Dr Harry Vassallo Chairperson of Alternattiva Demokratika - the Green Party Malta – People First, interview

Vassallo is a charismatic leader who has given a new lease of life to the Green Party he leads. A brilliant orator, a thinker, Vassallo has managed to raise his party`s profile in a short time. He says in making money now and depriving future generations of benefiting from the natural assets of the country is irresponsible and unsustainable. One cannot eat money.

According to him, Malta may be facing the most important turning point in its brief history as nation.

Dr. Harry Vassallo, welcome to the interview.

What brings you to the helm of Alternattiva Demokratika, Malta’s Green Party?
Harry: Several years before I was asked to edit the magazine of an environmental group, now Friends of the Earth, Malta. It started a chain of events in my life which led to the formation of the Green Party, ten years of political work and then being in a position to serve as the party’s leader.

In brief the history of the Greens in Malta
Harry: In 1989 two young socialist politicians resigned their posts as party president and parliamentary whip in protest against their party’s failure to root out corrupt elements. Those resignations were a catalyst drawing to them several activists from NGOs who were convinced that the stagnation of the two-party system could only be addressed by political action. That was 18 years ago and now our challenge to the system is stronger than ever benefiting from the track record we have

Many movements in Malta have not succeeded. Do you see a reason for that?
Harry: Malta has a wealth of movements. In part this may be due to the unchanging political situation which gives energy through frustration. The dynamics of such movements make it natural that some die and others are born. No problem. What is success for a political party? Should we give up because we have not yet made it to parliament? The fact is that one will give up only when the message one bears is no longer valid. It is not the case with the Greens. Quite the contrary.

What are your values? Which are the values you respect?
Harry: I guess that it could all be summed up in the UN declaration of Human Rights with a Green perspective attached. That may not seem very specific but in fact these days the values of tolerance and mutual respect are under assault, undermined by long term failures to match the declarations with practical application and by active ideological attack. All the ecological challenges we face require not only acknowledgement of the challenges by the political class but also the awareness of them by ordinary people together with the hope and the will to address them in their daily lives. Which brings us back to respect for basic rights and freedoms. The challenges we face are too complex for anybody to hope to address effectively through any top down solution and people must be respected before we can hope for a bottom-up response.

Is it difficult to be a humanist without other human beings?
Harry: It is impossible. Plucked out of human society and kept in isolation one may retain one’s values but only because they were formed through previous interaction. No philosophy is so abstract.

Is not the motto "People First" out of fashion in today’s corporate culture?
Harry: I am old enough for some things to have come back into fashion in my experience so I am ever less concerned with what is and what is not in fashion. If people go out of fashion altogether in the political world we will all be in a lot of trouble. It is fundamental to me that legitimacy comes only from popular support. If the political leadership forgets to put people first, it becomes simply an abuser, a usurper and an oppressor. There, a few more old fashioned words.

We seem to have no long term vision. What vision have you spelled out for Malta?
Harry: Malta exists against the odds: a small island, densely populated, with very few natural resources. We must make optimum use of our assets for our long term survival. We can be a great example of small being beautiful if we are able to act wisely. At the heart of any success story lies its ability to counter the patronage system which leads to an inefficient use of human and material resources, reducing the possibilities for innovation and creativity.

Our first task in unleashing our potential is to do away with democratic distortions which serve particular lobbies and not to deny important common causes. Being Green in Malta means a commitment to rehabilitate democracy in order to be able to achieve an excellent quality of life.

We enjoy a superb climate, why not good air, better water, safe food and not at exorbitant prices? It is possible. If enough of us truly want it.

But its not just food but also water that is beginning to be in short supply. What is the situation in Malta in this respect?
Harry: Malta obtains 50% of its drinking water from the sea dedicating 11% of the country’s electricity generation to the task. Since this is 100% hydrocarbon generation the recent hikes in oil process are a very serious worry. Climate change is affecting global wheat prices and bread is still a staple food in Malta even if our standard of living allows it to be a minor budget factor compared to previous years.

We should be world leaders in alternative energy and in climate change actions given our dire situation and yet we are not. We have great potential for change most of all in rain water harvesting, recharging the acquifer through recycled water and in careful use and reuse of water.

Of course closeness can oppress. We are flooded with images, but have no time for reflection, many of these images are distorted.
Harry: The more we are bombarded the less attention we pay. The less attention we pay the more we are bombarded. Then we have to take important decisions which we base on the confused impressions we have made. Amazingly, we very often act wisely. Still there is a need for back up to provide criticism and comment which can rein in the worst abuse of our weakness. A weak or subservient press makes a people more vulnerable to abuse.

