There is no question about applauding public spirited people as Chris Gatt (Mind Your Language, Thinkers, August 1) rightly said. This is beside the point of my letter. What I wanted to question were the benefits to the nation that can come out when one who is able to use and communicate in Maltese intentionally opts to use English especially when addressing the public on the media.

I strongly believe that not all Maltese understand English, contrary to their own mother tongue and so I don't find it fair to willingly exclude such persons from the message when one can easily act otherwise. I also believe that Maltese did not survive and thrive by accident only but through the positive action taken by knowledgeable and patriotic promoters of the language.

I feel that Maltese needs pro-active leaders and thinkers to continue to develop healthily. This becomes glaringly obvious when one considers the size of the Maltese-speaking population, the continuous pressure from the media, from some local non-governmental schools who are intentionally producing a generation of exclusively English-speaking students, from globalisation and from omissions by the state itself.

As to the "how" and "what" of a message, it is widely accepted that the medium used affects the message greatly. A famous thinker in the field of communication theory has gone so far as to claim that "the medium is the message". So that in my opinion if one is able to use Maltese but instead intentionally chooses to deliver his message to the Maltese public in English he is making a public declaration relegating his mother tongue to second place and trying to make it the language of the kitchen once more. This is detrimental to our language and to Maltese culture in general.

What meaning does it have for our Prime Minister to travel to Australia trying to encourage the daily use of the Maltese language among Maltese-Australian citizens?

And what sense does it make for the EU to spend so many euros to pay translators and interpreters of the Maltese language if we ourselves don't put Maltese at the forefront in Malta itself? It is clear that, if one so chooses, today one is able to function in "the official Malta" by communicating in English. And legally one will not be committing any crime. This is not my point.

My opinion is that a) given the small size of the population and hence the fragility of the language, b) given that normally a citizen is proud of his mother tongue which could certainly be a unifying factor among a small community, and c) given the fact that Maltese is an immense cultural heritage, one should take a pro-active attitude to promote it every time and at every opportunity that presents itself. To me it looks so simple. We have something unique and pricless. Let's take care of it by using it, because if we don't use it we lose it.