There is no doubt that many of Malta’s middle classes (the English and the Maltese speaking ones), and our young people particularly, are disillusioned with all politicians, the political process and political leaders, though the last perhaps to a lesser extent.

One commentator cum political candidate after another, whether their agenda is red, blue or green, just blames the other side or sides for everything that is wrong. People are not seeing a way out, hence the high proportion who still maintain they will not vote, or don’t know how they will vote in the next election.

We are not yet mirroring EU trends where high numbers actually do not bother to vote in national, and even more so in EU elections, but it is not an impossibility that the rise of the non voter will emerge as a deciding factor on the Maltese political map, perhaps a small percentage by the next election, but a rising one overall.

I don’t think any of the three parties (or there could be more by the next election) should be too complacent about this trend. Although it may initially benefit one party more than another, it is a trend that will hit both badly if both refuse to deal with it.

And people do not want to vote negatively, at least educated middle class people don’t. They don’t want to vote out a party because they have either been there a long time, or because one favour wasn’t granted (or was apparently granted to someone else!), or because if you don’t vote for us you will get somebody even worse.

That kind of door-to-door canvassing will only work with the unthinking products (of which there are many) of our educational system that does not reward individuality, creativity and strength of character and principles. People are not switched off ideas and values at all. In fact they are desperate for signs that those who lead them are passionate about these things too, and are able to move from words or deeds.

These values though are not just the values or the prerogative of one Church, or one political party or one group of environmental lobbyists. They are the values of the middle ground, of the third way, of the purple where red and blue meet with a smidgen of green even, where most of us can see something which appeals. Not necessarily what we would subscribe to one hundred per cent, but where we could find some moral peace. Yet in their methods, in their writing and in their spoken words, all the political parties, all the protest groups are negative, way too negative. They only push themselves up by pushing others down, and some subscribe to this method more enthusiastically than others.

The trouble is that this tactic is a double-edged sword. Yes, you succeed in sowing doubt and making people feel negative about all our main institutions cum political games, but in the end they themselves suffer the backlash of this negativity they sow, because the middle classes at least are revolting against revolting methods in a big way. I do get tired of listening to the blame for everything, including declining Church attendance, being placed on too much materialism, too much wealth and the like. We should be proud of the fact that we have a much higher standard of living than we had years ago, we should be proud of the fact that people are voting with their feet and refusing to attend Church services if they are meaningless and dull. People still have values, sometimes real, better and stronger ones. Values they practise, which cannot be confessed away.

Many who don’t attend Church don’t like the hypocrisy of many who do. Some who do attend have made an effort to find a service which is more genuine, which has some appeal, and why not? The trouble is the thinking, sometimes English speaking, Maltese middle classes, who have often benefited

from a less prescriptive and blinkered educational approach than some others, are not engaging in the political process at all, perhaps as far as a protest group, but that is it. How many of you middle class people would want your child to enter politics today? Twenty years ago some of our best brains went into politics.

OK we may be tired of some of them by now, as we have seen them around for so long, but do you see any real hope in the next younger crop? Do they speak our language, do they reflect our values, are they part of us, do they have at least one thing we can identify with? In many cases the answer is no. If political parties want to continue enjoying their huge successes, they need to get together and change the political climate; they need to share the spoils of victory. We need nationally elected MPs to get rid of the terrible culture of pjaciri at street level (the candidates we elected to the EU Parliament were a better crop for this).

We need fewer MPs and fewer Ministers who are well rewarded. We need most of all to be inclusive, to reward talent not colour, and to use everyone’s talent and stop this silly divide, destroy the other and rule. We need one Malta, not two or three. We mustn’t let the justified disillusion of 20,000 voters reach a crescendo. The way we are though, we might.

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