is also an apparent zero tolerance to underpaid or precarious employment.

But then suddenly there is a screeching noise, and it stops.

On the environment, Muscat cannot quite grasp its importance or its relevance.

His thinking of high-rise, new development, playing around with planning laws, and flexibility over big projects prove this unmistakably. And of course wildlife conservation (take that to refer to hunting and trapping) is visibly absent from his radar.

On migration and migrants he does not share the same empathy he extends to the gay lobby and he knows that his constituency is vehemently anti-migration.

If the Labour Party dumped ideology to take up populism, it did so knowing all too well that on many issues, the PN stands for next to nothing.

Unlike his social democratic partners in Europe, Muscat falls short on the green issues. And he continues to underestimate the importance of these issues, even electorally.

It is on this matter that Muscat the resurgent populist is unconvinced that embracing ideology will get him anywhere.

He may be right, because on the other side of the border, the Nationalist Party has a very difficult time trying to stand for something.

If the Labour Party dumped ideology to take up populism, it did so knowing all too well that on many issues, the PN stands for next to nothing.

After EU accession, the PN lost its sexiness. It continued to believe that people should remain eternally grateful to it for 1987 and 2003 and re-elect it.  

The rest is history. In my eyes the party is still run by a posse of eternally arrogant politicians who refuse to accept the fact that they made awful political judgements and mistakes and were malicious in their intent.

So it is clear that as long as the opposition stands for nothing, the Labour Party will simply do what is electorally appropriate but not necessarily correct. And that is to avoid getting lost in ideological issues.

The question to ask: are people ideologically driven?

Of course they are!

People in Malta are primarily conservative or liberal. The vast majority are not liberal.

Others are sensitive to the rights of minorities and the underprivileged – and not in the same superficial way Lino Farrugia and Engerer read minorities.

A sizeable but disjointed chunk of Malta’s middle class are seriously concerned about environmental issues. They're opposed to the building industry and other lobbies, and think that we should worry about traffic and energy issues in a wider sense.

A smaller group feels very strongly about migrant issues and diversity.

Then there are the ‘taboo issues’, such as for or against free health and the issue of government versus the private sector.

Other pockets in the population talk about peripheral issues such as political accountability, institutional reform, bigger or smaller government, the role of the Church, the judiciary, the media, etc.

All these interests are marked by one underlining factor, they are not self-centred, they are altruistic in nature.

There is a fundamental difference between a speculator who wants to develop more high-rise and a group of young tree huggers who oppose this. Or to put it more directly, a developer who lobbies and gets the politician to change high rise rules and the environmentalist. The former is defending his patch, the latter are looking at serving the general interest of society and to a lesser extent their country.

The belief that migrants should be integrated and treated as equals is supported by those who are not shackled by the fears of those who cannot stand the sight of foreigners.

The thought that the government should intervene to provide for those who cannot support themselves is fuelled by the ‘solidarity’ factor.

This ideology is governed by a value that is higher than religious belief. Religion is intrinsically related to being credited with eternal salvation based on the brownie points one garners in this world.   

Joseph Muscat would do himself and others a favour if he could stop to ponder and realise that beyond his communication skills, and apart from the obvious changes in style, many of which are positive, he must dig deeper to find a soul for his party politics.

Failing which, he will be remembered as a clone of Tony Blair, who is seen as the one great orator of his time, a sure winner for the British Labour party against the Conservatives but who is now derided and loathed by many of his former voters who now see through his shallow form of politics and his barmy international outlook.

History teaches us lessons, but no one seems to want to learn.