We have five national holidays, but none of them unites the country.
Yesterday, The Malta Independent editorially commented that Malta must be the only country in the world to have five national holidays, which we described as a legacy of our colourful political past.
The fact that we have five such holidays is a clear indication that we are still a divided nation, no matter what we say about reconciliation and unity. That we still have not made up our collective mind about what should be our only national holiday – which is supposed to be a national day of unity – is a blemish on our politicians and on us as a nation too.
The current political tit-for-tat between the Nationalist Party and the Labour Party on the celebrations that are to mark the 30th anniversary of Freedom Day are a confirmation that we are far from reaching the political maturity that we deserve.
We will not go into the merits of who is right or who is wrong. That we have a dispute that is verging on the offensive is already enough to shame each and every one of us, especially the political parties. A national holiday should be a unifying factor, and yet we seem to look for the means to keep the country broken in half. It has happened this time as well.
If it’s Independence Day, it is the “Nationalist” celebration, because Independence was obtained under a Nationalist government in 1964. The PN organises a week of activities leading up to a mass meeting on the eve of Independence Day.
If it’s Republic Day or Freedom Day then it’s a “Labour” celebration, because both were achieved under a Labour administration in 1974 and 1979. It is the PL’s turn to organise a number of events, and this year Freedom Day is being given more importance since it is the 30th anniversary of the departure of British troops from the country.
The other two national holidays are 7 June, to mark the 1919 riots against British rule, and 8 September, in remembrance of the Great Siege of 1565 and the end of the Second World War. But although their significance is remarkable, neither of them is celebrated “politically” because both are not “political” occasions, only historic ones. As such, therefore, they are not celebrated with the same pomp and public demonstrations – simply because none of the political parties has them under its wing.
As this newspaper remarked yesterday, it is a good thing that Malta joined the European Union on 1 May, which is already a public holiday since it is Worker’s Day – because otherwise we would have surely found the way to add a sixth national holiday; if anything to make it 2-2 between the PN and the MLP.
This is because European Union membership would be a “Nationalist” holiday too, considering that it was the PN which advocated the political move. In fact, since 2004, the PN has concentrated its 1 May celebrations on marking EU membership, rather than Worker’s Day, which on the whole is more consonant with Labour’s history.
It is a real pity that we have never found the time to come up with a solution. But, perhaps, the political parties do not want to find the time to do so. They are happy to mark “their” own event, but this means they are forgetting that Independence Day, Republic Day and Freedom Day are supposed to be “national” days, days in which the country should celebrate, as a whole, the significance of that particular event.
But, we almost forgot that Labour would never accept Independence Day as the only national holiday while the PN would turn down Freedom Day and Republic Day too. And so the status quo persists.
By acting the way they do, the two political parties seem to want to keep it this way. We are a divided nation, and neither the PN nor the PL want to work to change the situation.