Recently, a debate has materialised around the fact that there are plans to introduce school classes to teach the Maltese language to foreigners. The government has since clarified that this option will not be open to native students. Of course, the proposal to introduce the subject was the perfect opportunity for the inner short-lived and teary-eyed patriot to emerge in everyone who wanted to score a few cheap political points.

Furthermore, having grown up in Germany, my own abilities in Maltese were seriously compromised by the lack of exposure to the language. Once the family returned to Malta, I sat in on Maltese classes feeling quite lost. An alternative institutional path would have worked wonders at a crucial time. Most Maltese people have relatives who migrated abroad, most commonly to Australia. These Maltese living abroad should have resources, especially digital ones, made available to keep the language alive. My attempts with the President of Malta to create such resources at the time were unfortunately encountered with indifference from my counterparts in government. We should be offering such resources both abroad and at home.

The hysterical claim has been made that the Maltese language itself is under attack, when the intention is to instead teach Maltese to foreigners. If we want to call the government hypocritical in its approach to Maltese identity, there are plenty of grounds to do so, such as the intention to raise the population to 600,000 by using foreign labour, and destroying our heritage and environment in the process. In fact, having such a course will only promote the language. Indeed, I encourage the government to open it to Maltese who were born or raised abroad.

In Maltese politics, in a country where the political parties control their own media outlets, it is particularly impressive how party machines can twist situations. The problem is that when every little thing is blown out of proportion, legitimate arguments become weaker - such as the fact that we should be looking for alternatives to a population increase to 600,000, and should be stamping out clientelism and corruption. Picking on details which people know to be ridiculous inspires apathy.

There is also hypocrisy in this latest theatre piece of politics. Before World War II, Maltese politics was defined by a battle between parties known as the 'Language Question'. Few seem to remember that the very reason the Nationalist Party exists today is that it was created to protect the Italian language in Malta. Nationalist elites spoke Italian as a first language, defended it as the language of the courts and some wanted it to have supremacy over Maltese in the fullness of time. Italian was replaced by Maltese thanks to the Constitutional Party of Gerald Strickland.

Let us offer more opportunities, resources and paths to learn Maltese. Let us not weaken the Maltese language to score a few political points.

Mr Alden is the Deputy Leader of Partit Demokratiku