This was one of the smallest majorities ever, giving the winning party a one seat majority in parliament. Only two years are left till another election date is set.

These three years have probably seen all that one can imagine. We had the full recession and world financial crisis that hit us for over two years, various volcanoes, bad weather, more crises, and to top it all, the sudden African crisis that has and will hit us hard.

My assessment is that this crisis, especially in North Africa, will hit Malta worse than the financial crisis. We have fended off the global crisis, wherein we, as Malta, had opportunities to take in new investments to safeguard our financial and banking system. We did have an umbrella of the euro as a safeguard too. This North African crisis is a different one. We are trading solely with individual countries, especially Libya. We have direct interest, investment and workers who will suffer the consequences. Therefore we have to be on the alert for developments in the region.

The government steered away from the financial crisis, avoiding its impact, and helping out to safeguard jobs, investments and order books. At the same time, it garnered new investment that was of great benefit to Malta. Again, all can go back to the drawing board in the light of this new crisis. Once more, tact is of essence. We must have one goal, that of safeguarding jobs.

We did hear and listened to various companies which are facing problems, especially in Libya. We must care for them in an absolute way.

These three years were no easy run for the government, and great work had to be done to cope with all that went on around us. At the same time, the government had to think about the personal problems and situations of the people. It is so easy to say that the government forgot me.

It probably could not arrive to you, as there were so many obstacles. Not that it discarded you, nor would it not reach out to you, but this help will arrive at a later stage. It was such a situation that way back, the government was planning to have a surplus budget. That was not fantasy but reality. Little did we know, foresee or imagine, a global change that turned the situation upside down.

What would have happened if Malta had a different government? Would we have been sucked up into limbo, not knowing what to do? What would we have done without European Union membership?

It’s so easy to criticise, so easy to say that something is wrong, and I’ll do it better, without saying how, why and where.

We may be judged by the lack of personal gain in all this. We may be judged by the small problem, which for that particular person is a big one. We could be judged for insensitivity, but these were trying times.

I do hope we have a smoother two years, if possible.

Robert Arrigo is parliamentary assistant in the Finance Ministry