When Adrian Delia won the leadership election it wasn’t with my vote. The man, who came in from the cold, wasn’t exactly my idea of a Nationalist Party leader. But the die was cast; the card paying members had chosen – and their choice was to be respected. That, however, isa defeatist approach which, in normal circumstances, is a good enough reason to hang once boots and call it a day. Having dedicated all my adult life to the Nationalist Party, I wasn’t willing to do that.
In my case, it’s a special affair that which I have with the Nationalist Party. I was born in a working class family which voted Labour. EU membership was what convinced me that the PN’s vision was the right one for Malta, and my generation. The first time I voted in a general election was in 2004, and I voted PN – so did my parents. Since then, we never looked back.
So no Adrian Delia, or any new member of the PN leadership, was going to drive me away from the party I had, carefully, chosen to support. I decided to give the new PN leader time to settle in, and prove me wrong. I tuned in to his speeches, his actions, I followed him closely, still do.
Three months ago, he called me to his office and what followed was a two-hour honest to God conversation – and honest to God it was, for never before had I spoken to the party leader the way I spoke to Adrian Delia. I walked out of his office cautiously optimistic that his vision for the Nationalist Party is what the party needs after a second trashing at the polls.
Time will tell, of course, whether Delia has the key to reinvent the Nationalist Party – but the first indications are, I believe, promising.
It is fair to conclude, as did the TMID leader, that the situation is desperate: corruption is widespread; the institutions – which are meant to protect us, law abiding citizens, have been reduced to shambles. It is when the newspaper describes the Nationalist Party as ineffectual (my words, but that was its main argument) that I beg to differ. Here’s why.
From where I stand - a party ‘insider’ if you like – though I occupy no position within its ranks, and am not on its payroll, the Nationalist party has far from gone into hibernation. It is rather the case of a party which, after being wiped out at the polls, is trying to find the right balance, and that, admittedly, is always a tricky situation – for peoples’ expectations differ.
In the run up to the last general election, the Nationalist Party focused its electoral campaign entirely on its fight against corruption. Corruption is the biggest threat facing today’s Malta. Daily, I meet people who tell me that the PN was ‘wrong in focusing on corruption, and government’s wrong doing’. I disagree strongly.
The PN of pre-2017, could well be ‘accused’ of having failed to find the right balance between its fight against corruption – and how it wreaks havoc to the individual’s economic situation, and its vision for a better, stronger economy. It certainly cannot be accused of having had the wrong priorities – for Simon Busuttil’s priorities were right, and just.
Though early days, the indications are that Adrian Delia understood the need to find the right balance between the two. Under his leadership, the Nationalist Party remains firmly committed in its fight against corruption.
As I write, Adrian Delia is at the law courts demanding the return of peoples’ property: the three state hospitals from mysterious businessmen. Only recently, he filed a parliamentary motion asking Joseph Muscat to hand back a large tract, of pristine land at Zonqor, to the people of Malta after the latter gave it to a Jordanian businessman, with a questionable track record, to build a ‘university’ which never took off.
Concurrently, Delia highlights government shortcomings, and lack of vision in a multitude of areas which matter to people, especially the most vulnerable.
Last week, he called the press in front of Mount Carmel hospital and took government to task over the shambolic state of this hospital. Single handily, Adrian Delia managed to influence the national agenda to the point that most opinion leaders and newspaper editorials focused on mental healthcare shortcomings throughout the past two weeks.
On a daily basis, he tours small and medium sized businesses to listen to their needs, concerns and ambitions. He’s been meeting workers and their representatives since the first day that he took helm at the Nationalist Party.
Dismissing the Opposition as ineffectual is, I believe, an unfair assessment. For ineffectual it certainly is not. Bread and butter issues are at the forefront of the new leadership agenda (the shadow cabinet reshuffle created new areas which matter to people) – but the fight against corruption is a strong as ever. It explains why Labour and its propaganda machine miss no occasion to hit out at the new PN leader. Where he ineffectual, and his party ‘dead in the water’ it wouldn’t bother.
Dr Frank Psaila is a lawyer and Net TV presenter