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James Debono
If Evarist Bartolo were in a position to do so he would do away with party political stations, but only after a reform in public broadcasting. He would like to put an end to the power of those special interests funding political parties by introducing a system of state funding through which political parties would have enough money to invest in policy development.
During last Tuesday’s edition of TV programme Int X'Tahseb? which is screened on Smash TV, Evarist Bartolo expressed his disenchantment with the current state of partisan politics in the country.
“I wish that political parties would stop using most of their resources to attack each other through propaganda. Political parties are simply using their money in their electoral campaign and to run their TV stations and newspapers, but how much money do they spend on the development of policies?"
Contacted by MaltaToday after the programme Evarist Bartolo argued that political parties are using lots of funds to run their stations and to run their political campaigns and electoral offices. “I would like less money to go into these and more money to go into policy making”. But should political parties do away with political stations altogether?
Evarist Bartolo argues that in an ideal situation where PBS serves its role as an “an inclusive national station with which people of different political opinions can identify.
“It would make much more sense to have a public broadcasting system reflecting the diversity of political opinions inside and outside parliament... than to have party political stations”. Unfortunately according to Evarist Bartolo the PBS is not currently serving this role.
As regards party financing, Evarist Bartolo proposes a radical reform. While agreeing with a system of state funding for political parties “other forms of funding should be illegal”. Bartolo is very frank in exposing the power of those funding political parties. “The hands that feed the political parties and individual politicians expect to be rewarded and never bitten. Public funding would mean that the parties would owe their daily bread to the general taxpayers whom they are to represent in the first place. Public funding of parties means less blackmail and more policies in the interest of the public and not of powerful special interests”.
During the same programme Evarist Bartolo argued that an opposition party should be one that proposes policies and not simply a protest party. This criticism is significant when one considers that the MLP has organised two protest marches in the last a month. When asked by MaltaToday whether the MLP is living up to his expectations in this matter, his answer was an ominous “In some areas yes, in other areas no”. On a positive note Evarist Bartolo notes, “The party is consulting everybody on its economic and social renewal plan. But the Nationalist Party is killing open public policy debates by taking our discussion document and treating it as if it is the new electoral programme of the MLP. Shame on them”.
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