{"id":2709,"date":"2019-07-04T10:35:18","date_gmt":"2019-07-04T08:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/?post_type=article&p=2709"},"modified":"2019-07-04T10:35:19","modified_gmt":"2019-07-04T08:35:19","slug":"ir-responsabbilta-politika-u-l-kultura-tar-rizenji-li-ma-tezistix","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/article\/ir-responsabbilta-politika-u-l-kultura-tar-rizenji-li-ma-tezistix\/","title":{"rendered":"Political responsibility and the inexistent culture of resignations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Political accountability and responsibility<\/span>\u00a0are the essence of democracy. All those who have been delegated with the authority to take action carry the responsibility of being accountable.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the most basic and fundamental principles of a democratic society is\u00a0<\/span>having a Government that is accountable to its citizens. In Malta, this accountability is<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>implemented via parliamentary controls. Every minister is accountable to Parliament for his office and,\u00a0<\/span>is,\u00a0<\/span>therefore,<\/span>\u00a0answerable<\/span>\u00a0to the Maltese electorate.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0One takes up this responsibility the moment one is elected to Parliament.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But<\/span>, in truth, how accountable are Government Ministers and Opposition Members of Parliament and how responsible are they for the way they act? Political science teaches us that Government Ministers and\u00a0<\/span>Opposition Members of Parliament<\/span>\u00a0should act responsibly and be accountable to the electorate that lent them the mandate to represent them at the country\u2019s highest institution. Theoretically, if they do not concur, they could lose their position. In practice, however, it is a different reality.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In Malta, we are still living in surreal circumstances.<\/span>\u00a0In the last few years we have had quite a few allegations of corruption made against Ministers and Government officials. The Opposition, the media and representatives of civil society repeatedly called for their resignation. Did they resign? No, in Malta we do not have a culture of resignations!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We have recently heard\u00a0<\/span>about the murder of\u00a0<\/span>Lassana<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Cisse<\/span>\u00a0by two\u00a0<\/span>A<\/span>rmed\u00a0<\/span>F<\/span>orces of Malta\u00a0<\/span>soldiers at\u00a0<\/span>\u0126al\u00a0<\/span>Far<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0There were calls for the<\/span>\u00a0Home Affairs<\/span>\u00a0Minister to shoulder the political responsibility for this act, a responsibility that<\/span>\u00a0can only be shouldered if a promise is made.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On the other hand,\u00a0<\/span>given what is happening within the Opposition following the extremely disappointing results of the European Parliament and the Local Council elections, the Leader of the Party and his team are being called to shoulder their political responsibility. In this context, we have heard and read about Nationalist deputies, ex officials of the Nationalist Party and other party followers calling for the resignation of\u00a0<\/span>Dr.<\/span>\u00a0Delia.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some thought that something was about to happen d<\/span>uring a<\/span>\u00a0recent<\/span>\u00a0meeting of the Parliamentary Group of the Nationalist Party<\/span>. The media reported that some deputies called for the resignation of\u00a0<\/span>Dr.<\/span>\u00a0Delia during this meeting. But they were disappointed! According to reports,\u00a0<\/span>Dr.<\/span>\u00a0Delia ignored calls for his resignation and claimed that he was assuming the responsibility for the two electoral defeats. He said that he will carry on implementing the ten proposals to radically restructure the Nationalist Party.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the meantime<\/span>, there was a petition to call a General Council of the Nationalist Party to discuss the European Parliament and Local Council elections results and the political responsibility that should be shouldered by Adrian Delia as the Leader of the Party.\u00a0<\/span>A motion was subsequently prepared to oppose this petition. Let\u2019s see what happens now!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In\u00a0<\/span>European countries<\/span>\u00a0that practice true<\/span>\u00a0democracy, Ministers and, even, Prime Ministers, carried their political responsibility and resigned when there was a scandal in the departments they run, when they were involved in something themselves or even when they were partly responsible for their party\u2019s electoral failures. In Malta, however, we do the opposite. The drive for power, arrogance and pride continue to reign\u00a0<\/span>supreme to the detriment of<\/span>\u00a0honest citizens<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>and the reputation of the country. Political responsibility in Malta can only be observed under the lens!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Political accountability and responsibility\u00a0are the essence of democracy. All those who have been delegated with the authority to take action carry the responsibility of being accountable.\u00a0 One of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2710,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"spay_email":""},"issuem_issue":[117],"issuem_issue_categories":[7],"issuem_issue_tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"2.8.8","language":"en","enabled_languages":["mt","en"],"languages":{"mt":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/2709"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2709"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/2709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2715,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/2709\/revisions\/2715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue?post=2709"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_categories?post=2709"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_tags?post=2709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}