‘Tal-piżelli jew tal-irkotta’? Whatever it is, we need to band together

We form part of a society that tends to be very polarised in its thinking and structure – are you supporting England or Italy in the World Cup, are you team ‘tal-piżelli’ or ‘tal-irkotta’? Are you red or blue? We focus so heavily on splitting our country into two distinct halves that we forget to think critically and to make informed choices.

Once we have the innate power and privilege to choose, why do we continue to accept less than we deserve from our government?

As I approach my thirtieth year, I find myself sandwiched between two distinct political generations: my parents’ generation, who remember the violence of the 1980s, stories about the Interdett, being unable to import chocolate that wasn’t state-sanctioned into the country, school closures, the general ugliness of those times; and another generation entirely, a generation so thoroughly over it – over the corruption, the scandals, the political landscape and discourse, and the blind acceptance of “because that’s the way it’s always been done”.

The former group are either still living with the impact those times had on them and remain deeply entrenched in either red or blue that they would be hard-pressed to see an alternative side to any story; and the latter are tired of the way politics is done in Malta, finding themselves mostly unable to even get a leg in to participate in the conversation because “eh, int ma tafx, għadek zgħir/a wisq!”.

Being involved in the political discourse doesn’t mean having to be staunchly behind one party or another. Not everyone needs to be an activist (although, that’s great too), but everyone should contribute in the ways that they can.

Born in 1992, one of my first political memories is of the carcades after we had won the referendum for entry into the EU.

I remember my parents being overjoyed at what this would mean for the country, how it could propel Malta into the future, increase our standards across the board and allow us to explore new opportunities. But after our accession into the EU, life became less about these major milestones and more about the little things that mattered, and this might perhaps have contributed to this anti-climactic state of affairs where people lost the motivation to care about politics.

The country only seems to come together when something momentous happens, like the referendums against spring hunting or divorce that polarised a nation, or more recently, the murder of a journalist in broad daylight that spurred months of protests, culminating in the forced resignation of the prime minister, his chief of staff and the disgraced minister for energy.

But we shouldn’t wait for a cataclysmic event in order to demand change.  

Doom-scrolling is a terrifying reality that deeply affects the younger generations, as we also have to contend with climate change and the impending destruction of our planet within our lifetime – not to mention a global pandemic, mixed in for good measure.  It’s so tempting to stop caring altogether. It’s difficult to wake up every morning  and read about yet another scandal, another instance of misappropriation of funds, another unmeritocratic appointment, a planning authority decision that truly boggles the mind, a disgraced former prime minister threatening to re-enter the political arena, massive contracts being awarded to the government’s inner circle… I could go on, but I’ve got a word limit.

These are the foundations on which we are building our society – they are the way in which we conduct business and represent ourselves internationally, and these issues, whilst not cataclysmic, have far reaching consequences and deserve our attention. These ‘less major’ issues – for lack of a better word – have desensitised us and jaded us into believing that they are political par for the course, that they are in any way normal.

If our country is ever to regain its standing internationally, if Malta is to become beautiful again, if we are to spend our lives here and perhaps eventually have families here, then we need to band together. We need to work hard to restore a sense of normalcy and good governance. We deserve policies that truly have the environment and our country’s citizens at heart.

Without wanting to sound preachy (at the age of 29) being involved in the political discourse doesn’t mean having to be staunchly behind one party or another. Not everyone needs to be an activist (although, that’s great too), but everyone should contribute in the ways that they can.

Start small, have conversations, keep an open mind, think critically and ask questions.

Read the news.

Make sure you figure out what district you’re in and who the candidates running on that district are and grill them on where they stand on the issues that matter to you.

For, at the end of the day, after the election has come and gone, we will have a new set of politicians in parliament and you have a say in who those people are.