Corrupt P.I.G.S.

Earlier this week, a moody Tonio Fenech took offence that Malta had been lumped with the Mediterranean's P.I.G.S. (that's Portgual, Italy, Greece and Spain in business-speak).

The credit-rating downgrade was unfair, he cried, and claimed we were grouped together with others in an "unfortunate, blanket approach".

For years, Northern Europeans have been eyeing their porky southern neighbours Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain because they lagged behind economic targets. No pain, no gain. And when these countries did not adjust their behaviour, they soon turned into unfit partners.

So while Europe faces an economic malaise, the North-South divide seems to be getting wider and this image of the south seems to have struck a long-existing populist chord. Anthropologist Michael Herzfeld had used the word 'Mediterraneanism', suggesting that people originating from our area are often lumped together and treated as 'others' by power centres in the north. These academics had warned that matter-of-fact assumptions about the Mediterranean should be contested as they are reductionist and misleading.

Yet, the latest Eurobarometer study on the attitidues of Europeans towards corruption may reinforce some of the old stereotypes. This study should actually send new shockwaves across all the EU27, as an average of three-fourths of all Europeans see corruption as a major problem in their local, national and regional institutions.

But the situation is admittingly worse in the Mediterranean Europe, the historic home of a clientalist political system.

Malta features prominently in the perceptual pig-sty. It is astounding that 9 out of 10 of the Maltese respondents were totally convinced that corruption is eroding the moral legitimacy of important state institutions such as MEPA and worse still the judiciary. While Maltese mistrust in politicians is on an equal level with that of other EU countries, the results of this survey are a deafening no-confidence vote in the political elite.

Pig-stys will never smell sweet but it seems that we have been there long enough to get accustomed to the stink. In the long run we have acquired a tragic fatalistic attitude. So while the Maltese feel that the links between business and politics are too close; that government and parliament are not fighting corruption adequately; and that the courts do not punish corrupt practice in a meaningful way; most respondents (83%) felt that corruption "is  unavoidable" and a "fact of life".

This sad outlook raises a number of questions: Why are people so resigned to this vicious political culture? What has contributed to their helplessness? How many suffer in silence or become accomplices to corrupt practice?

While demands for good governance have long been a political battle cry in our polarized political arena, I am not very surprised that in Malta never had strong civil society players to lead a head-on fight against corruption. To date, we are the only country among the 27 EU states that does not have a local chapter of Transparency International, even though this global NGO's Corruption Perception Index is well cited by the Maltese media and in the political sphere.

Moreover, economic players never openly mobilized against corruption, even when bad apples have hurt the interests and tainted the image of the rest of the business community.

It is now emerging that one of the biggest challenges faced by politicians is the restoration of  trust in our political system. The current political impasse is not helping at all. While Franco Debono has turned himself into the Spartacus of political reform, we cannot forget the context. Some of us have been talking about political reform and the need to strengthen democratic structures long before the current parliamentary crisis. Pressure was in fact already being made when Franco Debono was sitting for his Form 2 exams.

For decades we were held hostage by apathy and political expediency; pressures were ignored and debates on party financing have been shelved for so long that we cannot really expect the ball to  start rolling at the end of this legislature. Good political reform cannot possibly happen when all parties have already ignited their electoral engines and the political thermometre is soaring to new heights.

A meaningful political reform requires good will and national consent. We cannot see signs of this on the horizon yet. Postponing decisions no longer works. We need to keep in mind the economic progress and good governance are linked. Corruption, whether perceived or real, will shackle national aspirations on all fronts.