Malta achieved independent statehood just over 40 years ago. Independence brought with it new responsibilities as well as new opportunities, and the realisation that nobody owed the Maltese people a living – they must work hard to ensure for themselves a place in the sun, to provide for their own well being and to strive for an enhanced quality of life for themselves and their children.

Could a fledgling mini-State carve its own destiny, relying exclusively on its own human and financial resources, resisting the imperatives of interdependence and cutting itself adrift from the mainstream of European economic and political development? Local and regional political turbulence notwithstanding, Malta has made tangible progress since it switched from a fortress to a market economy.

What is Malta’s future role in the world?

Roots

Considering Malta’s historic and traditional roots, and given the fact that more than three fifths of our imports and exports were Europe-oriented, there was no way of Malta “going it alone”. History and geography took their natural course and Malta opted for EU membership.

While the Maltese people pursued their national interests by democratic vote, and sought a secure and respected place in Europe, they had to accept new obligations. Joining the European Club implied a readiness to abide by the club rules, which bind all members, big and small.

In turn, this implied making adjustments which could, in certain respects, be painful and which would be offset by compensatory benefits. Above all, it implied renegotiation to make the transition smooth and painless.

Haste and hurry is not compatible with smoothness of transition. Neither is procrastination, when it comes to promoting the necessary changes. Dedication, deliberate and motivated adjustment, intensive corner-cutting and steady coordination of adjustment processes will contribute to a managed transition where time is of the essence.

Identity

But, the absorption of Malta into the European Union does not imply that Malta’s national identity is to be expunged. Malta has enriched Europe’s diversity, but has not surrendered its individuality. That emerges from the combined logic of our history and geography.

The Maltese State is 41 years young, but the Maltese nation has roots that are lost in the mists of earliest times. Who were the first inhabitants of the Maltese Islands and where did they come from?

Was Malta first colonised by the temple-builders who put up the megalithic temples even before the Pyramids were built? Were there others before them? We know nothing about those people as persons, although we know a little about how they lived.

We know that Malta was invaded, occupied, pillaged by successive waves of different nationalities. Our heritage from different periods is sometimes scanty. Sometimes it is rich, particularly when the heritage, sadly neglected, is in stone.

But was there a Maltese Boadicea or a Spartacus who stood up against the early invaders that ruled over our people? Or was there, at least, a Maltese Homer who sailed to horizons unknown? We have no clue.

Fragments

What we know is that the Maltese are a nation unto themselves with their own language, traditions, and physical and other characteristics. The evidence suggests that the art of building in the far-off Stone Age reached a degree of skill and refinement unsurpassed in other megalithic and Neolithic locations.

During the Roman period, Malta had the status of a “municipium” and we have it from Cicero that Malta was flowing with honey if not with milk.

In the Acts of the Apostles, St Luke records some details about Malta’s inhabitants when St Paul was shipwrecked on the island. There is little left to account for subsequent centuries of Arab occupation. When the Knights of St John sent a reconnaissance mission in anticipation of establishing themselves on these islands, the mission reported that Malta was a barren rock.

Records exist about Maltese life and times – or some aspects of them – going back to mediaeval times. From the times of the Knights onwards, our history becomes progressively less opaque. Since that time, the Maltese people went through two epic sieges and stood up to Napoleon when his star was on the ascendant.

We became aware of more Maltese personalities emerging from the shadows into the limelight – people like Dun Mikiel Xerri, Mannarino, M. A. Vassalli and others, whose names fit into the jigsaw puzzle of our history.

Aspirations

But we are still labouring to assemble our detailed national identikit. How productive have the early Maltese people been in alleviating poverty and humanising wealth in pressing for wider margins of autonomy?

We know that our forefathers were animated by a lively awareness of their aspirations, when they drew up a declaration of rights at the time of Monroi, and when they got rid of the Napoleonic yoke.

We know that, from early times, our ancestors had the intellectual capacity to aspire to a virtuous circle instead of a vicious circle of societies which have no law. We know that they subscribed to rigorous religious values which gave dignity to their poverty – and this has been expressed in their churches and religious unity.

Malta’s insularity kept much that was good within its shores and prevented a good deal that was bad from infiltrating our social fabric – until the communications explosion broke down all barriers on land, sea and air.

Meaning

What meaning do we give to our national identity today? What is the moral force that animates us today? Now that the doors of permissiveness have been thrown open, when the apostles of pluralism are claiming unlimited rights, when political polarization seems to have grown deep roots in Malta’s political and social milieu, is Malta held together by the cement of a long-established national unity, or is the cement disintegrating so that Malta will not be the same again? And will that be for the better or for worse?

Is the Maltese nation the same united family it used to be or has it adopted a new set of values?

The answers to all these questions bear close analysis. The assumptions, on which Malta future course will be charted, will be based on them.

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