The democracy of pigeons

Tell me that an election is coming without telling me that an election is coming. The memes that abound on the internet are all about the sudden frenzy of vote-catching initiatives. Ridiculous amounts of public money are now being invested in local projects by government politicians eager to boost their chances of re-election. It is blatant and unabashed vote-buying taken to the steroidal levels that Labour has gotten us used to.

We approach the election with a sense of resignation as poll after poll confirms the crushing abyss that divides the incumbent from any form of opposition. Commentaries by pundits on the matter betray frustrated desperation – equating voters to uneducated pigeons who fawn over the plundering plutocrats they elect.

Such frustrated resignation is not unjustified. Support for the party that has regularised the plunder of the public good remains at an all-time high no matter how many scandals are revealed. Meanwhile, Abela’s government remains a sorry excuse, moonlighting as the change that in truth it is unable to bring about.

Abela is unable to take the proverbial bull by the horns for the simple reason that the very movement that is responsible for Malta’s institutional and reputational breakdown is the one that enjoys the support of the majority. The conundrum is clear: the majority of the population does not see any need for radical change.

Even were we to assume that Abela had an ounce of goodwill and really intended to clean up Malta’s act, his hands would still be tied by the fact that the core majority in this country is quite content with the status quo. Politicians buying their way into parliament, institutions failing to act in a timely manner and any action trying to save what is left of the Republic is branded as treacherous. That is the picture of the nation.

When we do take time to look at the unravelling of the different levels of corruption in the country one common strand is clear. The politicians that we elect to parliament are busy prostituting public good and channelling public money into private pockets. Malta has shown that it is not a nation of entrepreneurs and the road to fast money is paved by politicians working in tandem with crooked professionals and an industry running on dirty money.

Our politicians will risk their international reputation (or any scrap of it that is left) by speaking in international fora to defend the dirty businessmen all the while disguising their actions in the ugly form of patriotism that occasionally raises its head. In one of his morning sermons to the pigeons, Evarist Bartolo spoke of the other Malta – the one made up of emigres who would never support Labour and who in his mind are traitors of the nation.

It’s funny how the migrants are less pigeons than the ones that stay at home to battle over the scraps that fall off the tables that their masters and fat cats are feasting over. What we really have is a scramble for time. The sooner an election is called the sooner the corrupt establishment can validate its role as King among Pigeons.

The loophole in democratic governance is there to be exploited and another ‘tkaxkira’ and a further descent into ignominy seems inevitable. The democracy of pigeons is here to stay.