Leading by example is the best way to bring about any reform and uphold standards. Unfortunately when it comes to our political class it seems this mantra is light years away. As a matter of fact current provisions of the Code of Ethics for MPs and Standing Orders meant to safeguard the integrity of our legislators have recently been flagged by the Council of Europe as weak if not non-existent. This harsh criticism has once again been levelled in the latest evaluation carried out by the Group of States Against Corruption (Greco).

In reality, this serious shortcoming, which over the years has been exposed as a gaping hole our parliamentary system, had been fully exposed by Greco almost a decade ago. However, despite some timid efforts to address the situation, we are still faced by a situation whereby our MPs either walk away Scott-free or with a slap on the wrist in cases of serious ethical breaches.

Though the establishing of the Commissioner for Standards was a step forward, this reform is half-baked as in reality this regulator has no authority to enforce the decisions. This state of affairs is arguable the result of government’s lack of political will to take the bull by the horns. As a matter of fact, a revised code of ethics had been presented by the Standards Commissioner in 2020, has been left gathering dust. In the meantime, we have been left riddled with the same framework in which there are very weak checks and balances on serious matters like the MPs’ declaration of assets, financial interest and other activities which might pose a conflict of interest. To date there are very weak, if any, sanctions in case an MP fails to submit such declarations, does so belatedly or does not do so at all. The only consequence, they might face, is reputational damage, and only in case the matter is exposed by the media. Nonetheless, this does not seem to be a deterrent.

In this context, the increasing apathy and the rise of the non-voters is no surprise at all. Though it would be unfair to generalise on our political class, judging by their actions the picture is not rosy at all. Unfortunately, it seems that the question of whether our politicians will be embroiled in a scandal is when not if.

The ultimate goal must be to promote and scrupulously uphold ethical values, principles and norms that put the public interest above private interests in the public sector. However, in a culture of make hay while the sun shines it is hard to imagine any government that will really take the bull by the horns, at least for the foreseeable future.