Like other people, no doubt, the Maltese have their faults – but they also have redeeming qualities.

Many of them may tend to be litigious and, very often, suspicious of each other, let alone strangers. The sea that divides them from the mainland bred an ingrained provincial outlook, which is only now beginning to fade under the impact of modern communications.

The vicissitudes of history compelled them to be industrious and urged our forefathers to be thrifty. And they have proved beyond doubt that they could be brave under stress.

The threat of invasion and the strains of foreign domination invariably induced them to pull the same rope. But when the stress recedes, individualism takes the upper hand.

The Maltese know each other too much to place their blind trust in their collectivity. They gang up in competing, often rival, groups, in band clubs, in neighboring villages, in political parties.

Adversarial instinct

As a result, progress is often arrested by the adversarial instinct. This is not a Maltese phenomenon. It is manifest elsewhere. But, whereas the winds of change blow strong across vast stretches of the world, their impact is much reduced in this sheltered isle by the rockface of history and tradition.

Change is, however, irresistible. What the winds cannot blow away in a relatively short span, time will erode over a much longer term.

In other words, if Malta were to be immune to outside influences, it will, in the longer run, be compelled by the laws of survival to generate forces of change from within. Resistance to change is at the expense of the present and future Maltese generations.

Technology is advancing at breakneck speed. Competition becomes more brutal and unforgiving by the hour. The world economy is rapidly being globalised. We have to come to terms with this reality – and the only feasible way to do so is to behave like a nation anxious to keep its place in the sun.

We have managed in the end to surmount the hurdle of EU accession. The ensuing imperatives have been, and continue to be, that of clearing our national stable of prejudices, vested sectoral interests and political partisanship. We have yet to hammer out an agreed national economic policy that will be subject to no zigzags after every election, and one that will be implemented with political will and national resolve.

Fundamental interest

We must, willy-nilly, all pull the same rope, free of the denigration, the moans and the disparagement of competing interests.

As befits any healthy democracy, there should be plenty of room for vigorous debate about our internal differences, but we must learn how to stand four-square against all outside interests, particularly those that compete against us for the source of our livelihood.

The politicians on both sides of the political divide who undermine the national interest in the name of legitimate satire, and who thrive on invective, lampoon and sarcasm, thereby undermining consensus-building, have done enough damage in Malta.

They are not likely to be disposed to hide their heads in shame. But, somehow, they must be stopped short in their tracks within their respective enclaves. Above all, they should be weeded out of the boards of public entities and institutions, whose future survival depends on a constructive change of course focusing on tripartite cooperation.

Meeting of minds

To my mind, no significant forward movement is possible unless the main political parties in Parliament come to a meeting of minds on the best way to bring order in the nation’s finances and to rein in the horses of inflation.

This is a challenge to be faced, irrespective of who won the last election and who will win the next.

Experience is the best of teachers. While Malta was ostensibly bidding hotly to join the European Union, it was departing from the Maastricht convergence criteria, and compounding Malta’s subsequent post accession problems. There were some who sounded the alert, but nobody cared. We are now paying the price for that folly.

That experience alone is enough to persuade mature politicians about the imperatives of consensus. Otherwise, the consequences are bound to be as inescapable as they are bound to be punitive

The last train

This is the last train that Malta must not miss.

Maltese politicians are traditionally too hard-headed to appear lyrical. But common sense is within their grasp, provided that one party or the other is not bent on search-and-destroy missions.

Malta must embark on a healing process after the trauma of the post-independence years. The electorate must bring itself to face reality and understand the nature of the challenge to its survival.

The electorate can’t know where Malta is heading without an understanding of the nature of the problem.

As I see it, the Maltese milieu is sorely in need of the oxygen of consensual politics and the stakes are high. This window of opportunity closes unless Malta’s senior politicians act fast.

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