A group of MPs have opened up and spoken about the psychological struggles of making it into Malta’s parliament in a thesis submitted to the University of Malta.
Mariah Zammit’s thesis – titled ‘The Impact of becoming a Member of Parliament on lifestyle and well-being - A Psychosocial Perspective’ – saw six MPs interviewed about various facets of political life.
The aim of the study, which was in fulfilment of her Bachelors of Psychology (Honours) degree and which was tutored by Prof Mary Anne Lauri, was to explore “the psychological impacts of taking on the position of a Member of Parliament on an individual's lifestyle and well-being”, taking into account various aspects such as gender and work-life balance among other things.
Zammit (inset, photo) is an activist – she is the President of Malta’s National Youth Council (KNZ) – and said that she was motivated to choose this topic for her thesis in order to understand politics more. “We do not understand our political climate – we just judge it, that’s all,” she told The Malta Independent on Sunday.
“I looked into MPs to see what can be done to tempt people into politics, but also to give MPs a human element – I want to give them the benefit of the doubt, and to understand where they are coming from,” she said.
She also wants to bring change: Zammit in fact said that she will be meeting with the people who run Parliament to see if any of the things mentioned in her study, and other matters related to wellbeing can be introduced in what is Malta’s highest political institution.
Zammit interviewed six MPs as part of her study: three from the government and three from the opposition. Three of them were women and three were men, and their ages and the length of time that they have been in politics varied as well.
The MPs were all interviewed by Zammit anonymously, and their identities were not disclosed to The Malta Independent on Sunday.
What emerged from the study was a little seen window into the psyche of some of Malta’s MPs: the challenges they face, the stresses of being an elected official, and how they try and cope with it.
The effects of being in the public eye
The study was divided into three major themes, as it looked into the implications of becoming an MP, the backgrounds of those who are MPs, and their lifestyle and wellbeing.
It is clear from the interviews that once one becomes an MP, there is no escaping the fact that they are now permanently in the public eye.
"When you are in the public eye, you are always a cheque," one of the MPs.
“Once you put your nose outside the door, you find people speaking to you about something in their lives. Sometimes I end up in situations where I go buy pills from the pharmacy either for me or for someone from my family, and two or three people tell you 'Ah, I was going to call you’. You have to learn to deal with that,” another said, emphasising the absence of privacy and the lack of boundaries.
That can go a step too far. One of the MPs recounted: “When I got into the public eye, there were times when my father and my mother used to go to church every single Sunday, but when I got elected, people used to tell them, ‘What the f*** is your son doing?’ and it affected them a lot, especially my mother.”
Another said that they had to teach their parents how to handle such things. “This is my life and this is your life now; just listen to people; do not argue back. Everything is going to be fine. So that transition and that shift were not easy,” the MP said.
With election comes the challenge of having to put oneself out there as well. Zammit explained that one of the MPs she interviewed observed that some of the new politicians being elected today do not have the experience of being able to do a speech on the spot.
“In a way you can understand it, but at the time you ask the question: are we preparing our politicians well enough? Or is it just a matter of getting them elected on the district and all is well and good?,” Zammit said.
She recalled how one of the MPs even said that they had a colleague who had to give a short speech at an inauguration but panicked so much that she had to calm them down. That colleague today is a government minister.
“I understand the anxiety, but it’s not spoken about,” Zammit said.
“Stress is a major factor in all this. That’s not out of this world… it’s not like we haven’t heard it before; but we don’t pay attention to the stress that MPs are going through,” Zammit added.
“We’ve always been a people who complain, and we motivate our MPs through negative feedback not positive feedback – the prosit ministru does not motivate them at the end of the day. We are stressed, and that’s how we motivate our MPs. It’s not necessarily good and it’s not necessarily bad but we are not taking into consideration that these are people not robots, which bothers me a lot,” Zammit said.
‘People now feel more comfortable insulting you’: the impact of social media
Social media is another factor, with one MP saying that it has made people more comfortable insulting and criticising them.
“People now feel more comfortable insulting and criticizing you, not even constructive criticism, because they are mean and you feel it. You feel it in general, and it is not good for anyone. And certain attacks go beyond what is acceptable. And these types of comments can sometimes be even more stressful than the work itself,” the MP said.
“Certain comments don’t even stop with the individual; they go beyond that; they attack the family, and most of the time, it's also the colleagues you work with. Some comments are simply unwarranted and uncalled for and it shouldn’t be like that,” they continued.
The MP further added: “In Malta, I feel like we are going in a direction where everyone says whatever they want without any consequences; on Facebook, they feel comfortable insulting and calling you names, and if we go on like this, there will be even fewer people who would be willing to get into politics.”
It’s certain though that what happens on social media does have an impact on MPs. One of the MPs said that they used to simply take note of what was being said in the media, but now not only that – they actually study what is circulating on social media. Another MP, Zammit said, has a team of consultants who analyse the comments and with whom they meet on a weekly basis.
