Issues • 6 October 2002

The power game

Recent events have resurrected the old conundrum that is freemasonry. At least in the Maltese islands, a tasty subject full of mystery and delightful gossip. Magistrates have had the spotlight beamed into their eyes with unrelenting frequency. In our collective imaginations at least, they are no goodies.

The British version of freemasonry is reputedly an open society – to all extent making it a less dangerous endeavour for society. But popular culture has had it the other way. Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut portrays the occult exhilaration of a manic orgy supervised under the guise of black cloaks and grotesque carnival masks.

On a lighter note, Alberto Sordi in Un Borghese Piccolo Piccolo, as a public official desperate to have his tardy son pass the government entry exam joins the brotherhood. His risible initiation in a masonic lodge through the Ancient Scottish Rite gives rise to much derision when, blindfolded, he is forced to take the "test of courage" (drinking a shot of cognac, unknown to him).

In Malta however, freemasonry has attracted a series of derogatory attributes – secrecy, plotting, cartels, lobbies, even occultism. Freemasonry on a somewhat insular and fervently Catholic island is undeniably linked to the unknown. It is the secrecy of such confraternities that arouses suspicion, fear and public indignation.

The unknown is a sacred barrier in any society. Going beyond it means venturing onto dangerous land. The fact that freemasonry in Malta has remained a secret society means that it represents interests that go beyond the openness of a democratic society.

Although freemasonry is traditionally also a munificent society that bestows cash gifts to charitable foundations and educational funds, it is its vow of secrecy that is its raison d’etre. Secrecy protects the interests of a group of people whose intentions in society are likely to meet public disapproval. Otherwise, their collusion would not be as worthwhile or powerful.

The game in freemasonry is power. Freemasonry is a space for conniving businessmen and politicians, a likely formula for unrelenting power on our island.

Malta’s own political system is based on commercial and political interests. Again, power is the name of the game. Some politicians and legal professionals occupy a space in the power topography reserved for few. They occupy professions linked to the rich and powerful.

As intimates to cowboy contractors, developers and suspected criminals, these professionals are ideal intermediaries between the instruments of the State and capitalists and barons.

That these people may find a space to further their personal interests via the power accorded to them as public functionaries is no secret. It all points to the type of society in which one operates. There’s nothing to show that freemasonry in Malta might not be anything different from the Mafia in Italy. Typically enough, this is a Mediterranean island where democracy has often proved a futile pastime when the reins of power were in the hands of ministers, their canvassers, acolytes and businessmen rather than "the people".

The Italian Mafia is a state within the State. It is the failure of centralised democracy to overcome banditry and cliques. Likewise, the suspected presence of magistrates and politicians in masonic lodges in Malta can only mean that our democratic framework has not yet crystallised into a strong one.

Democracy is no partner to power. Democracy tends to be limited by the workings of power in the form of electoral systems which are not proportionally representative or other forms of thought-control and censorship – boards, committees, authorities, long lines of red tape and the idlers in the bureacracy.

In Malta power is easily attainable because small size permits the creation of nationwide power bases. It’s who you know not what you know.

Democracy empowers the less rich and weak. This means more human and consumer rights, more public consultation meetings, more complaints sent to the Ombudsman. It also means more obligations.

But for those powerful figures whose power interests lie outside the boundaries of law – illegal speculation, special favours dispensed to canvassers – freemasonry offers a new dimension of power consolidation.

Freemasons’ interests lie with each other – power with power. They need the help of other powerful people to satisfy their own cravings.

And hence the secrecy, a boundary that no one wishes to go beyond. A boundary that separates the darkness of their underworld from the profanity of democracy and justice.

The question whether freemasonry is dangerous to our society can be reversed – is our society dangerous to freemasons? It is: a just, democratic society that works towards consolidating human and consumers’ rights – is by all means not the type of society for people whose greed and lust for power goes beyond their duties to the people.