people

On doing the right thing

He admits he might have been ‘too harsh’ on himself when he offered his resignation as justice minister in Alfred Sant’s Cabinet. But Charles Mangion’s popularity as a politician certainly doesn’t seem to have been dented by the episode, as he busies himself helping the Labour party candidates prepare for the local council elections, MIRIAM DUNN discovers.

Ministerial resignations in Malta are few and far between, to say the least. Coming in as a Prime Minister with a specific agenda to promote transparency and accountability, there were signs that Alfred Sant might change all that. And it wasn’t that long before the first head rolled – Charles Mangion offered his resignation as justice minister after failing to follow the correct procedures when recommending that a drug offender be released from prison before his sentence had been fully served.

Does he believe he was a victim of New Labour’s clean image? Dr Mangion smiles. Victim, no, he says, but perhaps he was a bit "too harsh" on himself.

"But you cannot preach about transparency and then abdicate from taking responsibility when it comes to the crunch," he says.

He does, however, add that he hasn’t really changed his point of view on the case.

"I still feel that the man showed signs that he was doing his utmost to beat his addiction and he was never accused of trafficking," he explains. "And after all, it was an administrative error, rather than anything more ominous, stemming from pressure of work. At the end of the day, no one really disagreed with my sense of judgement.

"My error was technical, in that I didn’t first pass the recommendation to Cabinet, rather than judgmental, since the documents forwarded by the commission showed that the great majority were in favour of the same decision."

Dr Mangion recognises the irony of the fact that his resignation has in no way affected his career detrimentally, especially when most ministers cling to their positions through far greater political storms and scandals.

"People tell me there was no need for me to step down and say I was harsh on myself, which seems to have bolstered my popularity," he admits. "But I don’t regret the decision, it was the right one to take at the time."

Now, as MLP spokesman for Local Councils, Dr Mangion, who was first elected in 1987 and has been returned successfully ever since, is fully immersed in the forthcoming local council elections. I am interested to know whether he thinks the election results will serve as a barometer for public opinion on the political parties.

But he is decidedly cautious on this line of thought.

"The people do not really concentrate on the national issues at local elections, they look at whether they’re happy with the local council," he says. "Local councillors are there to take care of the everyday problems - pavement repairs, lighting, flooding, environmental issues - and people are understanding this more all the time.

"A few years ago these things weren’t so important to people, but nowadays there is a greater sense of civic pride. Things have changed and I’m sure that if the local council doesn’t deliver, people will not vote for the same candidates."

But don’t people simply vote along party lines, I ask.

"The parties have a strong influence," he admits. "There might be a few who vote for a candidate because they know him personally or because he has given a lot of attention to the area in question, but obviously the party propaganda machinery acts as a strong support for the political candidates.”

Dr Mangion stresses that even though the Labour party is now putting forward candidates rather than just encouraging the electorate to vote for the independent hopefuls, he still believes that the pressure group on the candidates should be "the people themselves rather than the party".

"I said to our candidates that they should concentrate on contesting the elections until 9 March, but then afterwards, they must focus on what needs to be done in their locality," he explains.

In fact, he doesn’t think it’s a bad thing to have the third party – Alternattiva – and independents contesting.

"Pembroke is an example of a local council which operated very well with an independent holding the balance," he says. "These situations can help influence the major political parties, which isn’t always a bad thing."

I’m interested to know what changes the MLP had to make when it took the decision to formally begin contesting the local elections.

"We had to organise ourselves within the party, focusing on the people’s needs at the local level, bringing local committees together with the candidates to formulate what they believed to be the issues of importance in their localities and then prioritise them," he answers.

"Prioritising is very important since it helps take off some of the immediate stress, while also ensuring councillors don’t make unrealistic pledges."

Dr Mangion explains that in these elections, an emphasis has been given to social issues like education and helping the elderly, together with the environment.

A campaign has been proposed for separation of waste at source, while the MLP would also like to see the elderly offered some assistance in small matters of home maintenance, such as dripping taps or fuses that needing changing.

I broach the subject of checks and balances at a municipal level; the MLP has given a critical hint that such measures could be viewed as undemocratic.

"By saying local councils should enjoy democracy we don’t mean there should be no accountability," is his swift response. "Local councils can’t expect to do what they like with what is, after all, public finance.

"In fact, I gave Austin Gatt my full support in the Public Accounts Committee last September when he put forward proposals on how to control the local councils deficits.

"We made some changes, yes, but a common goal was established; that of finding a way of bringing the councils in line with deficits and ensuring that they will all operate within the law and not keep bringing deficits forward."

One area where there seems to be dissent between the political parties is on the issue of local council taxes. Dr Mangion acknowledges this dispute.

He stresses that taxation should not be confused with taking money for providing a specific service, such as attendance at a computer course organised by a local council.

