Family Politics

Working class Keperra, in Brisbane, was not a conservative stronghold. Recently, a good family friend aged in her late 80's told me a story from the 1970's. Her husband took my grandmother to vote and assisted her on request. "I wouldn't have taken her if I knew she was going to vote National!," he noted, furious, on return.

Anecdotes like this one indicate that my grandparents voted conservative. My Aunt suspects this has something to do with "union troubles" back in Malta. From my perspective, it was a puzzling voting choice. My grandfather worked with his hands, on spitfires during World War 2 and as a carpenter on housing commission houses in Australia. I wondered if Malta would offer some answers.

Malta is fairly evenly divided in support between the Nationalist and Labour parties. The first and most obvious indicator of vote leaning, location, did not help. The Fenech's hailed from Żejtun, which is a Labour stronghold. The 2008 local government elections in Żejtun resulted in 7 Labour members elected when only 9 positions were on offer. No answers on this front.

I never got the time to truly understand why the extended family tends to lean Nationalist while living mostly in Labour voting areas. It appears that it is based largely on tradition and reinforced by social interaction. It appears that the arguments and personalities of the Nationalists therefore tend to resonate.

Then again, it also appeared that Maltese politics is focused on a far more limited scope of subjects than Australian politics. Both sides of politics seem firmly committed to public health and public education. The election seemed to be mostly about personalities and corruption allegations were everywhere. The media was also a minefield of bias.

I noticed a couple of domestic issues while in town. The completely out of place and ugly hotel sticking out like a sore thumb in San Ġiljan makes you wonder who got paid what to let it happen. There is also ongoing controversy surrounding the right to shoot migratory birds as they fly over Malta. The Euro currency remains somewhat controversial but is locked in now.

Race related issues are present here as with anywhere else in the world. A number of refugees, particularly of African origin, turn up in Malta. The location of Malta above Africa clearly plays into the issue, and there appear to be political complexities involving the European Union. Being on the overpopulated side to start with appears to put many locals on edge about new arrivals.

As with everywhere else in the world, racism is a great self serving ideology, reinforcing itself through exclusion and marginalisation of people at the fringes of a society. In the 1950's and 1960's, Mediterranean immigrants to Australia, more so Italians, were derided by some as 'wogs' and labelled with nasty stereotypes. Perhaps as a result, my family is largely antiracism. Maltese Australians face extremely little racism these days, as the race fad moved on to Asians and now focuses on Muslims and Africans.

Politics in Malta was another reminder of the lack of utopias. In many ways, Malta has it so right. The people, perhaps as a result of their long history without self determination, know politics is important, they pay attention and care deeply about it. Yet I am unconvinced that politics need cause major rifts between friends and family. While I am hardly a swinging voter myself, it seems a bit disconcerting that there appear to be few open minded swinging voters.

The last words on Maltese politics belong to Gozo bishop Mario Grech from the Sunday Times on the day we departed. The bishop observed that Malta "had just experienced a political process laden with slander and mockery" and that this "caused many wounds and made victims not only of those directly involved, but also their families." These words could have just as well described the debilitating Australian Local Government elections I escaped by going to Malta. "Love wins over hate and peace conquers violence," the bishop continued.

Hope springs eternal.

Labour bar, Valletta