In history, one story goes that during a visit by Russia's famous empress Catherine the Great to Crimea, a fake village was constructed by the governor to impress her. Wherever she travelled, the fake village would be reassembled to give the impression of wealth and success. This tactic can be found elsewhere in history, and even today, on the border with South Korea, there is a fake village built by the North Koreans to give the impression of a prosperous nation to encourage defection. In reality, nobody lives there. The term Potemkin is certainly a useful one to describe Malta's democracy, and allows us to understand what needs fixing. My experience in politics has taught me that Malta has all the window dressing of a full democracy, but very little of the substance. That is why the fight for good governance is so important. Truly, it is the fight for democracy, and the name Partit Demokratiku is very emblematic of what it stands for.

Malta's institutions are run by people handpicked by the Prime Minister as a reward for services rendered, guaranteeing their blind loyalty. Unfortunately, judges are appointed by the Prime Minister, as is the Chief Justice and Police Commissioner, as well as a number of other key positions. It is no secret that building permits are granted as rewards for voting for one party or another, and similarly, the system of rewards and favours in place means any of our institutions bend to the will of our politicians. The fate of ITS seems a foregone conclusion, with the staff and students having moved to Luqa, even before the Planning Authority has decided on the permit for a hotel. One wonders why. It is almost as if it was a foregone conclusion, the result of a deal struck between the Prime Minister and db Group before an election. I have even chatted to a government employee in the street, who, without knowing that I was the Deputy Leader of PD, complained that his office gets calls from Castille regularly, so that people are put on benefits even though they do not deserve them. In practice, the Prime Minister is a popularly elected autocrat. Do not get me wrong, any Maltese Prime Minister is such, and the only limit to such authority is one's conscience. 

I have done my homework, and experts attest to the fact that the Constitution and our institutions have little power to restrain the whims and desires of our political gods. The evidence is plain to see. Indeed, the Constitution, it is often said, was written for gentlemen by gentlemen. Our institutions often give the impression of being professionally run organisations, fitted together nicely and interacting as intended. However, on closer examination, one finds that this is not the case. The ERA is often at loggerheads with the PA, and is mostly ignored. The proper running of any of our institutions is interrupted by a phone call from Castille, or by one of the "customer care departments" which every Minister has, to please voters. There are unwritten rules to be followed, which are more important than the written ones that are merely there for show.

It is no surprise that this week, the European Banking Authority found the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit to be in breach of money laundering directives. The EBA “concluded that the FIAU failed to conduct an effective supervision of Pilatus Bank due to a number of failures, including procedural deficiencies and lack of supervisory actions by the FIAU after its decision to close the case without imposing any sanctions on the bank”. In essence, our institutions may have been manipulated to allow corrupt politicians to enrich themselves. We have heard the accusations before. It certainly backs the claim that the entire FIAU only functions when it is directed to function, defeating the point of its existence entirely. Unfortunately, nothing in Malta works the way it is supposed to. It is, however, designed to give the opposite impression, with party controlled media weaving a ridiculous narrative, distanced from reality, to convince you otherwise. Sadly, neither the Nationalists nor the Labour Party seem to have any serious interest in changing the status quo, because while the Nationalists love to bark about corruption while ignoring their own misdeeds, nobody is ready to tackle clientelism, which is the root of this evil. Clientelism, trading in influence, is the system of abusing the system to reward voters. So long as this is possible, we are indeed dealing with a Potemkin democracy, where everything works the way it is intended to – until the boss says otherwise. Then, the rules go out the window.