It is no secret that Malta has an intrinsic culture of political fanaticism. You name it, we’ve seen it: mass meetings, ‘debates’ which turn into mass meetings, mugs and calendars with politicians’ faces on them, and even the occasional party emblem tattoo. I could go on and on about how worrying it is that people in Malta feel so strongly devoted to their party, but instead I’d like to take a step back and analyse how this situation has impacted my experience as a student.
When I was a first year at University, a general election took place. This was the first general election that I would ever vote in. As most of you know, it has become a tradition at this point that every election a debate takes place at University between the party leaders, an event in which attendance is limited to University and Junior College students. The event was so high in demand that the website crashed as soon as seats became available for booking, and my friends and I had to refresh for 45 minutes before we managed to secure our spot.
In truth, it wasn’t as much of a debate as it was a mass meeting. The spectacle was dominated by cheering, yelling, and booing from the student audience, and the party leaders were repeatedly interrupted by the students. KSU members were running around frantically trying to convince attendees to calm down and be respectful, but to no avail.
What stuck out to me the most was something that happened in the middle of the debate. I was sitting behind a man who looked like he was around 20 or 21. He kept on shouting “viva l-labour” until a KSU member came up to him and asked him to stop heckling. He then exasperatedly argued that the Nationalists were also heckling and therefore he should be able to as well. The KSU member told him that if he didn’t stop, he would be asked to leave. He then turned around and started pouting and muttering to himself like a 5 year-old.
My only thought at that moment was, “I can’t believe these people vote”.
Politics seeps its way into our educational experience in subtle ways as well. The Pulse/SDM rivalry at Junior College was a huge deal when I attended. And while one could argue that Pulse and SDM aren’t officially partisan organisations, I think any politically literate person understands the connotations. SDM literally stands for “Studenti Demokristjani Maltin” and uses the colour blue. Pulse brands itself as “Social Democratic Students” and up until a few years ago used the colour red, although they eventually rebranded to orange.
In reality, most JC students only cared about Pulse and SDM because they got to attend their PV meetups and boat parties. But once politics was at play, the atmosphere became a very toxic one. Anonymous Instagram accounts would pop up to make targeted memes about the candidates. The first time that online voting was introduced, screenshots circulated of candidates encouraging voters to send them the link so that they could vote on their behalf. On election night, policemen stood outside the gates of the college to break up fights between Pulse and SDM supporters.
Today, this culture of rivalry has died down. Pulse have a complete monopoly over KSJC to the point where SDM have stopped contesting, and conversely, SDM have a complete monopoly over KSU to the point where Pulse have stopped contesting. This of course creates a new problem whereby students are no longer given a choice over who represents them, although that is a topic for another day.
Prior to writing this article, I messaged a few of my friends who are studying abroad; three are on Erasmus in England and one is a full-time student in Amsterdam. Their Universities’ student councils are composed of candidates who run independently. This phenomenon of unofficial junior political parties running for student councils is something that seems to be unique to Malta.
Politics affects every aspect of life, including work and travel. Education is no different, however the pure extent to which political fanaticism affects education in Malta is simply absurd.
Is it too much to ask for a world in which true leadership and change can come about without our culture of partisan loyalty setting us back?
Read more by Katrina Cassar on her blog!
This article was written by an independent writer whose views are not associated with The Third Eye. The Third Eye strives to be the student’s voice, and that entails giving them a platform to voice their opinions.