In the general election the country is about to face, there is no room for tribal politics, there is no room for deep-rooted political preferences and there is no room for complacency at the polls.

The coming election is an election like no other, and the choices facing the electorate are like no other choices they have faced or are ever likely to face.

The politicians have told us that it is a choice between the two leaders, or that it is a choice between one leader and Malta itself.

But the fact of the matter is that each and every member of the electorate on 3 June faces a choice of saying with their vote that they will not allow this small but great nation to be rode roughshod over, or give a rubberstamp to rampant and unbridled corruption the likes of which this country has not seen for decades, if ever.

The choice is between condoning or condemning corruption by those elected, or appointed, to lead us.

It is between telling the powers that be that we, as a nation, are better than this, and that we deserve better, or telling those powers that be that we are willing to settle for the paltry standards that we have been subjected to of late.

That choice is a simple one and the answer lies within the conscience of each and every one of us.

The Prime Minister will say that he has learned his lessons and that he will not let another Panama Papers happen again, and yet he keeps in place those very same people whose misdeeds were exposed by the leak.

The issue, we must remind readers, is not that Malta’s name has been shamed and tarnished. The issue is that the deeds that were exposed took place — or were allowed to take place — and, to add insult to injury, the fact that those deeds were left unpunished.

What this newspaper has reported over the last two days from a Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit report leaked to this newsroom, which has been kept under lock and key, shows very clearly that contentious government deals such as the partial privatisation of Enemalta and the infamous LNG tanker in Marsaxlokk were being milked, and possibly orchestrated, for kickbacks.

And what this newspaper has reported over the last year from the Panama Papers shows how the whole kickback modus operandi had been established from practically day one of the legislature.

When looking back with hindsight at the machinations that were taking place and which only began to be revealed over the last year since the fortuitous outbreak of the Panama Papers, the last four years have been a timeline of sleaze, graft and daylight robbery – none of which would have ever come to light had it not been for the hacking of the Mossack Fonseca email server.

To think that the public would have been none the wiser had that not happened is a disturbing notion and we as a people must not go to the polls as though we are none the wiser. Our vote must be an informed vote.

There are many among us who say that both parties are just as corrupt as each other. This type of reasoning beggars belief, for this country has never seen this type of corruption exposed on such a scale. And by way of comparison, the accusations that the governing party is throwing at the Opposition pale into insignificance — so much so that it is not a case of fighting fire with fire, but more a case of fighting a flamethrower with a damp match.

This is not about the different facets of the corruption charges the government is facing. This newsroom has seen firsthand and in black and white the evidence on all these cases, and for that concrete evidence to be simply spun as lies is a testimony to the worst kind of political deviousness.

This war against corruption has been waged primarily by the independent media for at least the last year when matters began to become crystal clear, and they are becoming even clearer by the day. The final battle will be waged next Saturday and voters are being called to place themselves on the front line and on right side of history.

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, and voters are being called to look beyond their time-honoured partisan favouritisms and beyond their personal interests being pandered to by the parties’ shopping lists of electoral pledges.

It cannot be said that the Prime Minister will not crack down and finally implement those lofty pledges he made four years ago to instil a new culture of accountability and transparency, he may very well do so. Nor can it be said that a government led by his political nemesis will be virtue incarnate.

What we are saying is that the misdeeds that have been exposed cannot go unpunished as they have been, and that the ultimate punishment can and should be delivered at the polls. Voters must set aside the tribalism so symptomatic of Maltese politics and consider the national interest first and foremost.

For on 3 June, the national interest is at stake like never before, use your sacrosanct right to vote to vote against corruption wherever you may see it rearing its ugly head.