Unless We Stop Paying Peanuts, We’ll Keep Getting Ġbejniet
Malta had an opportunity this month to take a small step towards improving the conditions of politicians and perhaps start attracting some better talent to Parliament. Instead, we decided to continue paying peanuts and keep getting ġbejniet.
Earlier this month, the government presented a bill in Parliament to amend pension laws. Among the proposals was a plan to start guaranteeing a full pension to MPs who serve just one term in Parliament, instead of the current system which requires them to serve two.
After a few outraged Facebook comments about this ‘shocking’ plunder of taxpayer money, the three political parties represented in Parliament fell like dominoes.
First Partit Demokratiku announced itself against the move until everybody in Malta was guaranteed a decent pension. Then the Nationalist Party withdrew its support of the bill on the premise that the country could focus on those most in need first. And before the issue could snowball into something people would actually give a shit about, the government dropped the bill altogether. Case closed.
This could seem like a small victory by the people against the political class. But it’s not. This is just another step towards guaranteeing political mediocrity in Malta.
On the face of it, those against the widened right to a pension make a fair point: shouldn’t the public get a pension increase before MPs give themselves one? But that’s wrong on many counts. Firstly, the public did get a pension increase, secondly the two matters are not mutually exclusive and thirdly, this wasn’t even a pension increase being proposed – it was merely the right to a full pension (when reaching pensionable age) as long as an MP has served for five years.
“This isn’t about the handful of MPs who are going to miss out on a full pension because they only served one term in Parliament. This is about the principle of whether or not we want to treat our MPs with dignity in the hope that we eventually attract MPs who treat themselves with dignity.”
This isn’t about the handful of MPs who are going to miss out on a full pension because they only served one term in Parliament. This is about the principle of whether or not we want to treat our MPs with dignity in the hope that we eventually attract MPs who treat themselves with dignity. Currently it’s lose-lose. We have the lowest paid MPs in the EU and instead of improving their conditions, we’ve actually started paying them less if they miss a parliamentary sitting. No wonder they spend their time literally spewing bullshit and calling each other ġbejna.
What’s even more worrying about what happened this month is that instead of taking the smallest of steps forward, the political class turned the clock back onto itself and entrenched the taboo associated with giving them a decent pay.
It’s already taken a full seven years to start talking about MP conditions after the honoraria saga. (Remember when ministers gave themselves a secret pay rise and then had to give it back?) The honoraria fuckup was incorrigible because of the economic situation at the time, the secretive nature in which it was introduced and the inequitable way it was enacted. But surely it’s time to move on now and improve MP conditions in a legitimate way.
Through their actions, PN and PD have further delayed any future moves to rectify the situation for MPs. They have taken an extreme stance for short term political gain (if any?) without properly assessing the long term effects – which will have a disproportionate impact on their own parties, compared to the party in government. By delaying future improvements, our parties have cemented the winner-takes-all mentality in politics where it is only the government who can provide a career path for politicians, such as by handing out chairmanships and directorships alongside their MP positions.
“Politics shouldn’t be the exclusive space of the self-flagellating or the corrupt. We need to create a serious forum of the country’s best minds. We need to ensure top standards. And we need to pay politicians in a way that allows us to demand these standards.”
Instead of taking superficial and unconvincing stances ‘in favour of the public’, all political parties in Parliament should be desperately thinking of ways to make politics more attractive. If the private sector is struggling so much to find talent and has resorted to vacancy campaigns in other continents or hiring people without their work permits yet, how can our struggling political parties be so careless?
We cannot taboo-ize parliamentary conditions when we face such a talent shortage both in Malta as a whole and especially in politics. We need to have a frank, transparent and realistic discussion about how MPs should get paid. Maybe there should be fewer MPs, maybe they should be full time, maybe they should have paid resources similar to MEPs, maybe they should be given a pension even if they only get elected once. Or maybe not. But let’s stop avoiding the discussion.
And let’s also participate in that discussion instead of leaving it just to politicians. We too have an interest in making politics attractive. Politics shouldn’t be the exclusive space of the self-flagellating or the corrupt. We need to create a serious forum of the country’s best minds. We need to ensure top standards. And we need to pay politicians in a way that allows us to demand these standards.
Sure, we must do the same with teachers, public transport workers, doctors, social workers and many other sectors of society. But how can we expect politicians to look out for other people’s salaries when theirs hasn’t changed in decades?
READ NEXT: WATCH: Konrad Mizzi Refuses To Give Update On Tax Investigation Into Panama Company
