Daring to dream, ready to govern

Like one of those stifling days when the air seems heavy to breathe, this island’s politics has grown stale. Complacency is silently shackling the current government into trying to explain away the Opposition’s mosaic of visionary proposals with an unending litany of “yes, but”’s.

The party that turned “neggativi” into a meme is now the arch-neggativ in chief.

But the fact that the party that has been in government for 13 years is appearing a bit jaded isn’t surprising. What is surprising is the large number of ordinary Maltese citizens who feel like politics hardly represents or even has a place for them, their everyday issues and their dreams or aspirations.

There is a certain tempting comfort in embracing a pessimistic view. It dresses up, not wanting to fully flesh out your aspirations out as intellectual depth.

The pessimist has heard all of this talk before, and is all the wiser, choosing to deliberately reject it. Optimists, in this framing, are the naive ones, easily excited, not quite well acquainted with how the world works.

In reality, true optimism is not naivete. It does not pretend the world with all its current flaws does not exist. But it does treat the belief that this state of affairs is the inevitable, foregone, unchangeable conclusion as false.

We must dare to dream, knowing full well that we’ll look a bit funny in the process. Because what's easy is the shrug, the sarcastic comment, the knowing look of “I'm too clever to hope”.

That costs nothing. It risks nothing. It builds nothing.

What is harder is going against the tide of complacency, of demanding stronger institutions, a better government, and a country where all of us can be given the tools to build for ourselves and others a better, more resilient, ambitious and just country.

The PN’s bold tax and energy band reforms will leave more money in your pocket, because we are confident you know how to invest it best.

Our blueprint for the transition to more renewable sources of energy will carry us into the next decade not only more secure in our energy, but hopefully also giving us a crucial foot in to new niches being spun up around green jobs. I never believed in entering politics for its own sake. It was always a means to an end.

When I was a young activist, that end was to push authorities into justice for the causes I believed in. As a member of the Opposition, it was to listen to my constituents, be their voice and hold this government to account, agreeing with it when it did the right things, but more crucially, critiquing it when it deviated from doing so, because this is the task of the Opposition.

 It’s also important to say that this critique is not merely limited to saying what is wrong. In the two areas directly under my responsibility as Shadow Minister in the last legislature, we pushed a fruitful public consultation around new waste management strategies, and championed a data-driven approach towards building a framework to propose policies to combat our increasingly drying climate.

This time round, PN’s campaign is genuinely a breath of fresh air, mixing well researched ideas with a young, hopeful energy that has become the hallmark of every mass meeting we have held.

For the first time in a long while, PN is now young at heart, united behind Alex Borg’s tireless energy and vision. This youthful drive does not come at the cost of all of the important ideas that make PN ready to be the next government. And the best is yet to come.

The ideas we are putting forward today are seeds, and with your support, we will see them grow into a Malta that is cleaner, greener, and full of opportunity for every family and every generation.

We cannot do it alone. But together, there is nothing we cannot achieve. Vote for a change of air.

The winds of change that dare us to dream new dreams. And let's build them together. 

Eve Borg Bonello is a Nationalist Party candidate on the 9th and 10th districts.