You know, there is one thing that worries me here in Malta. There are many people out there, people I know and meet, who are uncomfortable with the PL and don’t see it as relevant any more to their beliefs. Surprisingly, they see the PN as making more sense and consonance to their own personal views – but one look at the Nationalists, and the way they write and express themselves, and they go scurrying back into the folds of Holy Mother Labour.

In truth, it’s not the PN that scares them, but the people inside. Every time someone comes in from the other side, the PN never truly embraces and accepts him. It could be because we Maltese have an innate mistrust of people’s intentions and true feelings when someone “crosses the floor”, so to speak. The famous Baldacchino of old, who probably did just that for personal gain, has a lot to answer for.

But the PN must become the open party it really needs to be. It must have new blood, even ex-PL blood. There are many others who are pale pink as well. They want, in their own fashion, to embrace the PN’s basic principles without compromising its raison d’etre – the PN has been the catalyst that has constantly improved our social and economic fabric and has taken the decisions necessary in consonance with the present times, even when they are difficult, bloodletting decisions.

The PN needs to attract new blood like there is no tomorrow. Frankly, there is not much to attract people, because the party is as beset by Chinese walls and cliques as it ever was. Is there no true space where people can come and go in and actually believe and see with their eyes and, more importantly, with their hearts that, yes, I can make a difference here and this party gives me the feeling that my thoughts and expressions have relevance here?

In truth, the PN’s rank and file have built a magnificent edifice, but that edifice needs a soul and a heart – and a beating one at that. The party is not a business, but it is in the business of taking forward the ideals and aspirations of its founders, constantly building on them to make them relevant today.

The PN has a good leader, but he also has to lead a country that is constantly being beset by social and economic problems and the very rapid inner metanoia that it is going through. We are not realising how much we are changing ourselves – for Malta is changing at a bewilderingly fast pace, make no mistake about it.

There is also the difficult situation of the possibly rogue backbencher, the one who doesn’t care and doesn’t want to go through a process of formation that may or may not see him being picked one day as a frontbencher. There are those who have imaginary axes to grind. Our senior backbenchers, ex-ministers or not, have served the party and the country well. They should realise that they have had their front line days. But their experience counts in the formation of the new ones and there is no harm in aging gracefully and with dignity and giving us the benefit of their experience, especially when it comes to lessons in loyalty.

This job of renewing the party and ensuring it has enough feed water to keep it fresh cannot be achieved by one man, and one man only. It needs other people at the top, people with the ideals of the PN, but who can inspire and lead. The PN needs an infusion of people at all levels. I’m worried. Once, the MZPN and the sectional committees were the nursery that trained the PN’s future leaders and workers. Do they still have that?

From outside here, I’m not seeing it.

Last week, I attended a meeting held at PN headquarters on a subject I hold at heart. The place was full. It was full of the core PN people, the grassroots. But I was shocked to see the very same people I looked up to and admired in my teens as the young bloods of the PN in 1982, people who are really old now and bent and broken in body, but whose spirit, and burning love for the principles of the PN, is as bright and undiminished now as it was at Tal-Barrani so many years ago. They were there. And I bowed my head in respect. These were old people. Where were today’s young Turks?

So what is my point in all this?

I also saw the way this party treated some new people who dared approach it. People from other walks of life, even of different previous persuasions, but who genuinely believed in the PN’s vision. They may not agree on the detail, but their vision is the same as the PN’s. Yet, many people in the PN don’t welcome them readily, because they dare to be a bit different.

There are many people who want to be part of this vision and who feel more comfortable in the PN than some kind of soul-denying, amorphous, vague, progressive coalition, with no spine and no history, based on the feelings of the moment, driven by resentment and envy and led by the most narcissistic leader the PL, and Malta, has ever known.

The PN needs to embrace more people who come from other quarters. It needs to make true, genuine space for them. It’s time for the PN to open those doors wide and let in the breeze. It’s also time for it to reach out to people, not just by stuffy political conferences and facts and figures, but by telling the truth, being true to the times, calling a spade a spade and not a hand-operated earth-moving implement, being sincere and reaching out to lead this people. In short, the PN needs to take to the streets, and engage people on a one-to-one basis. It’s good at doing that, very good. Basics are basics, and no one can deny it.

The PN needs new blood to do this, but first it has to make itself attractive, glamorous, and a “club” for change that people really want to be part of.

The infrastructure is there. Like God breathing new life into Eve, that’s what the new HQ needs. Admittedly, the issues Eddie and the PN had to face in 1987, and which coalesced it into the formidable force it is today, are not there. In a sense, he had it easy – the PL’s heinous action during the “anni di piombo” pre 1987 forged the PN for him.

Today the issues are so different, and so tactile they hurt. The Maltese people’s values and issues are changing rapidly. The EU has changed us, like it or not. There is so much to talk about today, to discuss, and make a difference to. If people’s ideas are really listened to, and they see that they are making a difference, they will help the PN renew itself, regenerate.

The PN has always been about change and taking the best decisions that Malta needs. They may hurt, but no one can say that the goal is not the country.

It’s time for some oxygen. It’s at a nadir. Will it make it? We shall see.

