The word – or, better still, the concept of – “change” has become part and parcel of our political life these past few weeks and it is clear that we will hear it being mentioned more as the national election approaches.

The Malta Labour Party, in opposition for a good part of these last 20 years, has made it its own electoral slogan. The Nationalist Party, for its part, speaks about it in a reverse way, in the sense that they believe that the MLP has not changed. The third party, Alternattiva Demokratika, aims to win a parliamentary seat that would change the local political scenario completely.

But what, really, does “change” mean?

A quick look in a dictionary explains change as “making the form, nature, content and future course different from what it is or from what it would be if left alone”.

And this is why the MLP is insisting on the concept, because it believes that the country needs a change of government. Having spent the last two decades, except for a brief and tumultuous 22 months, in opposition, the MLP feels it is correct in calling upon the people to give it another chance in government.

It is continuously highlighting the government’s faults and mistakes, and is also concentrating on the fact that the Cabinet of Ministers is made up of people who have been there for far too long, and need to recharge their batteries.

Whether the MLP will succeed in persuading the people that this is so is one thing. But the MLP would do well to also try to convince the electorate that it has something better to offer. This is an altogether different story, as it is much easier to criticise than to propose and, if given the authority, implement.

On the reverse side for the MLP, they will be facing the electorate with a leader that has lost two national elections in a row. And the party did not change the leadership when it had every chance to do so soon after the 2003 electoral defeat.

This is a plus for the Nationalists, who will go to the polls with a new leader, Dr Lawrence Gonzi, who has been Prime Minister for “only” three years. The problem Dr Gonzi has to face is that he is surrounded by people who have been ministers for many more years – the MLP is right in this – and not all of them have performed well.

Dr Gonzi has resisted temptations to reshuffle (remove?) his ministers, and it soon became clear that he would have continued with his current line-up till the election. But, if the Nationalists do win again, Dr Gonzi would do well to revolutionise the set-up by removing those ministers who have not lived up to the expectations and bring in fresh blood into his team. That would be a great chance for a big change, a chance that Dr Gonzi would be required to take without looking at faces.

Yet, perhaps, the biggest change that is needed in the local scenario is the way of doing politics, something that AD has been advocating for quite a few years now.

Very often, too often, the two major parties have disappointed the so-called neutral people in the way they behave with each other. Issues are tackled with blinkers, which do not help those wearing them to see the overall picture.

What the two major parties have also failed to notice is that the number of these “neutral” people has increased. They continue to preach to the converted without as much as trying to address those who are able to analyse matters without seeing who is behind them before forming an opinion.

In a way, both major parties still seem to be anchored in an outdated system that is no longer valid in the Malta we live in today. Both the PN and the MLP have not recognised this yet.

The first party to realise that the biggest change that is needed today is this, will stand a much better chance of winning the election.