The state of the nation The turbulent waves of this scandal-plagued bewildered populist authoritarian government have led to an evidenced and indisputable illiberal democracy roiled by a crisis of legitimacy. The mechanisms of scandalous and criminal history of this government in addition to a political model painstakingly moulded on polarisation and abuse of power and [...]
The problems of this country today are not confined to criminal-scandals perpetuated by the government and by an assortment of citizens now in survival mode. The diagnosis of prevailing maladies identifies a dysfunctional economy that passed its expiry date, a conglomerate of ill prepared and uninspiring politicians, the thorough erosion of all state apparatus; finally, [...]
The dysfunctional critical infrastructure of our islands It is all about Democracy Rules. It is all about acquiring an “understanding” of politics enabling an individual to become a better citizen. Citizens who intelligently can elect parliamentary representatives who are knowledgeable, fit, and capable. Citizens who can evaluate and be proactive dealing with this present crisis. [...]
The maladies of our country originate from its same citizens. Understanding politics For long centuries, Maltese citizens have been looking through a glass darkly, only to at long last be led to realise that this present government is nothing but a reflection of themselves. In a democracy, the government cannot be judged guilty for administering [...]
A portrait of Malta’s indecisive society? It is only those in good health and free from suffering who can live looking towards the future. The rest - weak and in extreme suffering - just lie there, in the middle of the road, without certainties, without conviction and even now, at least in part, victims of [...]
Even if against all odds, as polling surveys consistently premise, the Partit Nazzjonalista could still be an enlightening intermediary institution for our democracy and society at large. Bernard Grech, like his predecessors, may be the renaissance of his party and the country. The electoral political programme on its own focusing on improving people’s lives, proposing [...]
The present evidenced dysfunctional democracy has led to a dysfunctional society. The prognosis of the islands’ maladies overlaps from the functionality of government onto the people. In an absence of a credible alternative, citizens opted to conform with the regime in exchange for mass consumerism that some describe a trickling economy. All in the name [...]
Here are my reflections on how participatory and deliberative measures across political society could complement a revisited representative democracy in our country. Modern democracy could be termed as a “government by discussion” when public speaking and voting for representatives are the only direct formal rights adult citizens are entitled to. Paradoxically, the only moment the [...]
Malta is experiencing a dysfunctional representative democracy. It started, unintentionally, prior to 2013. A Partit Laburista in government has institutionalised this faltering political system during the last seven years. It was its clandestine roadmap to gain power, expediting more wealth to the wealthy elites irrespective of costs and illegalities and coercing citizens to the bondage [...]
While Castille is on fire, the ill-defined civil protection defences of a free and autonomous people keep marking time. Paulo Coelho’s famous warrior of light believes the path is treacherous. Imponderables discourage the formation of alliances. Pride, mistrust, arrogance and an absence of credible leadership of opposition clusters have over time become the party in [...]
A parable that speaks volumes on the people of Malta’s individual and collective human and political behaviour; it metaphorically landscapes our islands’ fragile destinies across all sectors of society and the polity. All this will be further compounded by socio-economic problems unless we all, as an equal yet heterogeneous people, resign ourselves to begin “living [...]
The main issues and points of divergence clogging the re-emergence of the PN as an alternative government amount to party renewal. This needs to be the prevalent theme of the leadership campaign. An electorate would not place its trust in a party that for long years has been plagued with its own internal disputes revolving [...]
Time of essence. I humbly just ask the reader to focus and draw their own conclusions from what the following would aspire to convey. The individual’s personal thinking is much more relevant that one’s reading itself. On a number of occasions, I had through literature concluded that the current impasse of the Partit Nazzjonalista is [...]
Political parties, like presumably most other organisations, associations and groups, are not homogeneous entities. They are made up of individuals each and every one of them with different socio-economic, educational, religious and cultural backgrounds and hence with different opinions and ideas. They seek membership of such groups because they share the principles, the objectives and [...]
The Executive Committee of the PN, composed of some 70 accredited individuals, convenes this evening to discuss the party current situation. It is reported that the party leader will be proposing a strategy towards a way forward. This initiative, on the advice of his persons of trust, is however eclipsed by a remarkable threat; side-lining [...]
This is not an academic critique on the recently approved changes to the Partit Nazzjonalista statute; certainly not a reproachful exercise of an otherwise highly deliberate, researched and pragmatic political instrument focussing on party structure and rules of procedures. It is an attempt towards a dialogue on the relevance of faith in a post-modernist party. [...]
Is Malta, a presumed democratic nation-state, employing a mix of capitalist-neo-liberal economy that thrives on the entrepreneurship of influential elites co-opted with government; an ambience that generates aggregated high profits to the “powerful” while dispersing abstract material wealth leading to mass consumerism that has fabricated excessive corruption – what the French poet Louis Aragon had [...]
The so called 2016 “equality bills”, being debated in Parliament, are in conflict with the European Union Treaty of Lisbon. In a 2016 position paper, cited by Tonio Borg in this Times of Malta article, the Church expresses concern that the transcribing of this EU Directive “will apparently be used by the Maltese government to [...]
Arend Lijphart in a variety of contributions discusses the notion of a "consociational” or “consensus” democracy relating to or denoting a political system formed by the cooperation of different social groups on the basis of shared power. In his seminal 1999 treatise “Patterns of Democracy” he establishes a distinction between what he calls alternately “majoritarian” [...]
The crisis is virtually open. There is no need to declare it formally. There are facts that prove it. Already during past weeks, political analysts, party activists, newspaper commentators and party parliamentary deputies have aired their concerns that the party reform programme, initiated by the PN leader himself, was being postponed if not also sabotaged. [...]