“I didn’t expect that certain MPs would be so affected by social media, particularly as some of them have been in politics for quite a while –social media leaves an impact both on them in terms of self-confidence and on their families,” Zammit said.
Gender, families and politics
One of the female MPs interviewed also highlighted the gender disparities in Parliament.
“At one point we had between Members of Parliament, around 4 or 5 giving birth but that makes a difference. We do not have nappy changers, but I do not think that makes a huge difference, as anyone can change their children’s nappies anywhere but there isn’t a space where children can come and there is somebody you know - not that I do not want them in the main chamber but if we had to create a bit of space for these kids to draw, and if we want to have a nappy changer, we easily can put one in the toilet. That’s all. But again, it’s an older generation, taking these decisions, men are behind it,” she said.
Another female MP said that she felt that people also feel more comfortable insulting and criticising women than they do with men. “For them, somehow their threshold of what is acceptable in a man is much higher than what is accepted in women.”
Zammit said that the public perception of women in politics is one of the factors preventing women from getting into it in the first place: “They comment on how they dress, they comment on their children, they give them a harder time for longer,” she said, referring to the public.
The study showed that across the board, the MPs “had an optimistic and ambitious mentality that has been developed through the events of their childhood” and likewise that – as commonly seen across Mediterranean cultures – their family was a very important part of their lives.
“Almost all of the MPs value family – it’s such a big backbone within their lives that I was quite shocked. Not everyone maybe has the most stable background in their lives, but I was quite surprised – some had their extended family, others had their parents,” Zammit said.
However, Zammit said that there can also be difficulties surrounding the family. She said that one MP ended up fighting with their brother after they entered politics, because the sibling was now considered as a Politically Exposed Person (PEP).
Interestingly, she also observed that the male MPs interviewed were happy to disclose their relationships with their parents and children, but more reluctant to speak about their relationship or marital status.
‘You are not superman or superwoman’: How MPs learn to cope
Questions about how being an MP affect their lifestyle and wellbeing elicited interesting responses.
Certainly, the consensus is that the nature of the profession makes it difficult to establish a routine or something resembling a work-life balance. “A normal routine does not exist in this line of work,” one the MPs said.
Another commented that “most clashes with my family arise from struggling to find a work-life balance even on special days like holidays, birthdays, and other family celebrations.”
For a third MP, the best way to make sure their work life and private life work out is to keep them together.
“I cannot separate them from one another, so I take my kids to work, and I encourage my colleagues to bring their kids to work with them. It feels so much better for you and the kids as you see more of each other. It is my policy that if you have an issue with me because I brought my child to a meeting, then I’m sorry. Don’t do a meeting with me. I used to take my child to Parliament with me. People are and will adapt to this eventually,” the MP said.
Likewise, another MP extols the benefits of involving their children in work settings, saying that some of the older politicians had told the new ones to take care of their children, as they will grow up and they’ll end up regretting missing it for politics.
Time with one’s family was cited by MPs as an important coping mechanism to achieve work-life balance – and another MP said that there are times when one must establish a boundary between their work and personal lives.
“It was my husband's birthday, and we wanted to go for a few days in Rome. Unfortunately, there was a change in the plan of how we are going to give speeches and I told them ‘I’m sorry you changed it without informing me’ and I’m not giving a speech in Parliament because I’m going to be abroad. Before I would hassle myself trying to change the flights - Forget it. Why? Who cares? I had plans and other people changed the plans, my plans were there and you know, everyone knew about them. There was a time when they were trying to shift so that I could be accommodated, they tried, but it didn’t work, so what? It’s not the end of the world. This is the big difference,” the MP said.
“If the public knew why they were establishing these boundaries, they wouldn’t judge them as much. I appreciated that they are placing these boundaries, but as the public we are still very insensitive when it comes to handling politicians,” Zammit commented as she referred to this quote.
Another MP had a coping strategy centred around trying to “stop thinking.” “Recently, I ended up learning a craft. Do I need it? No, but it’s a distraction. You can’t be in politics from morning to night. I know that some people are; good luck to them. They are probably more successful than me but it does not bother me one bit,” they said.
“The longer you remain in politics, all you need to do is keep in mind that from one day to the next stuff can change drastically. Being down to earth is the key, and I’ve been around for a while. Our position is very fleeting,” one of the more experienced MPs said.
“You are not superwoman or superman; you are not the Holy Spirit, you can’t be at three places at once, so forget it,” the same MP said.
When it comes to receiving professional support, though, few of the participants admitted to having sought therapy.
“I had sought help; I went to psychologists; I went to therapists. My parents did not know, and they do not know till this day,” one of the younger MPs said.
Zammit says that her research found that this is a common theme in Mediterranean cultures: “We seek the support of our parents, but at the same time we are still a bit afraid of their judgement when it comes to mental health,” she said.
Another MP said that while they had never sought help, they had taken their kids when they needed. “I am not against seeking help, but as a person, I am very closed off, and I try to deal with things myself,” they said.