Tomorrow we cross the threshold of another year. It will be a year of hope and challenge, all the more real because it marks the approach of the next general election.

It may be too early to talks about programmes, but it is timely, even urgent, to plead for the contending political parties to clean up the political environment, and to make this environment congenial for the democratic process.

Man’s frailty and the corrosive quality of power make explosive chemistry that is capable of blowing up democracy.

In recent months and years, corruption has destabilised various democratic governments overseas, causing heads to roll. Political leaders were investigated and forced to resign. The electorate decapitated the solidly established Liberal Party in Japan. Hundreds of politicians and businessmen have been imprisoned and Italian Christian democracy has been dethroned.

It has been said that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. But, in all the above-mentioned cases, the corrupt elements were exposed. They were brought before the bar of justice or the bar of public opinion, and this without fear or favour and with no regard for exalted office.

The Malta experience

There has been much talk of corruption, criminality and abuse of political power in Malta. This talk, sometimes vehement and sometimes sotto voce usually comes from the Opposition Party of the day

Only rarely were there persecutions, except in the case of the small fry. And there has been no absolute transparency in the investigations, where there have been allegations and charges of corruption.

If in fact corruption was detected, the criminals and others who took advantage of their authority in the past got off with their ill-gotten gains. And when charges or allegations were made, causing some dust to be stirred on the public stage, everything was forgotten after a brief flurry of interest, either in the media or in the wider public forum.

The advent of pluralism in broadcasting may have increased the noise, but it cannot be said that this has yielded results in terms of exposing, identifying and prosecuting corrupt elements.

Fire and fury

The Nationalist opposition was fire and fury before the 1987 election, with charges of blatant corruption in the form of tixhim (bribery) and the odour of “institutionalised corruption”. A Commission against Corruption was set up. Hardly a mouse emerged from the mountain, due exception being made for a handful of isolated cases.

It was then the turn of the Labour opposition to make its own series of demands for public inquiries. Its spokesmen and media made energetic accusations and traded insinuations, only to make the aura of perceived corruption thicker than ever. But, when the party was briefly in office in 1996, its investigations failed to yield any fruit.

Parliament created the necessary machinery to scrutinize public expenditure through a Public Accounts Committee of the House. This Committees has so far proved to be toothless, as evidenced at its recent sittings relating to the Voice of the Mediterranean episode And while matters continue to drift, political power is being diffused or pared down with the creation of autonomous institutions and quangos of every kind, whose powers and budgets are more remote from parliamentary control than the average government department.

Democracy needs accountability

The breaking up of the public service into agencies gives scope for surreptitious decision-making and cosy networks. Democracy needs more, and not less, accountability.

Politics will always provide a lot of leeway to those who wield power and exercise authority. Mutual back scratching has traditionally been the stuff of politics, and local interests will always find ways and means to grow fat by sleight of hand in an environment shielded from the public gaze.

Patronage rules. It immediately becomes suspect if it is wielded clumsily in favour of business interests who expect a quid pro quo for surreptitious donations. It is equally suspect if it surrenders to the avaricious demands of political hacks.

Reliable antidote

The best and most reliable antidote is openness and transparency. A propensity for upright behaviour and candour carries more weight when it comes from politicians in office rather than in opposition.

There is nothing to stop upright politicians, from both sides of the political divide, to insist on transparent public investigations by independent people when serious charges of corruption are bandied about.

The concentration of power, including patronage power, in the hands of the Executive encourages maladministration, nepotism and political favouritism. To decentralise is to democratise.

What prevents politicians aspiring for clean government from insisting that senior public appointments are made through parliamentary hearings, and that the arrogance of power is checked by clear rules of accountability?

Watchdog role of media

The media could play a vital role as watchdog of the public interest. Its job is to be investigative, to expose and to demand the highest standards of rectitude from politicians of all shades, public servants and business interests alike.

There is an even higher duty expected from a vigilant press. It ought to react with vigour when there is hard evidence that the environment is in danger of pollution by corrupt practices.

This danger arises when those in office display the arrogance of office or the inability, deliberate or otherwise, to deal effectively with such pollution.

History has proved, time and again, that when this point is reached, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

In such circumstances, government inertia and pusillanimity could be as dangerous as the scurrilous charges by the opposition.

In the absence of a clear formula that guarantees public accountability, democracy is bound to wither on the grapevine sooner or later.

This is the time for all citizens of democratic orientation to insist that politicians will, henceforth, dance to their tune... and not vice-versa. It is time for them to resolve to take the first purposeful steps to clean up the environment from sleaze, graft and the arrogance of power.

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