For the average person in the street, it is difficult to understand why the wealthy never seem to get enough. As the truth about Yorgen Fenech and the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia began to come out last year, I noticed a few comments which have stayed with me to this day.

There were those who wondered why Yorgen Fenech, a man born with a silver spoon in his mouth, could end up being accused of complicity in the murder of a journalist. Somebody with such power and privilege surely had enough security and purchasing power to live whatever kind of life he could possibly ever want. So why did he feel the need to reach for more?

While Yorgen Fenech is an extreme case, the reality that even our politicians are coming to accept now is that, generally speaking, corrupt businessmen have hijacked our democracy. This realisation is an opportunity for all political parties in Malta, as well as civil society, to find common ground.

This week I wrote to the acting Police Commissioner, Carmelo Magri, asking him to investigate the Planning Authority and a Gozitan developer. This follows revelations that false declarations of trust were probably made to avoid an Environmental Impact Assessment. The plans in question take up around 30,000 square metres of land, spread out over six separate applications. On 13 January, the Planning Authority rescheduled the hearing of the applications, bringing them forward from 28 January to the 14th after the issue hit the media.

The Planning Authority’s knee-jerk reaction to rubberstamp the project before public scrutiny could cause interference shows strong links between the Planning Authority and private business. The point I wish to make now is that, under this new government, Malta and Gozo have a chance to unite against those who are trying to manipulate our democracy with money. These businessmen have hijacked our country and driven it into the mud over the past few years. It is now time to put an end to the mafia once for all.

In Parliament’s first sitting of the year, Dr Chris Fearne said: “We should not believe that when people with bottomless funds finance political parties, they are doing so without expecting to receive something in return.” Awareness is growing across politics and society that money needs to be taken out of politics. Having my background in environmental NGOs before entering politics, I gained an awareness of just how our system is abused by the wealthy elite and how they control both major political parties.

The appeal of a coalition government for me is precisely the fact that a junior coalition partner is going to owe nothing to such hidden interests, and can push for radical reform. Since entering politics, I have made sure that a reform of party financing was at the forefront of the agenda of Partit Demokratiku, and I am confident that advocating such reform via the third party in Parliament helped the idea to go mainstream. Party financing is no longer a superior alternative relegated to the dusty shelves of an academic: party financing reform has become an obvious necessity.

There are other lessons, however, to be learned from the way in which our democracy has been hijacked. As our planet undergoes its sixth mass extinction, there can be no doubt that we live in a broken system. Capitalism assumes infinite resources, in the sense that it does not plan for – or assume – the survival of our species. We are consuming our way into a hole from which we cannot escape, driven by a hunger for endless GDP growth rather than measuring our economy by other standards, such as quality of life.

Our collective intellect and knowledge must allow us to rise above the simple natural laws of supply and demand. However, despite having had the power to resolve global warming generations ago, why is it that we persist in speeding off a cliff? If the world could provide for everybody, why do we continue down this self-destructive road? It seems that for those in pursuit of tremendous wealth, there is no satisfying the endless hunger triggered by those who get a taste for it, and there is nothing they will not do to protect that power, even when it comes at the expense of everybody else. Billionaires, corporatists and world-leaders meet at events such as the Davos Summit, and walk away with cosmetic solutions to fundamental problems plaguing the planet, endangering our future in the process. It is about time to stand up to them.

Malta and Gozo have experienced the problems facing the world at large on a little scale of our own. It is time to rein in the mafia hijacking our economy and our democracy. Once our house is in order, our country can take to the world stage, punching above our weight to offer real solutions. A short while ago, we were hoping to push for a seat on the UN Security Council: an opportunity no doubt lost by the damage inflicted by the corrupt on our island.

I appeal to all political parties that we set aside our differences to defeat the mafia together. Let us transform Maltese politics from a Zero-Sum game into a Win-Win situation for all. Let us restore our country’s reputation and do our part in fixing this broken system. Tribalism benefits the hidden elite pulling our strings and planting their people into positions of power. It is time to cut their strings and set Malta and Gozo free once more.