Forty-one years ago, our school teacher took us, his students, along with thousands of other students to the Xaghra tal-Furjana (later renamed Independence Arena). There we waved the Maltese flags when the then Prime Minister, George Borg Olivier entered the parade ground in an open car waving a document – which I later understood to be a copy of the Maltese Constitution. Malta had gained its political independence from the colonial power and we had been given the opportunity to participate in a small way in the celebrations.

I knew Dr Borg Olivier at first hand since, with my father being a Member of Parliament and a personal friend of his, he was a frequent visitor at my parents’ house. However to be quite honest the significance of that episode at the time was not high on my agenda. However, it must not only have been a memorable episode but also perhaps the most important local political development for our islands during the 20th century. It had taken years and years of determination and hard work.

Whatever shade or colour the other major party in Malta may opt to portray this episode, there is no way that they can alter history.

After centuries of foreign political domination, in a peaceful and respectable manner, Malta graduated from being a colony with self-government to a fully fledged independent country. History is witness to the irrefutable fact that the Nationalist Party, for many years in its 125-year history, had been advocating this development to the dismay of those who would have rather integrated Malta with the United Kingdom.

But that is life – the political parties are entitled to their different opinions as to what is best, but it is the voters’ universal suffrage that has the last say as to what is to be done. So was the case with independence.

Just a few years before, Dom Mintoff’s Labour Party had resigned from power after failing to attain its integration dream. An even worse development was the fact that for the umpteenth time, in 1958, the British government suspended local administration and retook matters and government back to the boys in the UK. Self-government had been lost due to the wrong policies being adopted.

Yet with a will to attain self-determination not only on the local level but also in the international field, the Nationalist Party left no stone unturned in attaining its on-going difficult project of making Malta its own master. This it did. Nobody can deny it. It was eventually followed in the 1970s with the Labour government declaring Malta a republic. However the second event would not have been possible without the first one taking place. What the Nationalist Party attained for Malta on 21 September 1964 nobody can deny, and this will remain the largest feather in Malta’s cap.

Over the last 41 years, notwithstanding some setbacks, Malta has emerged from a foreign administered colony into an independent and self-determining country. It matured into a fully-fledged state able to manage its own affairs and bring about substantial economic success in the process. It is now recognised as an equal within the European Union in spite of its geographical position and size limitations. Hopefully even the Labour Party has now officially accepted and come to terms with the situation since its leadership must have realised that there is no other way forward.

From a defence-based economy we have moved to a different scenario wherein the major contributor is tourism with many other sectors such as IT, financial services, industry and light engineering playing an import role. Even if we do not have natural mineral resources, we have repeatedly proved, against all odds, that we can meet challenges, tackle them and come out in good shape if not on top.

On all possible fronts, we have repeatedly managed to negotiate the situation so as to ease problems which affect us due to size; our survival instinct has shown that our negotiating teams over the years have proved to be a hard nut to crack. In the early 1960s Britain might have viewed Dr Borg Olivier and his team as some stubborn group who would not let up. History has proved that the Maltese vision could become, and has become, reality.

The same story repeated itself in the 1990s as well as in the first five years of the new millennium when the Maltese EU negotiating team headed by Richard Cachia Caruana under the then Prime Minister, Eddie Fenech Adami, argued and sought the best possible conditions in our application for membership in the European Union. Once again we must have been a pretty stubborn lot. Things may not have gone 100 per cent in our favour but we got there with the positive results substantially outweighing the negative effects.

From today to Wednesday the Nationalist Party will be out celebrating. It celebrates a specific occasion but one which has left ongoing effects. It celebrates the initiation of a new life. However the celebration must not only mean the participation in the activities to be held in Floriana but the continual contribution of attention and energy towards making Malta’s a success story.

I believe that in spite of political differences we are united in heading that way.

Tony Abela is parliamentary secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister