The drums of the electoral call have started to be heard. If one week is a long time in politics, several weeks are a long time in the process leading up to the decision of how to vote and who to vote for.

And what is the state of the nation at this time that we are called to make this decision?

Since 2013, we have seen a planned boom in the building industry, which, in turn, put money, often quite a lot of it, in the pockets of many.

This was facilitated by a more “user-friendly” approach of the Planning Authority compared to the last years of the Nationalist administration.

In parallel, the much-discussed sale of passports scheme raked in huge sums in public and private coffers. The fees levied, the rental income and the sale proceeds it generated are a factual reality. 

Public administration began to be characterised by a lax attitude to spending and decision-making, welcomed by many who directly enjoyed its benefits and distantly viewed as acceptable by many others.

Then, as gradually successive stories of shady and corrupt deals started to emerge, many persisted in incredulity or uncomfortable silence. The ones brave enough to call out the rot were publicly labelled as messengers of doom.

Time passed and more facts emerged. Suspicions morphed into undeniable facts. As the nation reeled in shock from Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination and its convoluted and sickening implications, so the national conscience, faced with the undeniable, began to react.

Throughout this time, the Nationalist Party, which should have been the natural point of refuge, was not exactly passing through its best time. My tenure at the helm of the party’s executive committee during two challenging years was indeed a defining test of resilience, steadfastness and sanity.

This period was, undoubtedly, the cause of disappointment and frustration in many who, by right, expected better.

Since then, the state of the nation and its key operators have continued to alter.

There is heightened awareness that unbridled development with no identifiable general plan and consistently ignored environmental impact is severely affecting our quality of life. Many businesses are also becoming increasingly aware of the burden of factoring in additional costs of “silent partners”.

The grave undermining of our national reputation is the cost we all have to pay for the crass excesses of the few. Pilatus Bank, Electrogas, Vitals, the Montenegro wind farm, the Panama Papers, the American University of Malta and many others inevitably led to our country being tagged a dubious jurisdiction and placed on the FATF grey list, along with countries such as Botswana, Ghana, Mongolia and Zimbabwe.

The grave undermining of our national reputation is the cost we all have to pay for the crass excesses of the few- Alex Perici Calascione

While a person with no banking experience hailing from a high-risk jurisdiction was granted a red carpet banking licence, hard-working Maltese and Gozitans today have to undergo an interrogation every time they wish to withdraw some of their savings from their bank. This is what it has come to.

The soaring cost of living has slowly but steadily created a new sector of persons living on the brink of poverty for the very first time. Official figures confirm that in-work poverty shot up from 5.2 per cent in 2012 to 7.4 per cent in 2020. Meanwhile, we almost weekly discover disproportionate salary packages being dished out to the chosen select circle as uncontrolled direct orders worth millions are granted as the order of the day, with zero accountability.

The EY’s Generate Youth Survey published last October showed that an alarming 70 per cent of our youths, raised and educated here, see their future outside the country.

In the absence of even one new economic activity able to generate quality employment and after the failure of the much-heralded “Blockchain island” project, the government has become aware of the effects of tax arrears and has announced nothing short of an imminent frontal attack on businesses for its collection. Prosecuting hardened defaulters is a duty; persecuting a whole sector to make up for the excesses of crass corruption is not.

As all this continues to take place unabated, Bernard Grech and the Nationalist Party have been working incessantly and seriously to plan the way forward for this country.

The opposition’s role to insist on good governance, diligence in public spending and accountability in public office is a clear responsibility which needs to be carried out relentlessly. The frequency of these interventions by the Nationalist Party matches the frequency of the governing party’s failings in these areas.

At the same time, the party has engaged in a wide process of consultation and analysis of various sectors, resulting in the presentation of a number of concrete and feasible proposals across the board.

The party, as one united group, recently presented the largest draft legislation ever presented by an opposition in Parliament. This proposal aims to courageously and responsibly put into practice the recommendations of the Caruana Galizia inquiry after months of government lip-serviced pussyfooting.

It was encouragingly met with all-round approval even from sectors not traditionally viewed as pro-PN, only to be shot down by none other than the party in government, which is actually charged with the main responsibility of implementing them.

This is the state of the nation today. This is the state of our nation. This is, therefore, the state of each and every one of us.

Having learnt lessons, being aware that in public office there is always a learning curve to follow and evidencing once again the results of unity of purpose, talent and experience, the Nationalist Party is prepared to move responsibly, positively and seriously.

The opportunity to shake off the heavy compounding legacy of greylisting, corruption indexes, scandals, crass nepotism and direct-order syndromes is really ours to take and nobody else’s. The responsibility to seize the moment weighs on each and every one of us.

There is so much this country can achieve. Let’s go for it together.

Alex Perici Calascione, member, PN executive committee