You know, there is one thing that worries me here in Malta. There are many people out there, people I know and meet, who are uncomfortable with the PL and don’t see it as relevant any more to their beliefs. Surprisingly, they see the PN as making more sense and consonance to their own personal views – but one look at the Nationalists, and the way they write and express themselves, and they go scurrying back into the folds of Holy Mother Labour.

In truth, it’s not the PN that scares them, but the people inside. Every time someone comes in from the other side, the PN never truly embraces and accepts him. It could be because we Maltese have an innate mistrust of people’s intentions and true feelings when someone “crosses the floor”, so to speak. The famous Baldacchino of old, who probably did just that for personal gain, has a lot to answer for.

But the PN must become the open party it really needs to be. It must have new blood, even ex-PL blood. There are many others who are pale pink as well. They want, in their own fashion, to embrace the PN’s basic principles without compromising its raison d’etre – the PN has been the catalyst that has constantly improved our social and economic fabric and has taken the decisions necessary in consonance with the present times, even when they are difficult, bloodletting decisions.

The PN needs to attract new blood like there is no tomorrow. Frankly, there is not much to attract people, because the party is as beset by Chinese walls and cliques as it ever was. Is there no true space where people can come and go in and actually believe and see with their eyes and, more importantly, with their hearts that, yes, I can make a difference here and this party gives me the feeling that my thoughts and expressions have relevance here?

In truth, the PN’s rank and file have built a magnificent edifice, but that edifice needs a soul and a heart – and a beating one at that. The party is not a business, but it is in the business of taking forward the ideals and aspirations of its founders, constantly building on them to make them relevant today.

The PN has a good leader, but he also has to lead a country that is constantly being beset by social and economic problems and the very rapid inner metanoia that it is going through. We are not realising how much we are changing ourselves – for Malta is changing at a bewilderingly fast pace, make no mistake about it.

There is also the difficult situation of the possibly rogue backbencher, the one who doesn’t care and doesn’t want to go through a process of formation that may or may not see him being picked one day as a frontbencher. There are those who have imaginary axes to grind. Our senior backbenchers, ex-ministers or not, have served the party and the country well. They should realise that they have had their front line days. But their experience counts in the formation of the new ones and there is no harm in aging gracefully and with dignity and giving us the benefit of their experience, especially when it comes to lessons in loyalty.

This job of renewing the party and ensuring it has enough feed water to keep it fresh cannot be achieved by one man, and one man only. It needs other people at the top, people with the ideals of the PN, but who can inspire and lead. The PN needs an infusion of people at all levels. I’m worried. Once, the MZPN and the sectional committees were the nursery that trained the PN’s future leaders and workers. Do they still have that?

From outside here, I’m not seeing it.

Last week, I attended a meeting held at PN headquarters on a subject I hold at heart. The place was full. It was full of the core PN people, the grassroots. But I was shocked to see the very same people I looked up to and admired in my teens as the young bloods of the PN in 1982, people who are really old now and bent and broken in body, but whose spirit, and burning love for the principles of the PN, is as bright and undiminished now as it was at Tal-Barrani so many years ago. They were there. And I bowed my head in respect. These were old people. Where were today’s young Turks?

So what is my point in all this?

I also saw the way this party treated some new people who dared approach it. People from other walks of life, even of different previous persuasions, but who genuinely believed in the PN’s vision. They may not agree on the detail, but their vision is the same as the PN’s. Yet, many people in the PN don’t welcome them readily, because they dare to be a bit different.

There are many people who want to be part of this vision and who feel more comfortable in the PN than some kind of soul-denying, amorphous, vague, progressive coalition, with no spine and no history, based on the feelings of the moment, driven by resentment and envy and led by the most narcissistic leader the PL, and Malta, has ever known.

The PN needs to embrace more people who come from other quarters. It needs to make true, genuine space for them. It’s time for the PN to open those doors wide and let in the breeze. It’s also time for it to reach out to people, not just by stuffy political conferences and facts and figures, but by telling the truth, being true to the times, calling a spade a spade and not a hand-operated earth-moving implement, being sincere and reaching out to lead this people. In short, the PN needs to take to the streets, and engage people on a one-to-one basis. It’s good at doing that, very good. Basics are basics, and no one can deny it.

The PN needs new blood to do this, but first it has to make itself attractive, glamorous, and a “club” for change that people really want to be part of.

The infrastructure is there. Like God breathing new life into Eve, that’s what the new HQ needs. Admittedly, the issues Eddie and the PN had to face in 1987, and which coalesced it into the formidable force it is today, are not there. In a sense, he had it easy – the PL’s heinous action during the “anni di piombo” pre 1987 forged the PN for him.

Today the issues are so different, and so tactile they hurt. The Maltese people’s values and issues are changing rapidly. The EU has changed us, like it or not. There is so much to talk about today, to discuss, and make a difference to. If people’s ideas are really listened to, and they see that they are making a difference, they will help the PN renew itself, regenerate.

The PN has always been about change and taking the best decisions that Malta needs. They may hurt, but no one can say that the goal is not the country.

It’s time for some oxygen. It’s at a nadir. Will it make it? We shall see.