In 2005, the new President of Georgia, Mikhail Saakashvili, fired 30,000 police officers in an attempt to address the overwhelming corruption in state institutions. By the time he had finished, the Police Force had been transformed into one of the country’s most respectable institutions and due, to his track record, he was even brought in – on the personal invitation of the Ukrainian President – to act as Governor of Odessa in Ukraine in the hopes of cleaning up the region.

While I am not advocating such radical measures for our Police, it is clear that Malta desperately needs a Mikhail Saakashvili to address the rule of law. I had always hoped that the people of this country would wake up in large enough numbers to fight for their rights, rather than depend on their leaders. However, it looks as if the leadership in this country will continue to play the deciding role in setting people’s standards.

Prime Minister Robert Abela has positioned himself to fulfil the role of reformer, and the fact that action is being taken against Malta’s traffic police – after years of allowing them to do whatever they want – is indicative of a harder line being taken. However, there is widespread suspicion on the ground that many of the actions taken by Robert Abela in the name of good governance are merely distractions when one considers that Keith Schembri, Neville Gafa and others are still running free. We need to wait and see if our courts are able to bring the culprits to justice.

In any case, unless the country’s fundamental problems are fixed, and our broken system is replaced, then any reforms will merely be cosmetic. We need to get to the heart of the problem and cure the disease, not its symptoms. As we speak, developers still rule with impunity like feudal lords. In a country where the Prime Minister commands such overwhelming executive power, much will depend on the goodwill of Robert Abela in seeing that reforms are carried out.

As the Venice Commission made clear, the amount of power that the Prime Minister commands in Malta is part of the problem. Will a Prime Minister ever really weaken himself so drastically out of principle? It remains almost certain that the radical reforms that are needed will only come to pass by upsetting the balance of power in Malta, such as through a coalition government.

This centralisation of power is a systematic problem which can also be seen in the Opposition. Despite losing the trust of much of his Party, Adrian Delia was turned into a god amongst much of the grassroots because it is the function of the two major parties to revolve around cults of personality. That is why Joseph Muscat was metaphorically allowed to get away with murder. No matter what happens under their watch, Party leaders are themselves monuments and idols of impunity. Destroying the system of cults of personality is part of the reform needed, achievable by dismantling party-owned media.

So what then does Malta need? Is it possible to get a benevolent Mikhail Saakashvili-style figure who will purge the Planning Authority, rebuild the Police and allow our institutions to gain independence? Again, while Robert Abela may make many crucial changes, his hands are still tied by Joseph Muscat’s legacy and the compromises made by the Labour Party to both gain power and retain it. We must encourage him to remain focused on reform, and reward the good while punishing the bad, but we cannot place blind faith in anybody. We have seen how that works out.

The ideal scenario for Malta and Gozo, therefore, is that people wake up from the enchantment of political cults of personality and demand better of our representatives. Ideally we must stop looking to be saved by some charismatic hero riding in at the final hour to deliver us. Third-party politics, and the dream of a coalition government, are the real and ultimate hope of good governance if we are to fix a broken system and instil a sense of responsible and active citizenship. Now, more than ever, a new third party movement is achievable. This is the moment for it – if we take action as a collective and as a community, and stop depending on a miracle to save us. We must realise that power lies with the people.