What does the Nationalist Party stand for?

A Nationalist Party that focuses on its true vocation, that name which was not arbitrarily given, would be well-equipped in its vision, its values and its policies to address the country’s pressing needs.

Aparty that loses an election has an opportunity that the winning party often does not: it has the opportunity to ask itself questions. The answers to some of those questions are often uncomfortable, if not downright painful. But asked – and answered – they must be before the electorate delivers yet another verdict.

The challenges for broad churches

Someone rightly pointed out that in a two-party system such as ours it is inevitable that both Labour and the Nationalist Party are “broad churches”. It is also inevitable that a “broad church” party that loses an election has a harder time containing the tensions and disagreements that alternate between heating up and cooling down throughout a party’s lifetime.

So it was no surprise that the question as to what tune the Nationalist Party marches should come to the fore. And it was no less surprising that different people offered different answers – some of which have led to strong disagreements.

Nazzjonalisti – the belief in community

My answer to the question “what does the Nationalist Party stand for” is simple: look at the name. The Nationalist Party stands for nationalism.

It is a particular kind of nationalism. It is not a nationalism that is based on race or ethnicity. It is not a nationalism that equates a national leader with the nation and cries ‘traitors!’ to those who criticise him. It’s not a nationalism that contemplates push-backs for distressed immigrants with one hand and sells citizenship with the other. And it is not a nationalism that waves the flag with one hand and shows disregard to our identity with the other. Neither is it a nationalism that is interested in anything that is not of our right in terms of international law.

Ours should be a civic nationalism that remains proud of its national identity and anti-colonial past. It should remain a party inspired by its Christian roots, albeit without being confessional. This is a type of nationalism that believes communitarian values are the essence of the nation.

We believe that there is such a thing as a common good and that everyone should and is welcome to contribute to it. What we do is not limited to addressing concerns about what sociologist Benny Tonna described as ‘the here and now’ thinking dominating our society; we care about future generations and the kind of country and planet we will bequeath to them.

The radical centre – the belief in the person

The Nationalist Party has to remain at the centre of the political spectrum. It cannot be pushed out of its own turf. But this cannot be a centre that means everything to everybody, because that would be just a diluted version of everything, which serves no real purpose. On the contrary, it has to be a radical centre, a centre which is bold enough to uphold cherished values whilst embracing societal developments and corresponding change.

I fear that globalisation, post modernism and, indeed, the Labour government agenda, has instilled a strong sense of individualism which has now taken root in Malta and could be endangering both our identity and our cherished values of social solidarity and human life itself. Nothing can be taken for granted any longer.

This should not lead us to advocate any stranglehold on society and its individual members. On the contrary, as true democrats we strive to persuade and not to impose. So our commitment to individual rights and freedoms should be steadfast. Of course, liberty is herewith understood within the framework of the common good which presupposes that human community fares better when it cooperates meaningfully, from within and without. As such, this is a concept of liberty that holds that there are no rights without corresponding respon- sibilities.

So this in no way contradicts the very obvious recognition that Catholicism continues to infuse much of what we are: from our native popular culture to marking the major milestones of our lives. An outright rejection of tradition would, indeed, be very un-Maltese.

But this is a recognition that today’s challenges will require us to find solutions that go beyond the traditional political labels of ‘left’ or ‘right’, “conservative’ or ‘liberal” and ‘secular’ or ‘confessional’.

The fight against Labour’s crony capitalism and pseudo liberalism

With these dilemmas cast aside, we can then focus on what really matters. We have in government a political outfit that calls itself ‘the Labour Party’. It is anything but. The party in office is the party that managed perfectly to combine one of the blights of our political culture – clientelism – with unfettered market economics. The result is a crony capitalism, the likes of which our country has never seen.

The effects are all around us to see. Labour’s policies have neglected our public infrastructure, sold off our energy independence, brought gridlock to our roads and turned the country into one building site with work permanently in progress. It just papered over all these problems, appealing to rugged individualism and short-termism.