A new spring

The General Council of the Nationalist Party that commenced its proceedings last Friday meets again this morning. This morning's session brings the council to an end with a speech by the Prime Minister and party leader, Dr Eddie Fenech Adami. The Nationalist Party is looking ahead with renewed vigour and determination at the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

It is a council that is fulfilling different and important roles. During this council an objective analysis of the results of the general election is taking place. The council is also having a close look at how the party has functioned over the past year and examining the tasks that are to be carried out. This morning it will confirm the leader and elect the deputy leader while last Friday it has re-elected Dr Victor Scerri as president of the General Council and chose 13 representatives to sit on the Executive Committee.

As pointed out in the foreword to the report presented to the party councillors by secretary-general Joe Saliba, the referendum and the election we have just gone through have given us the results for which we worked and befit the people of Malta. Still, they do represent the end of an era but the beginning of a new one.

Through the referendum and the general election, the people have confirmed our country's destiny as a European nation that now belongs to a family of 25 EU member states. The people are justifiably relieved that we have managed to do justice with our own history, that we have secured our national future and that we can look forward to work in a new spring for the benefit of all the Maltese people.

When we achieved independence 39 years ago, we knew then that it was a new beginning. We would need to work harder, to depend more than ever before on our capabilities and creativity, but that provided we did that, the opportunities would not be lacking. History has proved us right. It was a new beginning that has led to a period of economic growth, fulfilment, better assertion of our own identity as well as prosperity.

We are once again at the threshold of a new era. It is through our very independence that we shall be able to form part of a family of 25 sovereign states that enjoy equal rights. We shall again need to pull up our sleeves and move on. The tasks ahead of us are daunting but the opportunities are as exciting.

The Nationalist Party has enjoyed the unique privilege of making history happen. We did it 39 years ago when the party moved ahead on its own to secure independence for our country. We did it again this year when despite the scaremongering, the blatant lies and misinformation, we secured Malta's entry into the European Union.

In the future there will be others who will claim that they were not against, that they believe in the process as much as, if not more than, we do! Persons who are able to offer vision and leadership are only too happy to see others eventually plodding along the same route, even if it takes them a number of years and defeats, to accept that what they had originally described as a perilous and disastrous route is in fact the way forward.

Interestingly enough, just after Dr Alfred Sant was confirmed leader of the Malta Labour Party last Thursday, he simply stated in a press release that that the MLP is facing new realities. Echoing then what he had stated four years ago when confirmed leader by a much larger majority (over 98%), he said that Labour had to tap all its creative forces so that "we may acquire in a short time the people's trust".

Dr Sant does not have much to be pleased about when he secured less than 68% of the delegates' votes last Thursday, and it will be interesting to see what happens this week when the delegates meet again to appoint the party's deputy leaders. Dr Sant secured that result despite enjoying the obvious benefit of contesting from a position of leadership and having an entire party machine that was working relentlessly and using all imaginable tactics to ensure his re-election. But all this is his and the Labour Party's problem - no one else's!

The fact that the Labour Parliamentary group will have its former Foreign Minister and deputy leader for parliamentary affairs, George Vella, as well as its former Industry Minister and one of the contenders for the party leadership, John Attard Montalto, as its own observers at the European Parliament proves that the party has opted to give considerable weight to its participation in EU structures.

Malta's EU membership is the most important 'new reality' that the MLP will have to face in the coming years. Will it simply participate in the relevant structures and adopt a 'wait and see' attitude or will it have the courage to realise that a radical change of policy is long overdue?

Already all contenders for the leadership had agreed on only one issue - that they will be voting against the ratification of Malta's EU accession treaty. That is where their agreement - if it can be described as such - began and that is where it ended.

I think it would be more correct to describe their stand as a strategic ploy not to lose delegates' votes over a sensitive issue. Otherwise the contenders were hitting out against each other in the most unequivocal terms imaginable, including clear attacks at the party's media machine and the lack of credibility as well as inconsistency of the leadership.

The Labour Party is plunging further into a growing mess of its own making. It will be in the national interest if it manages to discover a way out but that is hardly appearing likely in the immediate future.

Meanwhile, the Nationalist Party as well as other entities that make up the national fabric should act together as catalysts that will facilitate the implementation of our European vocation. In the negotiation process leading up to membership, we went through a unique learning curve. We proved that we can achieve best results as one nation and as one people. Even if the Labour Party opted to stay out completely, all the other components of civil society co-owned the preparations for membership with Government.

Once that worked out so well as a prelude to membership, the same process needs to, and will, work out equally well in the implementation of our new European vision. That shall be a determining factor for our success in reaping the benefits and opportunities of membership. That is what the new spring is all about.

Next year Malta will take its place around the decision-making tables of the European family. We shall enjoy equal rights with all the other family members. In anticipation of that we are already participating at all the EU fora.

Through the referendum and general election results, we have secured exciting new opportunities for the entire nation. We have realised the importance of working hard to secure those results and the consequent beginning of a new era. Now we appreciate that the opportunities that lie ahead of us will require the same determination and enthusiasm that we displayed to secure membership.

As we enter through the membership gates, we cannot simply sit on our laurels. There are no automatic or ready solutions or magic wands. Still, the tools and mechanisms are there for us to identify as well as maximise the opportunities that we can avail ourselves of.

In the Nationalist Party General Council that will be concluded this morning we are more interested in looking further ahead than in simply analysing what has been achieved already.

In less than a year's time, we shall be members, geared up to vote in our country's first direct elections to choose Malta's members of the European Parliament, having our own EU Commissioner, participating in a fresh round of local council elections and tracking progress on the different tasks that lie ahead of us according to precise and clear timetables.

In all senses - never a dull moment!

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