Myths are never destroyed. The earth was born and the world can die? And we can kill it? What do you propose should be done?
Harry: Science makes it clear to all who will listen that life is like an Olympic torch passed from generation to generation and through the myriad life forms. The realisation in our generation that our actions can threaten its continuation is what can save it. We are also the generation which has idealised individualism reducing our ability to act together or to feel obliged to past generations and to future ones.

Long before governments recognise the need to educate people, the earth will educate us. We can only hope that we will still be in time.

Humans are undoubtedly the most dominant species the Earth has ever known. In just a few thousand years we have swallowed up more than a third of the planet`s land for cities, farmland and pastures. What is the situation in Malta in this respect?
Harry: Malta has gone far beyond the rest of the earth. We have depended on food imports for the past 2000 years. In the last 50 years we have used up more land for construction than was ever taken up in the past 5000 years. We have lost 2% of our arable land to urbanisation each year for the past 20-30 years.

And yet a country the size of the Isle of Wight still has a flora diversity comparable to that of the whole United Kingdom. It is only now and thanks to the pressure of NGos and of the Green Party that these realisations are sinking in and we are witnessing a will to change our ways. It is too late for many areas but perhaps what remains may be saved.

What is the political landscape of Malta like?
Harry: We have two political parties represented in our parliament: the PN which is a Christian Democrat party and the MLP which is a socialist party. The Greens have been active since 1989 and since a few months ago AN, a new right wing party has been formed.

The PN and the MLP have dominated the political scene for the past 40 years alone in an atmosphere described as extreme polarisation by outside observers. This reached its peak in the 1970s and the 1980s with frequent incidents of political violence and human rights violations under an MLP government.

The Greens, Alternattiva Demokratika, propose a democratic alternative to minimal pluralism. The small margins between the other parties leaves them vulnerable to almost any lobby and unable to make any major reforms without very long delays. Rent reform has been on the cards for 60 years, divorce is not yet introduced and the hunters force the government to break EU rules on the protection of migrating species.

AD is on the brink of breaking the deadlock and if its support is needed to form the first coalition government in 40 years many longstanding issues can be addressed.

Where do you see the fight taking place?
Harry: All politics is local. The national issues must be raised and discussed, international issues also and why not global ones like climate change, however the decision making takes place on a personal level and the fight is taking place everyday in our streets and in our homes when we meet people and seek their support.

It is being felt in Malta that there is time to change, the Nationalists have been there too long. What changes are there in making and what is possible?

What is the likely scenario?
Harry: We have had a PN government for the past 20 years almost without interruption. The MLP seems unable to raise its support beyond its core which does not give it a majority and a considerable section remains undecided and rebellious. The last remaining obstacle for the Greens is one of belief. Very many will vote Green anyway but very many more will do so if a Green success seems imminent.

What are the essentials of the challenges that Malta faces that will not change?
Harry: Geography and location will not change, population density can be regarded as a permanent feature. We will always have to survive on our wits: Highly dependent on imports, we will always have to export goods and services to a very high degree. Malta cannot opt out of the global ratrace but we can look at a post consumer society and seek to improve our quality of life needing fewer imports and gaining more time in our lives and shedding the junk culture.

If Greens would succeed and make it into the parliament, what immediate change would the Alternattiva Demokratika bring about?
Harry: The balance of power changes. The government will be more accountable because it can no longer impose discipline on all its components, no longer be sure that the lid will stay on any scam that may be running. Already the PN is proposing to introduce a Freedom of Information Act, a Whistleblower Act and to reform the financing of political parties, all AD proposals since 1992 at least . At this point they are PN promises if the Greens are there, they will certainly become facts and then all the cats will be out of all the bags.

How are the Greens organized, what is your aim, what is your position, and how are you financed?
Harry: We are small and poor. Because we have always opposed the construction lobby which finances the other political parties, we are much poorer than them but also much freer to address crucial issues such as land use. In the past few years we have lived off members’ subscriptions and the sum we obtained by selling off party assets.

At election time we receive generous donations from members and a lot of their time and effort. We also receive support in kind from other Green parties who send over their representative during campaigning.

We have always felt that we cannot go on forever in this way but in fact we have managed for 18 years and sometimes it feels like forever. Thankfully we can also be small with regard to party needs and staffing.

We have obtained significant successes in municipal elections whenever we have invested in a candidate. In 2004 we gained 9.2% of the vote in the European Parliament election and at this time there is widespread expectation that we will elect our first MEP in 2009 when an additional seat will be available to Malta.

Because Malta is so small there is little need for structures beyond the party office. However we have developed a very active group in the island of Gozo in the past few years and now we also have another group in the South of Malta where conditions require special attention.

Dr. Harry Vassallo, Chairperson of Malta`a Alternattiva Demokratika it has been pleasure talking to you.

Picturing Dr. Harry Vassallo

Alternattiva demokraktika, the Green party, Malta
Web site of the Alternattiva demokratika, the Green Party, Malta