In one sense at least, the election held in Germany yesterday mirrors any election that is held here. Many surveys and interviews have showed a total lack of belief in the idea that politics per se can change anything.
People are losing faith in politics, and they are losing it remarkably fast. As the former teacher of Angela Merkel, the SDP candidate who appears to be more likely to win (although she will probably need the support of many other small parties to form a government, at the time of writing) said: “No politician can solve Germany’s problems, not even Angela Merkel.”
I think this sentiment is starting to be felt here, and it is a pity, but many politicians – and their media machines in particular – have only themselves to blame.
The lack of interest in all things political is remarkable, and has really gained ground in the last two years.
It seems as if getting into the EU was the last effort people made to be interested in the political process at all, and since then we have all become immersed in our individual issues, from immigration to chaotic roadworks, from golf courses or not, to the increasing cost of daily living and keeping up with the Apap Joneses, from our incredibly dirty air to – whatever the worrying statistics say – a lack of tourists this summer.
People are still very interested in issues, as the remarkably full letter pages of newspapers show, but much less so in politics per se.
It’s not just a lack of interest in politics, however. It’s a general lack of faith that politics and politicians can improve things. The media of the various parties have a lot to answer for in terms of blame for all this. Both sides (there are still only two really!) portray everything about the other as dark and dreadful.
Yet wherever you are, socially or anywhere else, you witness the friendship and camaraderie between the two sides, and it is obvious that those at the top, both red and blue, are perfectly charming and pleasant to each other, while their media still tries to encourage us all to dislike each other. It’s so mediaeval, it’s untrue.
And, of course, it is the PN who will suffer most from this disillusionment, because it is most prevalent among many of the higher, and sometimes English speaking socio-economic groups than elsewhere. If the PN doesn’t, can’t or won’t, lift itself up a notch to appeal to intelligent people, the results at the next election will be even worse that expected now.
Diehards remain diehards, but where is the vision for intelligent an independent people within the PN?
There can be no positive future in Malta unless we think like one Malta and not like two. It is said so often yet little changes. The party’s media have screaming headlines about things that don’t interest people at all. So Tony Zarb, the leader of the GWU, is going to be challenged for the leadership by the good-looking and apparently charming Manuel Micallef. Well good for Manuel, I say. May the best man win, and may the GWU evolve with the times, whoever wins.
The time for wars and mudslinging is over. Solutions in every area are difficult and need a hell of a lot of cooperation and goodwill. Every time one party comes up with a solution the other lambastes it. Of course we all know very well that if the opposition were in government, views would change completely. In 1996-1998, the then Labour government was attacked mercilessly for electricity hikes which could have been better thought through. And yet now we all have incredible electricity bills, tat twerwir, as we Maltese love to say, with salaries nowhere like keeping up with expenses.
But we cannot escape the fact that, blue or red, we cannot control the price of oil, and this is gong to effect us all, from the fuel in our tanks, to the cost of providing electricity. Right now we’re all consumed by the ten million or so we spend on irregular immigration but are we aware, and do the political parties want us to be aware, of how oil price rises could seriously affect our standard of living?
Today in Malta, politics has an air of unreality about it. People are tired of being misled and being shoved into two camps. We don’t want a third camp. We want the two to improve their act, and get out of the 1970s and 1980s mentality. Maltese politics is caught in a time warp, and those who don’t adapt to the times and, more importantly, try to anticipate the changes cannot be the leaders of tomorrow.