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A political tradition has developed in Malta where political leaders of the major parties address their party faithful in their respective Party clubs every Sunday morning. The practice is hailed as a way of keeping contact with the Party grass roots and reaching a wider audience via media coverage. Without fail, the news broadcasts on the Public Broadcasting Service and Party media are dominated by the Sunday gatherings. The reports are generally bland and predictable. Both leaders attack their counterpart, eulogizing their own achievements of the week and rubbishing their opponent and his party. The information given is one sided, partisan and delivered in divisive language. In short a propaganda exercise representing the very epitome of old style politics.
The state broadcasting service, true to its long held tradition of being a lap dog to the two large political parties turns a meeting addressed in front of no more than three dozen people into a national event with the political reports dominating the news items. All tenets of applying the criterion of newsworthiness in the reporting of news are thrown to the wind. The leaders are reported exclusively because they are the leaders, what they say and whether it is newsworthy or not is irrelevant. This is the word of the leader and as such it must be reported. No attempt is made at all by any public service journalist or party media reporter to probe, scrutinise or indeed question any thing said by the leaders. The function of the journalist is just to report, a scribe reporting the Sunday sermon!
Our main objection to this weekly practice is not only that it does not become the stature of the two respective Party leaders Dr Gonzi and Dr Sant but most especially that many of the declarations and or questions should be made in parliament. By making these statements in the comfort of a Party club rather in the House, Parliament is being debased and not being given the full recognition it deserves as the seat of the representatives of the people. The confrontation of ideas should take place in parliament where either leader has the opportunity to make his statement and can be answered or contradicted in real time and not by means of the inevitable press release issued timely every Monday to contradict what the opponent will have announced on Sunday evening. The re-introduction of this parliamentary practice used very rarely as in the recent case of the Prime Ministerial statement on Skanska will reignite the necessary debating and confrontation of ideas atmosphere that parliaments are made of.
Both parties should rethink their Sunday morning information strategies. Just imagine how salutary it would be if a real debate took place inside the Party clubs where the leaders are invited to engage in a political debate in their opponents own club. Would this not send a positive message to viewers? Would they not look at this as a breaking down of the club fortress mentality? Such a debate would encourage all persons of whatever political allegiance to ask questions and to probe the political leaders. It could also attract people alien to visiting clubs to attend. The activity should not be dominated by a political monologue but should be an exercise in dialogue and the confrontation of ideas. The media should then report the newsworthy points raised. This would certainly come as a breath of fresh air. When elected leader of the PN. Dr Gonzi promised a new way of doing politics. He needs some reminding.
Imagine a situation where rather than always inviting politicians, the clubs invited persons well versed in a topical issue to speak and address people in the clubs. Would not this practice give a lease of life to the clubs traditionally attended by a few pensioners? Just imagine an architect explaining his opinion on the rebuilding of the opera house site in Valletta or an economist explaining the true state of public finances or an environmentalist explaining the benefits of sustainable development. Would these developments not give a meaning and purpose to Sunday morning talks? Would this not amount to issue politics at work rather than the current old style politics of playing the Sunday blame game? It certainly would help depoliticise our society.
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