12 Nov We’re missing out on the good ones
Last week I was surprised to see that somehow, by some little miracle, the PN managed to find 12 brand new candidates willing to run on the party ticket in the next general election. I was very surprised that they managed this not only because of the political fiasco that the party has had to endure, but also because finding people, or rather, decent people, willing to join politics at all, can’t be easy.
Let’s face it; good people who join politics especially in Malta, need to brace themselves for the worst.
Now don’t get me wrong because I’m all for tearing politicians apart when they deserve it, and I’m all for airing their private lives to all and sundry when it impinges, or is likely to impinge, on their public role, but if we keep making political life so unbearable, then decent and honest people will stay well away.
As a result we will miss out as a nation, and we will always end up scraping the bottom of the barrel for political leaders.
I know some of the new PN candidates first hand, and I dare say that some of them are very competent in their respective fields and are also good at heart. Some also have thick skins but I’m still afraid that they won’t survive too long in our political world. Sadly, their failure will only serve to pave the way for the less honest, and less decent types.
Our political culture makes it almost impossible for good people to be attracted to politics, in fact, when they actually do, I can’t help but to wonder why. This is why parties have always had a hard time finding the right people and why sometimes they really have to bend over backwards to get them on board. Could it be that sometimes we end up with below average politicians because the conditions are not attractive enough? Could it be that if politicians got paid more, we’d attract better leaders?
I know, I know, there’s the whole argument about being there to serve, but let’s face it, when you consider that a CEO in the business world makes anything between €50,000 and €100,000+ per annum, how are we to attract people with brains and experience without matching their income?
If we had to compensate politicians more, would they focus more on the job rather than on their income? And more importantly, would it make them less susceptible to the influence of corrupt interests?
But it’s not all about the money either. There are other things that good and decent people will consider before getting into politics – the antics, the dark and corrupt world of lobbying and conflicting interests, and most worryingly, the limelight. A good decent person is unlikely to like the limelight, and they know that the moment they join a party, nothing they do or say from then on will be viewed the same.
Take the Justice Minister’s case for example. The man had an unfortunate car accident for crying out loud. It could very well turn out to be his fault, or not, but I just don’t get all this pressure for him to resign over a car accident.
Is this the message that we want future potential politicians to be getting? Are we really in such a good position that we can afford to scare good people off from the political world with such silly requests?
The PN secretary general, Chris Said, said that if he were in Owen Bonnici’s situation, that is, today’s Justice Minister, he would resign until his case is heard.
He compared Bonnici’s situation to when he (Said) was parliamentary secretary and had been accused of committing perjury at a time when he served as a lawyer and prior to becoming parliamentary secretary. At the time Said had resigned until his case was heard and then acquitted.
But as Bonnici repeatedly pointed out, being accused of perjury and being involved in a traffic accident (even if it turns out to have been your fault) are two extremely different things. As he rightly put it, perjury is “an act of a voluntary nature which hits right at the heart of the concept of public trust,” whilst an involuntary traffic accident is, as the name implies, involuntary.
Lying under oath, especially when you’re Justice Minister or even Parliamentary Secretary, is so unacceptable that even if you’re presumed innocent, it is bound to erode public trust in you and therefore, resigning to let justice take its course is definitely the best course of action. But being involved in a traffic accident is not premeditated, has nothing to do with public trust and, can happen to the best of us.
If people got into politics for the right reasons, a lot of this wasteful bickering wouldn’t happen. But this can only happen if people who entered politics were people qualified and experienced in something else, other than politics, who then decide that they want to make a difference in things that they’ve become passionate about.
To my mind, the respectable politician will also bow out after a couple of terms because once these goals are achieved they should have no other interest to stick around. When on the other hand they get into politics and stay in there till they retire or are voted out, I can’t help but to think they’re staying in there to suck whatever they can, self-preservation and to use politics as their cash cow.
*This article was first published on The Malta Independent on Sunday.
