No, this is not a historical article intended to convey my pride in our forefathers, pride I truly feel. It is politicians I want to write about. It is sad to see that in surveys regularly conducted by the media, politicians fare repeatedly badly. Politicians are simply not trusted. Of course this is unfair to all the decent politicians who have graced, and continue to grace, our islands and, truth be told, I honestly believe that the majority of politicians do their best in the difficult field that is politics.

However, as is usually the case, it is the bad apples that seem to hit the media stands – not just locally but also internationally. It is a fact that the international media glorify the misdeeds of politicians but barely mention the good stuff. This is, of course, unfair – especially when the misdeed refers to a person’s private life and not to some political howler, but, that is a subject for another day. It is often said that bad news sells – so now for some preaching!

Faith

It is useless entering the political arena without faith. The basis of any political intent is faith in the ideals the politician intends to represent. By ideals I do not necessarily mean the leftist ideals or the centre-right ideals, or any other form of political thought. It is the ideal of service: service to the community at large and to individual needs in particular. To think of politics outside of this context is wrong. Proper service has to be the ideal at the basis of any politician’s intentions. There can be no better ideal.

Hope

We live in a mad, mad world where 24 hours no longer seem to be enough. Do we manage to accomplish anything any more? The politician’s role in this context is to transfer his faith into hope – the hope that things can get better. We live in an economic climate where the gap between the haves and the have-nots seems to be widening. There are far too many people edging slowly towards the relative poverty line and there are also far too many truly below the actual poverty line. Far too many people are two or three paychecks away from bankruptcy. This can be dangerous. A lack of hope brings with it a sense of desperation coupled with a lack of incentive. It is incentive that is, finally, at the bottom line of all economic improvement. So it is up to the politician to instil hope in a better future for us all. The accent here is on “us all”: whatever creed, colour, sex or political persuasion.

Charity

However, general economic improvement is not good enough. It needs to be accompanied with a sense of charity. There will always be situations where charity is needed. We live in a community and no community can ever call itself a “proper” community if it fails in its charitable obligations. This is why I personally have so much respect for those individuals in our various associations, voluntary or otherwise, who give up their time to help those in need without fanfare or remuneration. There will always be those who abuse this charity, but the welfare state as originally perceived requires constant regard to the most unfortunate and vulnerable in our society. A strong sense of community coupled with charity is thus a necessity in any political ideal.

Onward faith hope and charity!