Home visits

When I took my first plunge in politics 3 years ago I considered many aspects of the system to be archaic and inefficient.

Ilooked with some suspicion to the old methods of electioneering like home visits. How is a politician meant to be dedicating himself/herself to solutions for the country to manage knocking on thousands of doors and spend hours and hours of daily tete-atetes in people’s homes?

After three years and many things learned, I now realise that home visits are possibly one of the few things I would not change in Malta’s political system. In the discretion of their homes, the Maltese open up about their real concerns in a way they would never do in a group meeting or in a doctored session of ‘il-Gvern li jisma’. Speaking to people about concrete issues, you can slowly but surely start to chart a way forward on several problems, or at least devise a plan on how to balance between competing needs. Let me share with you a few examples from the past weeks.

Urban planning

One matter which comes up all too often in home visits is local planning rules and practices. In one home in Mosta, I met a family now living in the shadow of a 5 story apartment block.

Michael, the father of the family, explained how his neighbour’s house was sold to a contractor who pulled it down to build a 25 metre mammoth in a street which, up till last year, was made up of only terraced houses. Michael understands that the contractor needs to make his venture profitable by including multiple units, but cannot fathom how planning rules are careless about how the new venture fits into the overall aesthetics of his street.

In another home in Birkirkara, a similar story, this time made worse with an elevated entrance for the new property built at the eye level of the adjacent property. Future neighbours will be greeting the neighbours with the sole of their shoes.

Speaking to several home owners, you realise that most understand that property value depends on the number of units. What the majority cannot accept is that current planning rules do not give a hoot about the general aesthetics of the street and how the neighbouring properties fit with their own as to materials used, design of façade, entrances and so on. In my personal opinion, this is the way to go. While the right to property is to be safeguarded, the right of others to enjoy a general aesthetic value of the street has to be given new value, through concrete measures of implementation.

Civil service

Another matter frequently raised in households is the real or perceived discrimination on political grounds within public service department and authorities. The matter takes up the lion’s share of concerns in Gozo, where workers lucky enough to secure a job closer to home frequently live in fear of being transferred to comparable posts in Malta. For them, participation in political life, or simply expressing their basic human right of voicing concerns with others in private or on social media, is totally off the cards.

Not so for their colleagues flying the flag of the party in government. For those, freedom has wider meaning. One woman I visited in Sannat told me how her job as a health worker requires very careful handling or rather hiding, of any of her political beliefs. She can’t dare to abet or support the continuing frustration of patients for the decreasing quality in health service or the continuing anxiety of patients at the lack of a functioning helicopter service for emergency cases requiring speedy transfer to Mater Dei. The Nationalist Party published proposals with a view to address both those issues, but she will have to thread very carefully to broach the subject at work. Her job might be on the line.

Oranges for votes

In Maltese we have a saying that you don’t visit others empty handed. It would be nice, therefore, to be able to give a small gift to the households you visit. For many candidates this is, however, impractical both for logistical and financial reasons. Labour MP Rosianne Cutajar this week made news with her initiative of giving free oranges on her visits.

To be frank, MP Cutajar’s initiative is prima facie a nice gesture. To my mind, the matter which merits in-depth discussion is not whether it is ethical or otherwise to give a small symbolic gift to potential voters, but rather whether the political system is equipped with enough safeguards to ensure a level playing field between politicians proposing such, and their gifts.

The latter level playing field becomes more relevant in the context of regular news of alleged graft and misconduct by politicians in government, leading to fattening current accounts for their friends or themselves.

So while the oranges themselves do not pose a threat to the system, the possibility of these being part of a cycle of graft whereby Mrs Cutajar gets favourable treatment (for instance a 39,000 euro undeclared gift) for favours to others is definitely an issue which affects the very nature of democracy, given that the democratic outcome of voters necessitates a process of conviction not vitiated with illicit favour.

In conclusion, I believe that personal contact with voters has a fundamental role to play in shaping up political opinion in Malta. While labour can try to buy a few voters with oranges or other gifts, the majority is thankfully not so gullible to be influenced by such, but will require a more in-depth examination of the political offer in front of them. It is then up to each and every politician and the respective parties to ensure they can effectively deliver beyond a couple of oranges.