The document presented to the Nationalist Party’s General Council this month, is, as is well stated in Point 9 of the introduction, “a snapshot of the PN’s beliefs and the way in which these are implemented. This manifesto is our identity card.”

It is a manifesto that needed to be updated because over the past 25 years we have, together, transformed our country. From a Third World country, we have built a modern state that is capable of competing, even in the storms that are brewing around us.

From a country where you would be lucky to find running water, we now discuss the conservation of water. From a country where you would fear speaking your mind, to a country where you can insult a Minister to his face without repercussions. From a country with a student population of 900 to one of almost 12,000. We recognised the need to invest in our best resource: our social capital.

The next challenge for the Nationalist Party is to translate this document into effective changes within the party’s structures. Ten working groups, one for each chapter within the document, will now be appointed. The biggest mistake that these groups could make would be to close themselves off without taking full advantage of the potential of our country’s social capital. We must continue building on this document through public consultation, whereby it may be further developed by people’s ideas woven with their experiences. First and foremost, we must consult our young people, so that they not only benefit but also become protagonists of change.

When our basic principles were drafted in 1986, I was only 22 years old. That day, I made a commitment, together with others, to translate that vision into reality under the leadership of Eddie Fenech Adami, Guido de Marco, Ugo Mifsud Bonnici, Louis Galea, and others.

While we have successfully delivered most if it, much remains to be done. We also need new blood to continue to transform change into a reality.

We must encourage more women to participate. Just as we may boast a 60 per cent strong female student population, as well as many more women contributing to our economic development, we also need more women to contribute to our political development.

In order to ensure that young people and women are protagonists of change, we must go beyond traditional channels of political participation. We must facilitate dialogue with youths by using their tools. We must open our doors to women by making it easier for them. For example, child-minding services organised during times that suit women’s needs, should complement meetings such as today’s.

Continuing to take full advantage of our social capital will enrich our politics. This is greater than the sum of its parts. Our capital is not the sum of individual capital, but the strength of the team. Not a team of prima donnas but a team that, following discussion, plays for the same goal under one captain.

The centre of our politics has always been and remains the individual. For others, politics is a means to an end. Not interested in the content, but only in gimmicks that lead to power at all costs.

We reason and reach decisions according to necessity, based on fact and research. We don’t presume that we know everything, as others do. We do not have dogma, but reason. When reason told us to nationalise the dockyard in the 1960s, we nationalised it. When reason told us that the subsidies we were providing to the dockyard were not working, we privatised it. Not dogma, but reason.

We are the cautious party. Caution that controls government spending that is focused on investment that bears more fruit.

We are not only interested in the work that needs to be done today, but also tomorrow. We must therefore ensure that the party is always more relevant, influential and inclusive.

We must continue to build a popular, and not a populist party. Together, our work must be carried out among society. To do so we must look at the document as a draft, and involve others not only to improve it, but also to be the protagonists of the change that we would like to continuously implement.