The game of self-preservation

As the summer rolls on, many people continue with their private business. If nothing impacts or changes their state of play, most could not give jack shit if a valley in Gozo is taken over by yet another of Joe Portelli’s developments, or whether the next President of the Labour party is a man or a woman. Neither does it matter whether a political party is not driven by an altruistic and serious desire to propel new policies instead of an obsession to preserve the status quo. 

But not everyone is so selfish, there are those who are selfless and those that saunter on without asking for anything in return. These are the singular individuals who work day and night because they believe in something and never ever turn up with a shopping list as a condition for their loyalty and high work ethic.

These individuals are found in every political party, NGO, voluntary organisation, and lobby group. These are gifted individuals with a passion in doing what they believe is right, and never expect anything in return.

In my long years in journalism, I have seen countless persons retiring from their conflict zone without any recognition for their tireless work. Others move on, hanging on to well-greased jobs. Those that leave without a thank you are the hard workers, the honest guys who sacrifice everything to get a job done.

You may disagree with their political views or perhaps not remotely embrace them, but the truth is that behind the scenes, serving their government or party, there are many people who do their job without ever asking questions. They work long hours, abandon their family and friends, and spend days on end catching up with ridiculous deadlines.  There are no weekends, and a phone call or conversation at 2am in the morning is the norm rather than the exception.

Many of them, at some point in their life will admit that they regret having wasted so much of their time.

It is a great pity that everyone takes them for granted, as if they were numbers.

And I guess the reason they have opted to leave is because they realise that the game they are in is no longer about passion or ideals, but rather about self-preservation.

Self-preservation at all costs.

I believe that this malaise exists in both the Labour party and the Nationalist party.

Often, political parties are driven by the desire to stay in power or win the seat of power.  To attain this, they draw up policies which are unjustified, and more often than not, unnecessary. The bigger picture, in other words what is essentially beneficial to society in general is not always the priority.

As things stand, there have not been many signs of policies or decisions that are forward looking.

And if I were to look again at what is happening in the Labour party, I see three main problems.

The first is the decision to make the changes that only attract the Labour hard core, the second is the idea that official party posts should not be contested, and the third is the fact that there does not seem to be any shame in thinking that people who ran agencies or public entities suddenly end up in a political party. This confirms that public appointed posts are only suitable for blue-eyed boys and girls.

Someone should be telling the people who run the show at the Labour party that democracy should be allowed to work and appear to work. Which is why Norma Saliba and Alex Sciberras vying for the same post makes plenty of sense.

It also makes much sense that a party choose the candidates which have more sense and have an idea of what a social democratic should stand for.

Hint, hint!

A party which does not practise democracy is a party that does appreciate the importance of diversity.