In my recent article entitled "National unity government" I gave a general picture of the sorry mess we now find ourselves in. I gave a chronology of events, one wrong turning after another by two, look-alike, speak-alike parties. I mentioned first that fundamental error: that missed opportunity that was integration with Britain. Instead, we opted for independence. Within three years, every skyline on this once beautiful island was ruined. Our valleys choked with hideous blocks of concrete. Our once blue waters, up to two miles out, a cesspit.

Standards plummeted all round and the opportunity to strike oil, offshore under the protective umbrella of Britain, was lost forever. A supposedly friendly Arabic country, just across the waters, stopped our drilling operations with just a gunboat. That put paid to years of clowning by the socialists in power.

For Malta was unready for independence. The Maltese showed themselves unworthy, undeserved of managing this paradise in the Mediterranean on their own. What was needed was either integration with Britain or integration with Europe.

Our politicians lacked the long-term vision of turning this island into a haven of high culture and quality way of life. Our leaders had not the statesmanship to keep Malta securely anchored within the European fold.

More, they abandoned wise leadership, pandering instead to the basest, day-to-day whims of the masses. On the other hand, our intelligentsia lacked the moral fibre to act as a counterweight, to hold the shallow politicians in check. Naturally, the populace simply followed and wallowed.

With the passage of time after independence, our island, a rudderless raft in between two cultures, slowly drifted further away from Europe. Imperceptibly, ethnically and culturally, Malta started to become Africanised. Our cultural evolvement was stunted and the result - the abandonment, the vandalism even, of our Paleo/Neolithic sacred sites.

Then came il-festa farsa tal-Helsien (the Freedom farce feast)! Freedom Day - but freedom from what? The British took over the islands at our beckoning. We asked them to help us oust the French who, in turn, had occupied the islands with the best of intentions: banishing the overbearing Knights and curtailing the power of an oppressive, Catholic Church. The Brits did their term and left according to a signed agreement. They left quietly and with dignity as they did when they left Singapore and Hong Kong. In fact, the Maltese people in their great majority were sad for the termination of almost 200 years of British association. Huge crowds wept openly as the Royal Navy sailed out of our Grand Harbour.

Homo Oeconomicus: a socialist, economic mentality - the haggling for over one year over rent! The socialist myopia! They can never change, a socialist is always at the basest level of mentality. Instead of copying the Sultan of Brunei, who actually pays the British to remain in his country and guard his huge oil reserves, our socialists painted themselves into a corner. A peripheral island, actually situated 100 miles south of the northernmost coast of Africa, bereft of any defence, was left at the mercy of a Libyan gunboat.

The discovery of oil, under the protective umbrella of the British, would have made the country economically strong. In addition to this, we could have turned the island into the Channel Islands of the Mediterranean - The Cayman Islands in the Middle Sea. Instead, we chose il-festa farsa tal-Helsien!

And we have a monument in remembrance of this event. The most grotesque, ugliest monument in the whole of Europe. A monument without a focal point, of no artistic value whatsoever: four midget figures and a flagpole on a mound of rocks.

Now that we are in Europe both these national days: Independence and il-festa farsa, will lose all significance. They will rapidly be forgotten. These two, bogus national days will make way for the Otto Settembre (September 8): the only day worthy to be our national day.

Almost 500 years ago, after an epic siege, our forefathers consecrated our islands of Melitae to Europe. They chose to remain European: ethnically and culturally, defying the Ottoman threat. The islanders could easily have changed sides, like the Albanians did. The Maltese could have turned against the few Knights manning the forts and joined the Turks, thereby earning privileges and tax concessions.

They did not do this - they did not even consider it. Against all odds, they chose to remain true to their ethnic and cultural identity. They chose Europe. They chose to remain true to themselves. They remained steadfast to their European awareness. Otto Settembre signifies all this.

It is a battle of culture that we are facing and fighting. We of Imperium Europa are fighting this battle for the survival of our ethnicity and identity, fully aware that there is nobody else. Our people have been left to themselves. They are leaderless, confused and hoodwinked. We are the few manning the wide breaches, the unguarded beaches.

We have the heroic notes of The March of the Spartans as our signature tune. Like those 300 heroes at Thermopylae, we have to do our duty: irrespective of the outcome or the chances of success. Whether victory or annihilation, we have to stand our ground.

We must save this island. We must heal this island. We must prevail, as otherwise thousands of years of history, of ethnic consciousness, of identity will be lost. Like our ancestors did during The Great Siege, we will choose to remain true to our national cohesiveness. No matter how few we are, no matter what the odds, we will not yield.

We of Imperium Europa have become the only focal point left on this island abandoned to its own, misguided by those who should know better. We are like those 300 Spartans fighting on till our last breath: so that Athens and civilisation as we know it, will be saved.

Otto Settembre will be our future national day - above petty party petulance. A day that evokes the glory of our past. A day that will forever place this Sacred Island of Melita as a distinct, spiritual centre of the coming Europe of regions and peoples.

Keep healthy.

Mr Lowell is a candidate for the European parliamentary elections in June. He is founder and leader of the movement Imperium Europa.

www.imperium-europa.org