Young activists studying politics at university knew they were in the right course of studies when their lecturer joined them in the Mosta trees protest last November.

Maya Dimitrijevic (24) and Samuel Vella (18) recalled the pride they felt when their public policy lecturer Kurt Borg joined them at the sit-in to stop trees being uprooted, minutes before police handcuffed and dragged Graffitti’s Andre Callus away from the square.

“When I saw him there, locking arms with us at the protest, it felt so good,” Dimitrijevic said as she recalled the emotions of that day.

“Our lecturer didn’t just tell us to do something – he did it with us. When we were being pushed around by the police, he was there, being pushed with us and like us. How cool is that!?”

As confidence in politics wanes all over the western world and distrust in politicians continues to increase, Dimitrijevic, Vella and other young men and women are braving the hopelessness by reading for the university’s first full-time degree in politics and governance.

The three-year Bachelor of Arts (Hons) covers multiple subjects, including political leadership, campaigning, ethics, activism, the economy, foreign policy, corporate, financial and public governance, political thought, behaviour, and how political parties and elections work.

It is primarily intended to attract younger people to study politics and foster a new generation of politically qualified leaders, policymakers, political advisers, public officials, diplomats, mediators, journalists, influencers, trade unionists, civil society and NGO leaders, lobbyists, campaigners and negotiators who can address the country’s decades-long issues with governance.

‘Corruption has become sustainable’

“Every politician should sit for this course, as it deals with what we lack the most in our politics – a genuine focus on the common good,” Dimitrijevic said, adding that lecturers foster discussion, keep students in check and help them analyse where the systems have failed.

“One of the biggest issues is that corruption has become sustainable. Everybody benefits from it in some way, and institutions have become eroded, so it’s harder to change things, because the challenge is to get people to believe in the same institutions that failed them.”

Vella was also at the Mosta trees protest, despite not hailing from a politically active family.

He says he grew up in an apolitical household, as both sides of his family supported different political parties. He only picked up a yearning for politics from his years as a student at Valletta’s St Albert School.

“I remember our teachers urging us not to be passive. ‘Speak up with respect,’ they would tell us, ‘but speak up’!”

Vella, still in his teens, is spending his free time knocking on doors at Balzan, asking residents of his home town to vote for him in June’s local council elections.

He is running on the ADPD ticket, despite warnings from several friends who told him he is more likely to be elected if he were to join one of the two big parties.

“I feel only ADPD represents my values, and I will not ditch my principles and join a big party just to have a better chance at getting elected,” he said.

“I hope I’m elected, but even if I’m not, it will still have been an amazing journey.”

Wasting his time?

Some people do not mince their words as they welcome Vella into their homes – they believe he is wasting his time. At least, those are the ones who do open the door. It is becoming increasingly common for people to close the door in his face, he said. Those people just tell him they do not believe in any politician anymore.

Others, however, smile and tell him they have faith in young blood and a third party.

And many others struggle to understand why he got himself into such a controversial and potentially dirty world, he said.

“Someone needs to step up to help fix things, and if everyone expects someone else to do it, nobody ends up doing it.

“Every profession is hectic and there’s hate everywhere, not just in politics. And you get used to it. I have long felt the inclination to be of service somehow, and that’s why I’m doing it.”

If public service calls him to higher office he would not refuse, but local council politics is enough for now, he said smiling.

The prospect of being elected to office is less exciting for Dimitrijevic. Rather, she sees the course as a way to further her civic and human rights activism, especially for migrants’ and women’s rights. She felt especially inclined towards politics after a Brussels traineeship with MEP Cyrus Engerer two years ago.

A co-founder of NGO Young Progressive Beings, she has already spent years in pro-choice activism and now also helps NGO Blue Door Education in offering free English language lessons to migrants and asylum seekers.

She has also had a fair share of hate comments thrown her way for her activism and was at the receiving end of death threats as well, but she has learned to treat them as “water off a duck’s back”.

Yet, she does not rule out a run for office at some point.

“I’m willing to become what the community needs me to be. That could mean becoming a public servant, a policy adviser or politician... who knows?

“I’m hopeful that a new generation of politicians can change the system, because we often forget that democracy is power to the people. We have become all to obsessed with just the power in this country.”

She observes that most people do not vote according to their convictions. Rather, they vote rationally for the party they feel can best serve their personal needs.

“I wish more people would vote with their heart – for values they believe in – and not just with their brains.”

All the way from Hungary

Meanwhile, 21-year-old Hungarian Jasmin Amer has been on a longer journey. She moved to Malta specifically to study politics six months ago after the 2022 elections in her home country got her thinking about how many people there wanted to speak up and do something but were too afraid to. They don’t have a voice or it has been muted, she says.

The half-Arabian young woman said she had never lived outside her country and decided the Maltese politics course was the best one in Europe for her, because it was the only one combining politics and governance.

“I’ve always wanted to pursue work for the greater good – that is the meaning of life for me,” she said.

“Many people back home realised we have a problem with politics but decided to run from it. But I don’t want to go down that road. It’s hard to change things, but change begins with a single step, and I’m doing that.”

Amer does feel afraid of the implications of a career in politics, but fear is in every sector, and everyone feels it, she says. What matters to her is to wake up every day and keep going at it, regardless of the fear – that mantra has made her more resilient.

“If we let fear hold us back, we won’t go anywhere.”