In all democratic countries, the development of liberal institutions has been accompanied by the growth of political parties, which act as intermediaries between the electorate and the government.

Political parties have diverse and important functions. They promote popular interest and mobilise participation in the political life of the country. They present candidates for successive electoral contests and campaign on their behalf. They reflect the active interest of different groups gathered under their umbrella. They formulate policies, discuss issues

and rally support for the government of the day and the opposition to it.

Democracy relies increasingly on the mobilisation of the electorate and each party has to build up a machine staffed by “professionals” to cope with organisation, economics and development, social issues, research, publicity, party finance and international political links, among other activities.

This calls for managerial ability, if a political party is to have a machine capable of inspiring mass support and preparing itself for the responsibilities of government or effective opposition.

Party officials are supposed to be the servants of the party: the people who ensure that the motor works at full throttle under the direction of the leadership. In a truly democratic political party, the officials work in close consultation with the supreme leaders elected by the grassroots.

In the case of Malta, the Nationalist Party elects an administrative and executive committee. The MLP elects a national executive committee. But, in each case, it is necessary for policy to be discussed within the movement and in properly constituted conferences, which transmit messages expressing the will of the mass movement to the leadership.

In the case of the MLP, the situation is even more clear cut: the final authority is its delegates’ conference or, as Clement Attlee once put it, ”the parliament of the movement”

Ever present danger

There is the ever present danger that party bureaucrats take the upper hand and manipulate power in an arbitrary way, denying the grassroots their democratic right to have their say and, at times, going against their own interests. The decision of faceless PN “strategists” to deny the citizens of Marsa and Zejtun their right to vote at the last local council elections, was a flagrant example in this category. This rocks the boat. It offends the democratic sentiment. It is disconcerting, as it produces a situation where the tail wags the dog.

It implies that, if and where this happens, the democratic process ceases to work and the authority and rights of the grassroots are usurped to make democracy stand on its head. It is one thing to institutionalise party machinery, entrusting it the hands of elected “expert” functionaries, and another to usurp the supreme democratic rights of the grassroots.

This is a problem that must be addressed on an ongoing basis by all political parties, the MLP included, in the interest of democratic development.

What seems to be missing is enough lively political activity by the district and local committees, providing interaction between the grassroots and the party machinery. Unless this is satisfactorily solved, and unless possible abuse is nipped in the bud, the end product would be a caricature of democracy, of the kind described by Oriana Fallaci (A Man, p 401) which reads as follows”.

Caricature of Democracy

“… a party is a party, an organisation, a clique, a mafia, at best a sect which does not allow its adepts to express their own personality, their own creativity: on the contrary, it destroys them or at least it twists them.

“A party does not need individuals with personality, creativity, imagination, dignity: it needs bureaucrats, functionaries, servants.

“A party works like a business, an industry, where the general manager (the Leader) and the board of directors (the central committee) hold unattainable and indivisible power. To hang on to it, they hire only obedient managers, servile employees, yes men: in other words, men who are not men, robots who always agree.

“In a business, an industry, the general manager and the board of directors have no use for intelligent persons endowed with initiative, for men and women who say ‘no’, and the reason for this goes even beyond their arrogance: thinking and acting, the men and women who say no represent a disturbing element, sabotage. They put sand in the gears of the machine; they become wrenches thrown into the works.

“The system of a party and of a business is that of an army, in which, the private obeys the corporal who, in turn, obeys the sergeant, who, in turn, obeys the captain, who, in turn, obeys the colonel who, in turn, obeys the general, who, in turn, obeys the supreme command who, in turn, obeys the minister of defence

“And too bad for the deluded person who believes he can make a personal contribution through discussion and exchange of ideas: he ends up expelled or demoted or liquidated, as is right for one who is unable to understand that, in a party, a business, he is allowed to discuss only orders already given, choices already made. Provided it is understood tacitly, the discussion respects the two sacred principles: obedience and loyalty.”

Power corrupts

Human nature being what it is, power corrupts, and a truly democratic party, however tightly organised, must, at all costs, recognise the sovereignty of the grassroots and be forever open to its views.

In the light of the foregoing, what do the residents of Marsascala and Qui-si-Sana have to say when decisions are taken over their heads, to the detriment of their interests and their way of life, and in open defiance of their very vocal and unmistakable protests.

Suppressing or bypassing the grassroots has its inevitable costs. It feeds the fires of resentment and could be disruptive in the short run, even divisive in the medium and long run.

There are two sides to the coin of party politics. One side nourishes democratic development. The opposite side poisons it.

That is why the currency of democracy can be tricky. In the wrong hands, it can turn democrats into mummies, and worthless, up-and-coming politicians into sycophants.

The answer is to give a wide berth to the “wrong hands”.

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