In recent times, the concept of a ‘Greater Malta’ in the public forum has gained considerable momentum as an ideal yet generalised notion; at least in those quarters of society where such interest lies.

I write as an activist of long standing within the Maltese-Australian community (46 years consistently since 1965). From what I have read and heard in the media (radio, television, internet, newspapers, and so on), it seems that the notion of “Greater Malta”, while enticing, remains vague and much less understood.

My own inadequate comprehension of such notion harks back to the early days of the Maltese migration saga. To my knowledge, it was the Franco-Maltese intellectual Laurent Ropà who first mooted the idea of a “broad spectrum international Maltese fraternity”.

When President Emeritus Fenech Adami visited Australia, in my formal welcoming speech I alluded to this idea with certain emphasis. I echoed the same sentiment in my address to Malta’s Archbishop Cremona during his official visit Down Under. Again I referred to this notion with prominence in my delivery at the 2010 Convention of Overseas Maltese in Valletta.

In between Ropà’s initial launching of the notion and my enthusiastic appellations, several individuals have come forward with similar ideas, most forward among them featured Ivan Magri Overend and his son (formerly of the Egyptian Maltese community), Karmenu Caruana and George Bonavia of Canada, as well as the now defunct society Il-Qawmien Malti (The Maltese Renaissance).

This latter group founded among the Egyptian Maltese around 1928 and which took its cue from the writings of Laurent Ropà (formerly of Algiers, thence France), used to publish a monthly journal entitled Il-Qari Malti (Maltese Reading). In 1944, this same group under the leadership of Antonio G. Said had established strong cultural contacts with notable persons in Malta (notably Dun Karm Psaila and professors Ġużè Aquilina and Pietru Pawl Saydon) as well as Maltese groups in Port Said, Alexandria and Cairo, and yonder in New York.

All this I submit as basic historical background evidence of long standing and of widespread interest in a global Maltese fraternity. Several similar clarion appeals over the years emanated also from Britain, Australia and other countries where Maltese have settled in large numbers.

With the above in mind, I think it is incumbent upon the present protagonists promoting the idea of a Greater Malta, to clarify their thinking before the audience they aim to reach. Foremost, it needs to be explained that such notion is NOT party politically motivated although it is clearly a political notion of national and international interest.

The noble and sublime intent of such an ideal needs to be clarified and stressed. All its different aspects need to be publicly aired (broad cultural, commercial, academic, literary, linguistic, social, the arts, etc.) to allay fears of some particular facet of our social lives (religious, political) establishing a dominant role. In plain English, such notion needs to be apolitical, nonreligious and totally secular while simultaneously not excluding politicians and religious from actively and equally participating.

To my understanding, the ideal of Greater Malta should be implicitly and intrinsically all-inclusive (gender, beliefs, etc.) and excluding none. Its primary aim should be the promotion of solidarity among all Maltese throughout the world, no less.

A healthy defining guideline could be described as: “A universal notion embracing the totality of identifying oneself to the general idea of Malteseness as distinct from all other ethnic groups, such notion being the catalyst in cultivating a deep sense of belonging in spite of all individual private convictions. This implies full tolerance, full acceptance and full inclusion.

Finally, the current parliamentary activity relating to the establishment of a Council of Maltese Living Abroad, which is directly related to the same idea of a Greater Malta, must remember the primary loyalty all overseas Maltese owe to their host countries and bear in mind the hundreds of thousands of overseas Maltese who are not the least interested in identifying with such a notion of Greater Malta. We must respect their feelings, loyalties and sentiments without ever seeking to impose or even anticipating that former Maltese “ought to” remain eternally faithful to their country of origin.