Your editorial The third force (TMID, 11 August) asks the crucial question whether “AD will elect a representative in parliament, a breakthrough that would give AD a much stronger voice and give it the energy to continue its fight”. It is a good question to ask but perhaps better done another way.

Given more energies and resources will the Greens achieve representation? My answer is definitely yes. The energies and the resources are needed before, not after, the election. With representation in parliament, the Greens will be able to speak with parliamentary immunity, to ask parliamentary questions, to sit in the various parliamentary committees, perhaps to have representatives on the Electoral Commission and in the Broadcasting Authority. We will be able to present private members’ bills to amend laws as desired by our support. It will be a whole new ball game.

This without considering a scenario in which our support is required to form a government. In that case several issues which we have championed will be sine qua non – reform of the rent laws to give but one example. A Freedom of Information Act, a Whistleblower Act and a law governing the financing of political parties would also become necessary. Our job would be to fulfil as much of our mandate as possible, as much as we can of the 450 proposals in our manifesto. Malta would become a very different place.

Yes, it would be a tremendous renaissance to be in a position to bring about the changes we have worked for ceaselessly for nearly two decades and we would certainly be able “to continue the fight” with new energies. However it is more important to find the energies here and now, more important to think of what we can do to get there than of how wonderful it will be when we do.

In the months before us, we face the challenge of putting together the electoral machinery and getting it going at full revs. It is the aspect of politics which sets most people’s teeth on edge: a tremendous effort and a tremendous expense in hype, bread and circuses, the height of artificiality and superficiality. There is no other way. The printing and distribution must be bought and paid for, the battle for our space in the media must be renewed on a new level, advertisements in the press and in the media must be designed and the money for them shelled out. The people involved at every level must be energised to canvass, to carry and to count, to stand as candidates, to advise and to take the battle in the right direction.

It is a mean business and it gets no better when we set ourselves higher method standards than appear to bind our competition. It is to our credit that our support and also neutral observers would be very shocked to find us adopting tactics which they take for granted coming from the parties in parliament today.

We have no client patron networks; nobody owes us his home, his job or his boarding out. We do not have a nostalgia legacy of battles fought by one’s grandparents and the bonds they create. Above all we do not have a media empire broadcasting year round.

Granted that two media empires presenting two mutually contradictory versions of everything, tend to add to the general disgust with our competition, your editorial is right to point out that every effort is made by them to perpetuate the myth that the Greens are small to insignificant, almost non-existent. It has become an asset for the Greens in so far as it has become scandalously obvious to everyone.

We have little money. Well, nothing like the Lm0.5 million each of our competitors spend in each electoral campaign. The grand splurging is seductive, an expression of might and clout, money becoming co-terminous with success. For those who tell themselves that they are immune to the circuses, it is worth pointing out that the lack of circuses when they are happening all around is noted by the rest. It gives us no popularity advantage that in fact we are by far the most cost-efficient of the political parties. Most people prefer celebrations to thrift.

Should we give it up as hopeless? We have never backed down before, not even when we were offered unearned representation to do so. These handicaps are part of the political landscape as far as we are concerned. We are far better acquainted with them than any commentator can possibly be and we have carried on regardless year after year.

Our commitment is to our ideas and our wish for change. We will take on the competition no matter what the odds may be. We have a hugely beneficial change to bring about and we are the only political force that can bring it about. In this we know that we are the country’s only hope and the responsibility we bear is one that we cannot betray.

My promise to resign should we not succeed is not an indication that I have “lost hope” It is an expression of my conviction that this election holds the greatest potential for inserting a third force in parliament than ever before in the last two decades and more. It is definitely parliament or bust this time and it makes no sense to hide it. The challenge lies before us all, Greens and all others, who recognise the need for change. This is the time for us all who share this hope in whatever degree to pull all the stops, to focus all energies and to concentrate all our resources to maximum effect. Failure this time will be a terrible disappointment not only of my hopes and of the hopes of my party, but of that large part of the electorate which feels that a highly desirable change is imminent, within reach. The merit of success will be of all those who participate in this venture, the responsibility for failure will be mine alone.

The stakes are high and I have raised them further because the prize is great and too great to miss. Asked directly, I have made it clear that I will have no wish to cling to the leadership should this bid for representation in parliament not succeed. We already have too many examples of the other thing.

The question of how many we can hope to elect to parliament, I prefer to leave open. Three or four Green MPs appears to be far too much in your estimate. The PN does not share your incredulity. From a five per cent threshold proposed by them in electoral reform negotiations in 1995, they have retreated to a 7.5 per cent proposal which has also come to nothing in 2006. One assumes that 7.5 per cent is the shifting goalpost which the PN hopes that Greens cannot attain. It turns out to be very close to the 9.4 per cent attained in the EP elections adjusted for a higher turnout expected in a general election. They did not make it seven per cent which would translate into three or four seats in parliament.

One must also consider that a general election is in fact 13 separate elections. If we can be elected anywhere, we should be able to get elected everywhere. Our limitation is only in our ability to find the resources to match our adversaries on the ground in the several electoral districts.

In the past several local council elections we have conducted a number of experiments. In some areas we have relied on a simple leaflet campaign, in others we have canvassed furiously. Wherever the effort was greater we have been assured of success. While the media reported our overall result diluted by the localities we did not contest as approximately two per cent, we have averaged between five and six per cent. Averages do not report the highest scores and in many cases we have gone far beyond any threshold applicable in general elections.

We have every right to complain about the absurd imbalance in broadcasting and we do complain. However it is not a determining factor. It is presence on the ground that is the most telling. If we find the energies, the resources – human and financial – as well as the determination to extend the contest to every electoral district in the way we have done in some local council elections, the result of the next general election will be a massive surprise to all who underestimate the pent up positive energies we can unleash.

Our result in 2003 cannot be fairly depicted as part of the downward trend in previous election results. Our unprecedented campaign asking for No 2 votes ensured that we shifted first preference votes in favour of the PN in order to secure EU membership. It was neither a fiasco nor a defeat. It was a tremendous contribution by a “small” party not yet represented in parliament to secure the country’s future. Through that extreme sacrifice we won the hearts and minds of many voters who rewarded us with a 1,300 per cent increase in support just 12 months later.

While it is wise to keep one’s feet on the ground in every circumstance, one should always keep in mind that a day is a long time in politics. There are several months to go before the next general election and there is a lot of work yet to be done before anybody can make a guess at the result. However, I am confident that we can reverse the “trend” and much, much more.

Taking Gozo alone, the inroads made in a few short months by AD are remarkable. It is the electoral district with the greatest potential and with the greatest depression, overwhelming frustration at the bungling and the incompetence which has brought the island to its lowest ebb.

Taking the Won’t Vote with the Don’t Knows added to the burgeoning AD support makes up by far the largest potential political grouping, alliance, coalition or even party. Acting together, these Gozitans can not only change the course of their island’s history but their country’s history also. Those who confuse pessimism with being shrewd will shrug this off as nonsense, assuming that all the rebels can be taken back to their pens at election time. It is a dangerous assumption.

Over 40 per cent of Gozitans have shed their bonds with the other parties, they have tasted at least mental freedom. It is a gossamer thin barrier which prevents them acting together to change their fate once and for all. Self-awareness will put their fate in their hands like never before. Far less than half of them are needed to make all the difference. Gozo already leads the way for the rest of the country to follow. There are 12 other electoral districts close to this state. Nothing should be taken for granted.

Dr Vassallo is Chairperson of Alternattiva Demokratika - The Green Party

[email protected], www.alternattiva.org.mt www.adgozo.com