All voters have to make a choice on the evidence available to them. But the information buffeting the voter may be complex, contradictory, opaque and sometimes dressed up in hype.

As a contender for the Nationalist Party leadership, I feel I owe it to the voters (and the country) to spell out what I stand for. It is my firm conviction that the quality of leadership depends on clarity of mind, decisiveness and the moral courage to stay the course once a path has been shown to be in the best interests of the community.

Leadership is also an art, an on-going creative tension between the leader and the led - that is why I believe that the leadership should be open to all ranks and structures of the party and the public in general. A leadership that is quarantined can never be dynamic and responsive to the needs of society. I declare my intention to widen the concept of dialogue to the limit, both within the party and with civil society. I feel this is not only an ethical stance but embodies the true spirit of democracy, coincides with modern management strategy and will galvanise the potential energies of the people.

I believe that Malta can be made into a "big" small country, given imaginative leadership and entrepreneurship, audacity, a sense of national purpose and the focused mobilisation of our human resources. Joining Europe is not a threat but an invitation to spread our wings; we are small in size but not in mind. The strength of a country depends on its people; what they know, what they can do and how well they do it. That is why we all have to cultivate a culture of excellence. This must be a clarion call - a call not to arms but to national awakening. We have the intelligence and we must demonstrate the will to compete and succeed.

The corner-stone of any future is the economic performance of the country. Economics is not the figment of a minister or other; it is an empirical discipline based on facts and realities. I intend to fortify the economic and financial management by top-of-the-range minds and specialists to assure the best goals, systems and machinery. One formal promise, though, I make most solemnly: economic thinking must and will thrive within a social context.

We believe in an inclusive society, a humane society, imbued with Christian compassion and respect for all individuals.

I have no doubt that we can kick-start the economy on another rampant growth-curve; all social partners realise this necessity; we must let fall the blinkers and take the world for our stage. We should all have the gumption to change and stare reality in the face; if we turn a blind eye to what's happening in the wide world, we'll choke in stagnation, a state of structured under-development.

I believe that the massive investment we made in education must be sustained and expanded; intellectual investment should be a premier national goal for two fundamental reasons: the quality of our future society depends on the quality of our citizens and, secondly, it is a fundamental tenet of our philosophy that every individual has a right to attain his fullest development.

It is my intention to give priority to a national science policy; science, directly or indirectly, is the key to national wealth because technology underlies the character of the modern world and holds the destiny of our future economic competitiveness; otherwise we'll slide inexorably into the ranks of the Third World.

Many prophets of doom launched a scare campaign because Malta is stepping onto a larger playing field, maintaining that we'll be swamped by more rampant cultures. I have no fear in this respect; as a people, we have had a millennial civilisation and cultural ethos which survived wars, invasions and international maelstroms. Our cultural heritage is the ultimate seal of our identity; down the years, this cultural richness has not been given its proper due. I feel most strongly that culture, the arts and the cultural heritage should shoot up to the uppermost ranks of our national agenda; we owe it to our ancestors and we owe it to ourselves.

Every historical era presents new challenges and calls for new responses and strategies. The Nationalist Party laid the foundations of our nation; it attained independence, consolidated democracy, shepherded the country into the European Union and established the structures and practices of a modern economy leading to a widespread prosperity never enjoyed before. Now, we need a decisive spurt of national re-awakening; we must have confidence in ourselves and in our ability, as we did in the past, to face national or international problems. As a people, we have the genius, the human resources and the will to face anything that comes our way.

To me politics is neither a game nor a way of making a living. It is a mission, an ideal; I want this country to be the best organised, the most successful, the most humane. I want the best ideas from the best people and I will make sure that valid ideas are put into practice. I want to engage the party and the whole country in a national journey to make this country an example to others. I want everybody of goodwill to share in this march to further progress. We are all stakeholders. We are all citizens of one country - I want the people to be proud of what we can collectively achieve.

Mr Dalli is Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs.

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