We need change 

For millennia, Malta and its inhabitants were subject to other powers, our fate party to their needs, be it as a business enterprise taxing its inhabitants or, more recently, a military base tied to the fortunes or misfortunes of that once-great power.

Then came independence and we could determine our own future. Enterprises came, new economic models were tried and, slowly, the island made it to the club of developed countries, potentially not as officially rich or developed but still definitely better off than a big chunk of the world. Nonetheless, serious problems abound, each screaming for solutions.

Potentially, one of the key engines of the local economy, the building industry, has slowly but surely devoured and consumed the islands, transforming the landscape into high-rise buildings, cranes, drilling machines and gridlocked traffic, to a degree of making life unbearable. Owning a house with a garden is a dream that only a small percentage can afford today, just like the situation in pre-independent Malta.

An ever-shrinking countryside, dotted with agricultural plots and farmhouses, with distinct smells and noises and which defined the Maltese countryside, is mostly gone.

Values, what values? With politicians ignoring many of the real issues and a Church no longer having much of an influence, the concept of the nuclear family is now open to shameless interpretations and alternatives.

The construction industry has made life unbearable. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Immigration is also a challenge that needs to be addressed in a mature manner. Some of the incoming ethnic groups are renowned for their resistance to assimilation into their new-found homes. We could end up with sectors of the population clinging to their cultures and eventually demanding separate and alternative non-characteristically Maltese or European norms and ways of living.

This is clearly the responsibility of politicians to control. It has nothing to do with the EU or the boat people. I am referring to non-EU ‘service providers’ or potentially ‘cheap labour’ being imported into the island on a competitive contract.

So, independence gave the island the opportunity to define and control its future and to improve its chances. Some experiments have definitely succeeded. Opportunities in education and employment abound. Other experiments have clearly failed.

The necessary change can only come with proper and committed leadership, a leader with vision and commitment to the island, able to work the system, willing to take the population with him or her on the journey, such as to instil the everlasting change worthy of the visions that our forebears had at the time of independence.

BRIAN BUGEJA – Sannat