In your editorial From faith to confidence (TMID, 10 February), you used the story of St Paul’s Shipwreck to merge it with what is happening today.

You mentioned Maltese extremism, so apparent at the time of St Paul and so apparent today. You mentioned the will to survive, which the Maltese have in their DNA. You mentioned the need for unity and confidence, so much needed to avoid another shipwreck.

You made a point. The Maltese have made big strides. A small country with a small population could have easily floundered under the burden of history. But with resilience and determination, we have survived foreign occupations and now live as an independent island state.

But God knows where we would have arrived if we had been more united.

Over the past years, since Independence I would say, the Maltese have been a divided nation. What is good for the blues is bad for the reds and what is positive for the reds is negative for the blues.

I understand that in a democracy we need to have differing ideas. But too often we have allowed them to take us apart, rather than bring us together in consultation. It is a real pity that we still have a situation where we seek the interests of our party first, before that of the nation.

We have seen it happening several times, and history teaches us that the more an election draws closer, the more it will happen.

Paul Camilleri

Sliema