Malta is a good example of the old rule that political systems develop in such a way that eventually no challenger can take away political power from the traditional parties. Structures develop in which there no redress when the laws of the land are broken by either individuals within the traditional parties or the parties themselves. Establishment incumbents have impunity and can brazenly break the laws without suffering the consequences. 

The electoral systems and the authorities set up to ensure a level playing field and guard against any abuse are defanged and unable to prevent the system from becoming corrupt. The system is unable to offer justice, redress or even a reasonably fair vote.

The media is biased by the agendas of their owners often boycotting the challengers and delivering only messages of the incumbent parties. The Malta Independent on Sunday is truly an exception to this rule – thank you!

Parties – even small ones – need financing to operate and it is so easy to abandon one’s principles and chase the money ‘regardless of source’ or to join others to ‘grow’ regardless of any ideological incompatibility. Or to simply merge with the incumbents to get a better chance to be one of a few leaders of the challengers, rather than face hardship and personal sacrifice by sticking to a clear vision and singular direction against all odds. 

This is what a young party like the Alleanza Bidla faces when trying to make a difference in Maltese politics. In fact, with our experience, we can easily conclude that real democracy and Maltese politics just do not mix. It is not about principles and/or leadership. It is about self-enrichment and power at all costs. 

But then, last week, everything gelled and everything became clear. Despite all the irregularities, disadvantages and the sacrifices, all the sacrifice actually becomes worth it.

Take the PN leadership elections. Alleanza officially remained quite silent throughout this race. We preferred just to let it develop on its own. Like many, we were surprised at how disjointed PN seems to be now. I am not just referring to the final leader chosen but also the process that is a total mess and how the egoistic backstabbing of several of the candidates undermines the future of the entire party. And more is, no doubt, to come.

Then we had Dr Delia’s speech on Independence Day. We found his speech encouraging since he, in effect, reiterated that which Alleanza has been saying for the last three years. He mentioned real poverty just as we have been doing, and the state of the very poor morals in politics. I particularly enjoyed him using the very words that we used in our electoral campaign – words like PN will now be defending our Maltese identity our values and our culture. It seems he will steer the PN in the direction we have been advocating for Malta, instead of carrying on down the harmful neo-liberal path of present/past leadership. We finally heard how corruption must be exposed and checks put in to prevent it.

Great, except that this last one seriously jarred badly with the recent, shocking media reports that the PN electoral office knew days before the election that signatures had been knowingly falsified by Dr Debono in order to ‘vote by proxy’. Falsifying signatures is a crime and if the report stating that this happened is correct, then many important questions need to be addressed immediately. Why did the PN not make this news public as soon as the discovery was made? Why has Dr Borg, chairperson of the commission, remained silent about this? Should he not either deny or verify these media reports? If true, why where the police not called in immediately? Was there an actual cover-up and the elections allowed to proceed despite the criminality involved? And how did this report actually end up with the biased and pro-tghana lkoll MaltaToday? Were they leaked on purpose because of the election result?

I have no doubt that there are people within the PN who work day and night to topple Dr Delia and replace him with their choice of leader. It seems more than likely that this internal ‘war’ will carry on for years. It is the very beginning of a much bigger mess rather than the end of matters, which cannot be good when the country needs a very strong Opposition to ensure that the government works within the law too.

This then is Dr Delia’s first great chance to walk the talk: his words at the Granaries – zero tolerance to corruption. If signatures were falsified then he must call in the police to investigate immediately. There must be clear sign that corruption will not be tolerated, irrespective of where it came from. I ask him openly to do this, not because I am working against him but for him to show his mettle. To show that real change in how we do politics in Malta has finally arrived. Or not.

In the same week, we see that all is not well with the PD/PN coalition. These parties are clearly not pulling in same direction. With hindsight, it was wise that Alleanza Bidla did not rush into a coalition ‘just to grow’ but to keep steady on its chosen course despite all the difficulties. Coalitions require much planning and clear negotiations to avoid later disagreements. The present conflict can only harm the long-term prospects for both the PN and the PD, and, even worse, undermine the efforts of opposing the current government.

This week too, the Bishop also ‘spoke our language’ when he unhesitatingly asked for fair distribution of wealth during the Independence Day homily. And rightly so, as Malta seems to be splitting into two distinct blocks – the haves and have-nots. The split will no doubt come back to bite the traditional parties in the not so distant future (as it has done in other countries). 

Alleanza Bidla believes in intellectual, morals and spiritual values. In freedom and dignity of the individual members, the health of a society based on the rule of law and that each person is responsible for his or her actions. We all have a right to share the common good that we produce. We must therefore promote the common good in the interest of all, without favouring any individual citizen or category of citizen. This is why we have spoken openly against those who greedily abuse the weaker ones of our society and who grab only for themselves irrespective of others’ rights to basic needs and those who will impose their harmful ideology on the majority of our society.

Alleanza Bidla is also fully committed to working actively for peace and stability in our region. It is with great pride that we see that at least three of the suggestions put forward to the different players in the Libyan conflict and to the UN have found their way to the latest UN declaration on the way forward for the Libyan situation. Again, if Alleanza Bidla can help contribute a bit of peace in Libya, this will not only benefit our neighbours but also the hundreds of thousands of civilian and migrants and will surely also benefit Malta and our security.

In contrast, Patrijotti’s attempt to hijack a peaceful demonstration and turn it into an exhibition of extreme right policy failed to materialise as even the original organisers, MPs and the mayors of the localities in question refused to take part because of Patrijotti’s presence and because of their policies and beliefs. How right we were not to ‘grow’ with this group even if there are areas of mutual agreement. The differences are far bigger and a coalition with this group would have been very harmful to us. 

Finally, the fact that an important group like the European Christian Political Movement has accepted us into its fold also shows us that we are not only making the right decisions locally but that these decisions are also being recognised at an international level and that we have a far bigger role to play in the future too.

Alleanza Bidla remains determined in its purpose and the difficult decisions we had to make in order to stay true to our beliefs have proved to be the correct ones.