"That’s fine," he says. "But we believe the government is willing to consider the idea that local councils would be given the power to impose taxes without providing extra services and we cannot agree with that.

"Our philosophy is that in a country this small, with a population which is already very heavily taxed, directly and indirectly, there’s no space for local councils to assume this responsibility."

Dr Mangion adds that the concept also goes against the principle of no taxation without representation, which is the basic principle of democracy.

"Parliament should be the only forum where a taxation should be introduced," he says.

The philosophy is of a true Labourite, surely, although Charles Mangion is regarded as a moderate in the political sphere.

I ask him how he reacts to this description of himself.

"I purposefully promote myself as a moderate person," he answers. "I listen to all points of view and usually find there is a common denominator. All points of view are worth listening to and assessing. Then it is the role of the politician to integrate or compromise those points of view, while keeping in mind certain basic principles.

"If we take the economy as an example, we all agree that competitivity is important, but the dissent arises on how to get there.

"It’s a question of trying to find a balance and then taking a decision."

I ask Dr Mangion whether he holds ‘moderate’ views on Europe, or how he reacts to comments that the MLP’s stand on Europe is rather extreme.

His answer is that the Labour party’s viewpoint is often misrepresented in the media.

"The MLP is not an anti-EU party, as has been clearly shown by the fact that we want to participate in the forthcoming Future for Europe Convention," he says. "But the government’s propaganda machine has an interest in making the MLP sound as if it is against the EU, while the truth is that the Labour party is seeking an alternative form of partnership taking into account, first and foremost, Malta’s best interests.”

Dr Mangion highlights Dr Sant’s parliamentary speech in which the MLP leader made this point very clearly, adding that the convention will also give him the chance to relay the Labour party’s stand on the EU to other European countries.

"Unfortunately, the government is giving out so much propaganda about the MLP’s stand on the EU that even countries abroad are given the wrong perception," he explains. "Sometimes when we participate in the joint parliamentary committee we are asked why we’re against the EU and we have to explain our position from scratch. That’s how much damage has been done."

Dr Mangion believes that the Labour party leader did an excellent job of highlighting the fact that Malta has key areas which will not weather the storm of absorbing all the regulations of the acquis that have to be adopted.

"We have an obligation to ensure that these sectors of our society are not harmed, or that if they are, the change process must involve minimum pain and be complemented with help in reconstructing," he says. "This is what our concept of partnership has in mind."

Dr Mangion supports the view that the Nationalist government is giving too much attention to its bid for EU membership, while neglecting issues on the domestic front.

"Of course the EU is important, but there are a lot of other weighty issues, such as education, health and the infrastructure.

"How are we going to get the new hospital up and running, for example? Where will the money come from?"

He also mentions the huge amount of money that was spent on the new power station. "And yet we still have so many blackouts," he says.

I point out that it is always easy to criticise when in opposition.

"Yes," he concedes. "But I think people recognise that in its short term in office, the Labour party took the initiative and made considerable achievements, it didn’t just talk about problems.

"The Bugibba facelift and the Sant Antnin waste recycling plant are two cases in point."

Ironically, Dr Mangion relates the former MLP government’s achievements to what he regards as the party’s main weaknesses.

"We often have the solution, even if it is one that is not always easy to swallow, what we need to do is improve our deliverance of that message, getting it across and bringing the people round to our point of view," he explains. "We have to try harder to convince people that our message is the right one."

Dr Mangion explains that he has followed the Labour party since the 1970s.
He recalls the election of 1971, describing it as one that was highly contested and focusing on national issues, like unemployment and health.

"I think the Labour party of the 70s and 80s did a lot for the country," he says. "Of course, there were obviously errors and misjudgements, but these have to be balanced with the achievements.

"On one level there was the social measures implemented, such as the national health service and the minimum wage," he explains, "while on another level the setting up of so many corporations helped create jobs, opened up investment opportunities and also helped us establish our national identity and strengthen us as a sovereign state."

On the violence that marred the era, Dr Mangion admits he "would have been happier if certain episodes hadn’t happened".

"And without wanting to get caught up in any pettiness, it should be stressed that there was violence in both parties," he adds.

On a positive note, Dr Mangion stresses that politics has definitely moved away from those days.

"No one would even envisage those sort of incidents happening again," he says confidently. "I believe that nowadays, the people themselves abhor anything of this sort. "Just imagine how, in 1987 canvassers used to paste posters and photographs of politicians on the walls next to each other.

"It was a mess and created conflict between politicians of the same parties, let alone with their rivals!

"We don’t do that sort of thing now. Time things have changed and people look more towards objective arguments.

"Sometimes we lose ourselves in pettiness, but in general the people expect more convincing arguments from both parties as to how we will deal with their problems."