The intervention made by Labour MP Leo Brincat in Parliament last Tuesday came as a surprise, largely because in this highly-polarised country a statement such as the one he made is so rare.

Mr Brincat praised the Foreign Ministry, and therefore the government, for the way it handled the tsunami disaster with regard to locating all the Maltese people who were caught in the Southeast of Asia when the catastrophe took place on 26 December, killing over 150,000, including one Maltese woman, who died in a German hospital last Monday.

He commended the ministry for “an immediate and well-coordinated action in light of the greatest disaster in the contemporary world”.

This is not a time for boasting, he added, but bearing in mind our limited size, “the government came out with flying colours”.

Mr Brincat’s statement came after Foreign Minister Michael Frendo had given a break down of the hard work the ministry had done to locate all 151 Maltese who were in the area and, added to this, extend Malta’s helping hand, small when compared to what other countries did but significant because it came from a tiny nation such as ours, to the countries hit by the disaster.

Dr Frendo went on to explain the procedure the ministry followed in the circumstances, how the Maltese to be found in the area were contacted and given assistance, and finished off by complimenting the Maltese people for the generosity they showed in giving financial and other contributions to help the victims of the catastrophe.

The praise Mr Brincat showered on the Foreign Ministry is well-deserved, but it stood out more because it came from the opposition, and it is not normal in Malta to hear the opposition say something positive about the government.

Naturally, it was a breath of fresh air for Maltese politics. With the two major political parties so much at loggerheads on each and every issue, most of the statements made by the opposition tend to be an attack on the government, with the latter, in defending itself, always raising the past, when Labour was in government, that is.

The two major parties, and Alternattiva Demokratika has fallen into the trap many times as well, are so concentrated in saying that what they do is good and what the others do is bad that they fail to realise that there is so much grey between the white and the black.

There are so many issues on which the two sides should have similar, rather than opposing, views. They might argue on how to get there, but these finer points should not stop them from coming to a conclusion on what, ultimately, are matters of national importance.

The issues that quickly come to mind include education, health, pensions and the environment, just to mention four areas that, after all, are of interest to everybody. In these areas, the government and opposition can, if they really want to, come up with ideas and solutions that please either side. In this way, they would be doing a great service to the country.

Of course, by advocating consensus we are in no way saying that the opposition should agree with anything the government does. Far from it. The opposition’s role is to monitor the government’s work and speak out against matters which, in its opinion, are not being done correctly. But there are occasions when the opposition criticises just for the sake of criticising.

On the other hand, the government should listen more to what the opposition is saying, rather than dismiss almost everything it says as being irrelevant.

Both parties surely want the best for the country. Through more collaboration, they will reach this goal faster and better.