If there was ever a time in recent memory for national political unity, that time is now. The country is facing two practically unprecedented challenges - in the form of the economic crisis and reckoning with the still incalculable repercussions on Malta's small and open economy, while at the same time facing the potential of a migratory influx that could break last year's record.

The time is ripe, perhaps now more than ever, for Malta's political parties to take a step back and to also take a long, hard look at the bigger picture surrounding us.

The global economic system has suffered a meltdown, and although there is encouraging writing on the wall that the worst could be over, the road back to prosperity will undoubtedly be a steep and arduous uphill climb.

Now is the time for the country to position itself to capitalise on the rebound. The crisis has to subside and finally end at some point, we are told, and when it does, opportunities for Malta, if the country's cards are played right, could present themselves rather quickly on the cycle's upswing.

The government has seized the reins with respect to a number of the larger employers that have been facing the prospect of laying off employees, by identifying new business lines and convincing them, in many cases the mother companies, to actually increase their investments in Malta. In turn, the companies receive investment aid and retraining incentives for their new production lines.

The formula, so far, appears to have been successful. For the most part, big layoffs have been averted and companies appear ready to begin capitalising on the economic upturn once it starts afresh.

The cost of such actions has, however, not been made public. And while the government stresses that job security is its overriding priority, and that the county's mounting deficit is secondary in nature, and while also considering commercial sensitivities, the public should know what the rescue measures have cost the state coffers.

While this has been, overall, all well and good for the larger employers finding themselves in dire straits, what about the other, smaller casualties - the myriad small businesses that comprise the backbone of just about any economy, and especially the Maltese economy?

As the tourism industry, for very obvious reasons, continues to suffer and as visitor numbers shrink, it is not only the hotels and tour operators that will feel a distinct pinch, but also the cottage industries and the hundreds of stakeholders that surround the mammoth tourism industry, which, tellingly, accounts for close to a quarter of the country's gross domestic product.

But within the challenging scenario, we have what appears to be a government attempting to downplay the extent of the crisis' repercussions on Malta, but at the same time citing the global crisis as the catalyst behind the country's current economic woes.

On the other hand, we have an Opposition that on many occasions cherry-picks economic data with the intention of exposing the government's public finance failings, but, perhaps conveniently, many times chooses to ignore the bigger picture surrounding us.

There is no doubt the Maltese economy is feeling the brunt of the international recession, a recession Malta and much of the eurozone has also fallen into. Maltese exports are the hardest hit in the eurozone, inflation is growing and mass job losses have only been avoided after government intervention.

What is needed is for the bigger picture not to be used for the parties' own ends, but rather for it and the exact position Malta has found itself in to be clearly stated and acted upon with national unity and in the national interest.

There had been encouraging signs last year with the assumption of a new Opposition leader, with promises of political unity on issues of national importance. That, predictably, fell through as both of the main political parties, for one reason or another, lapsed back into their tried and tested attack and counter-attack mode.

Partisan objectives from both sides of the political divide must be set aside in order to move ahead in the best national interest. This, sadly, is a far cry from the current situation.

The country's parliamentarians and the parties themselves need to use the summer recess to collect their thoughts and decide, once and for all, what is in the national interest and what amounts to partisan politics - and move ahead, with a new mindset, from there.

A well-conceived plan

Plans in the proverbial pipeline to set up a 'frontline' asylum office in Libya could be just the boon Malta has been looking for in its struggle to grapple with the seemingly endless flow of migrants looking for safer and greener pastures in Europe.

If the suggestion for the UNHCR to bolster its operations in Libya and to expand its remit there to encompass asylum applications, before migrants set sail across the perilous Mediterranean, is acted upon, Malta could put to rest the vast majority of its concerns over the migratory phenomenon, while at the same time untold hundreds or indeed thousands of lives the sea claims each year could also be saved.

The idea would be for the UNHCR to assess migrants' asylum claims at the country of departure, in this case Libya - from where practically all Malta's migrant population sets sail. After that, those qualifying for one form of humanitarian protection status or another would be placed within the already established quota system.

As such, those migrants that would otherwise find themselves at the mercy of the Italian or Maltese governments would no longer necessarily be hosted by Malta or Italy, but rather by the EU at large - exactly as is the case with the way the EU accepts refugees from other troubled parts of the world.

There is absolutely no reason why Africa's downtrodden who qualify for humanitarian protection status should not fall within and be included in such a structured system.

Failed asylum seekers, meanwhile, could potentially be transported back to their countries of origin straight from Libya.

Such a move would provide Malta with the sort of automatic burden sharing from its fellow EU member states it has so long been fighting for at both European Parliament and Council level.

With the arguments and pleas of Malta - as well as those of other afflicted states such as Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Spain - having fallen consistently upon seemingly deaf or completely indifferent ears, what is left now is to seek actions such as that being contemplated.