PN leadership: Why I am contesting | Adrian Delia

Adrian Delia is an MP and former leader of the PN 

With humility I ask the members of the PN to give me the privilege of leading our party once again and to serve our country with the support of my colleagues in the parliamentary group. 

This is the last thing I thought I would be doing this year! 

Bernard Grech’s departure was sudden and unexpected but I fully understand his state of mind. 

Having been through it once before, I know the terrain. I now have the added experience, and the maturity that comes with it, to do better than last time. I feel I have evolved with the passage of time. 

Indeed, I was gratified by the fact that several of my former critics and adversaries seem to acknowledge this. I have received support from unexpected quarters and I’m immensely grateful. Some have even offered me an apology. But when I became leader in 2017, I also made many mistakes. 

I had very little experience. I was not a politician. I know that on occasion I have caused hurt. I will be the one apologising not vice versa. 

The PN is at a very particular juncture. We have always been on the right side of history. Now, we need to understand that our future will not necessarily be shaped by big events, like Independence and EU membership. 

We have grown over the years. I remember a population of 250,000 people, Birżebbuġa as a quiet villeġġatura, hosting a few tourists, mostly English. 

Now, the country has become a city. 

In some ways it is vibrant and exciting but the best cities have good transport solutions and a good balance between green spaces and the urban sprawl. We don’t. 

The liveability of a city has become its happy index not the number of cranes it has. Happiness cannot be easily measured but I meet people all the time and many are struggling; finding it hard to cope. 

Cities are great if you can afford to live in them and use their facilities. But if you cannot afford a city, your life will not be happy. In other countries, people in this situation move out of the city. In Malta that’s not possible. 

Prime Minister Robert Abela does not acknowledge this situation. For Labour it is an embarrassment now to acknowledge people’s suffering. They have completely lifted the anchor on their roots. 

I would like to engender, first and foremost, a discussion in the party that leads to our redefinition as a political force. One that makes human fulfilment an achievable goal that is not simply expressed in economic terms because that alone has not succeeded. 

I spend a lot of time with young people, and have five of my own that are in their teens to their twenties. My sixth is still very young but he challenges me all the time. They have a better sense of the impact that artificial intelligence will have on our lives. 

The PN must approach this challenge and formulate policies around it because it will affect our sense of trust and privacy, many of our jobs and our ability to conduct financial transactions. 

I am not saying AI is a bad thing but we need to follow developments and understand them because we are heading into uncharted territory. 

Another reason why I have submitted my expression of interest is because the party cannot continue to be in the financial position it has been in for the last decade. 

We need to publish our accounts and, with them, a plan for financial sustainability. We need to use our resources better as Simon Busuttil and later Robert Arrigo had started doing with the każini. But none of this can take place in the abstract. We need a new social contract that acknowledges the dangers of connecting party financing with big business. 

Let’s take the leap and say goodbye to backroom deals that harsh financial realities can impose on a political party. 

We must empower the FIAU to audit us all once we have agreed on a public financing deal for politics. In this way, perhaps, no player will be crushed under the financial clout of the party in government or, as in the case of 2013, the party heading towards government. 

On enforcement we must acknowledge that without a police force that is not politically motivated we will never have a society that is happy. Feeling like a second-rate citizen makes you feel angry and frustrated. Why should I feel it is useless to report a restaurant because of its loud music after 11:00pm because it is owned by a friend of the Labour Party? 

And yet, that is how many people feel today. 

The rule of law is there to measure the success of our society in everything: From clean government and clean politics to behaving as good neighbours in every village, town and community, regardless of wealth, ethnicity or political beliefs. 

I will give every hour of my days and evenings to ensure we achieve these goals.