My father never had any political party loyalties. His vote floated according to the issues at hand but, as much as I adored my father and admired his principles, I could always see that it is almost impossible to bring about change from outside a political party’s political structures. This is why today I form part of the Nationalist Party.

Three years ago, when Adrian Delia was first elected PN leader I was shocked, shaken and outraged to see that he was immediately not accepted by his fellow colleagues and other members of the party.

Whether or not he was treated fairly, and whether or not he deserved to lose his position as party leader, is surely a debate many can have for a long time, and I have no doubt that it pains many to have witnessed this three-year journey. That said, we need to move forward.

To me, once someone is democratically voted in by the party members there should be no ifs and buts anymore; to my mind, when Delia was elected, we were to respect the new leader, support him to get the party on its feet again, and provide the country with a much-needed strong opposition.

This is exactly what I did during the past three years; I worked closely with Delia, I supported him in every way, and even when re-election seemed impossible, I stood by his side and assisted him till the bitter end.

Of course, this time, the party members made a different choice, and I admit that it left me feeling distraught, angry and disappointed, but as weak in the knees as I might have felt a few days ago, today I stand strong by my principle that once a leader is democratically voted in, that leader should be respected and supported by the rest of the party structures.

As a member of the Nationalist Party – a party I chose to join to fight corruption and to offer a better alternative to our people – my allegiance is now undeniably to our newly democratically elected leader Bernard Grech, because I did not get into politics to work with anyone in particular; I got into politics to make things happen, to bring about change, to stop the bad and the corrupt from taking over our lives, our livelihoods and our children’s future.

I strongly believe that the best chance of achieving this is with the rest of the party, as a group, as a team driving towards the same goals.

We now need to put our country first- Roselyn Borg Knight

And this is why I am disappointed to see PN members and councillors resigning from the party because their preferred leader was not re-elected. I surely understand how they feel and I can also relate to their reaction, but I stand by the party’s secretary general Francis Zammit Dimech not to act on the resignations for a while, as I’m sure that once the dust settles, many will realise that it is from within the party’s structures that we can bring about the change that we want to see in our country.

We now need to put our country first. I am confident that Bernard Grech’s supporters will reach out to Adrian Delia’s backers and embrace them within the party, as they surely understand that it is fundamental to work together. We must remember that our real battle is not against each other but against corruption and institutionalised crime.

In conclusion, I once again thank Adrian Delia for his work in the past three years and also for his inspiring concession speech where he himself pledged allegiance to the new leader. I join him in hoping that Bernard Grech will not suffer the same fate that Delia suffered in the past three years.

An old African proverb goes, “If you want go fast go alone, if you want to go far, go together”, and with this belief and my dream to see the Maltese islands go far, I look forward to keep contributing to the Nationalist Party, to strengthen the PN back to its former glory and to offer this country and its people the alternative they deserve.

Roselyn Borg Knight is International Secretary, Nationalist Party.