04 Sep Party Financing – is the world a stage?
It has always fascinated me, and not in a good way, how commercial companies and law-abiding taxpayers are subjected to all forms of scrutiny about their income whilst, political parties are not. Apart from all the power politicians get by the very nature of their political status, political parties also get what is essentially a wild card that excludes them from any kind of regulation.
Now don’t get me wrong – as much as I am against partisan politics, I am not intrinsically against political parties. I fully recognise that in a democracy they are essential and that, it is usually through them that the biggest and most effective societal changes happen. This however does not change the fact that, the current situation with party financing makes me sick to my stomach.
As far as I know the only thing regulating a political party’s expenditure is the (never adhered to) individual campaign limit during electoral campaigns. Other than that, political parties have carte blanche and can do as they please.
I don’t think I remember a time when the issue of party financing wasn’t being discussed in Malta; I don’t even remember a single election during which some party or other did not spend exorbitant amounts on its campaign, and I certainly don’t remember a time when I was satisfied with the sorry explanations of where the money came from.
And clearly, it was always in the interest of the two big parties to keep dragging their feet on this matter; after all who wants big brother looking over their shoulder when as things stand, they can practically get away with anything?
But now, finally, as part of its electoral promise that got it elected, the Government is about to do something to address the situation. Whether this is just an exercise in public relations or a real effort to make things right, lies in the detail of what is being proposed and what will finally be implemented. If we end up with something that has more loopholes than the current carte blanche, then we’ll be worse off living under the illusion of change than if things had to remain the same.
The latest question currently mucking the waters is whether parties should be funded, or at least part-funded, by the state. My knee-jerk reaction to this question was a loud and clear ‘of course not,’ because like most, I don’t want my tax money going towards funding politicians and their campaigns. On deeper thought however, I came to realise that leaving political parties entirely up to their own fundraising devices might not be the best idea after all.
Alternattiva Demokratika has been trying it’s best to explain to the public that as things stand, the PN and the PL already benefit from state funding, and considerably so – both parties get €100,000 a year each, which means that in total, over the past 20 years, €4 million of our tax money has gone towards funding the Labour and Nationalist Party.
Strictly speaking this money is meant to go for the party to build international relations abroad, but to my knowledge, there has never been any checks and balances to make sure that this is in fact the case. As usual this funding excludes Alternattiva, but more importantly, it contradicts both the PN’s and PL’s present stances about state funding.
PL is claiming that this is not the right time to consider political party state funding, and the PN are stating that this should be considered and introduced in the new regulations. Both are wrong because state funding is already happening and has been for quite a while. In addition, our tax money also pays for the exuberant cost of Parliament and governing the country.
The main reason why countries regulate party financing is to control donations received by political parties. This is done to mitigate the risk of a few interested parties with deep pockets getting the opportunity to abuse a party’s power. It is no secret that everywhere around the world, certain business entities as well as individuals, invest in political parties for eventual business or personal gains. Of course this is usually very hard to prove because both sides are very good at covering their tracks, but I don’t think that there’s anyone out there who believes that these things have not, do not, or will not happen.
Back in 2007 a press report quoted the then Leader of the Opposition Alfred Sant, being in agreement on the declaration of all donations in excess of Lm5,000 and the capping of donations at Lm10,000. The Nationalist Party on the other hand, wanted the limits to be set at Lm10,000 and Lm20,000 respectively. Alternattiva Demokratika had proposed to cap donations at Lm1,000 and to have donations in excess of Lm500 declared.
Seven years later whilst parties are still receiving substantial undeclared and unregulated donations, the new regulations propose that donations in excess of €500 have to be declared by the beneficiary and that they need to be capped at €50,000. This applies to both business donations and individual ones.
As I said, I fully understand the importance of having funding for strong political parties to survive and even thrive, but I also believe in multi-party democracy and with the way things stand, and even with these new proposals, there’s no way in hell that a third or even fourth party could ever make any headway in the Maltese political scene.
Bottom line? Yes, let’s get the ball rolling, and let’s getting it rolling fast, but let’s make sure to explore all options and move forward with an informed open mind for once. We’re already state funding political parties so let’s not talk about excluding or including this in our proposals, instead let’s talk about regulating it further, and expanding the scope to include other parties other than the all mighty PL and the PN.
In essence let’s go for a real change that will make a real difference and not a cosmetic one that will only continue to punch holes in this country’s political credibility.
*this article was first published on The Malta Independent on Sunday.
