Ever since Malta joined the EU, the past PN and current Labour governments have spoken about an inclusive government in which no Maltese is discriminated against whatever his or her social background and political orientation. Fine thoughts from the PN and Labour governments, but have the intentions been turned into a reality? I have my doubts. To be fair to the current Labour government, it has at least established the Ministry for Social Dialogue, Consumer Affairs and Civil Liberties, which have within it a Department for Human Rights and Social Integration. However, it is one thing to establish these departments but it is another to make sure that the departments live up to expectations. As for the PN government when in power, all it did was look after bigwigs and its 'own people'. The rest of us mortals, including the minorities were only remembered when elections were round the corner.
This takes us to the last general election. Why did the Labour Party trounce the PN with more than 35,000 votes? The answer may seem difficult but it is actually very simple. Among other reasons, the tipping point why Joseph Muscat beat Lawrence Gonzi in a landslide victory was that the voting public in Malta has somehow become sophisticated. Most young people of voting age today may not always vote for the party their parents support. I personally had a discussion with my son and daughter, both of whom became enfranchised shortly before the last general election, and the argument they put forward in the issues we were talking about was mind-boggling, to say the least. What's more, I couldn't guarantee which way they were going to vote, that is, if they voted at all!
The second point is that whether we like it or not, the world, including Malta is rapidly becoming a global village where composition of the voting population is slowly changing. 'New voters' in Malta today includes yours truly and many more like me. Political parties may decide to ignore us and pretend we don't matter. That is their problem. But as someone who took part in the MEP elections in 2005, I can now reveal that there are no less than 2000 foreign-born voters in Malta today! And many of us form part of the 'floating' voting bloc! Ignore us at your peril!
Thirdly, the overwhelming victory of the Labour Party in the last general election signified a changing time in Malta. While the role minority voters played in the last election, if any, still remains to be assessed, one thing is clear: the Labour Party picked up votes from across the board. The PN were also doomed because many of their supporters decided to stay home instead of going out to vote. And without hesitation, one of the reasons which made people abandon the PN was because of the perceived arrogance of that government. You can build or develop the most fantastic structures with the 'economy not been stupid' aka Bill Clinton, but if your ministers or party workers are arrogant or perceived to be so, then the people will gently remind you who is the boss during elections. Gonzi and his ministers might have been good at governance but they were not the government of the people. The government built a wall within itself and forgot the people. The ministers became demigods and were impossible to reach! In Gonzi's government, one man or one woman would be made chairman of several parastatal organisations as if Malta did not belong to others. And of course the last thing they thought about was social dialogue and minority integration. The late Fr Peter Serracino Inglott aptly wrote in one of his essays that "an inclusive society should mean giving maximum space not only to those with rich talent and experience but also to the less disadvantaged in the society"
What people actually want from a government is not patronage or favouritism but recognition, acceptance and meritocracy. A nonexistent policy of inclusiveness makes a section of the population think that all citizens may not be equal after all. Is this right in the 21st century?
Joseph Muscat has at least done the right thing by establishing a department which seeks to foster social dialogue and integration. Let us hope the government will now take it to the next level by truly and practically involving those people who need to be fully integrated into Maltese society.
Damian Iwueke studied International Law and Diplomacy at the University of Malta. In 2004 he contested the European Parliamentary Election as an independent candidate. He is the first FIFA football agent in Malta. In 2012, he served as 'Ambassador' for the UK National Lottery, the biggest sponsor of the London Olympics