Looking ahead

Following the last general election, we can look ahead to five more years of stability, growth and peace of mind.

By the beginning of May, our House of Representatives will be again in session. I am grateful to my constituents for giving me enough votes that have secured for me one of the four corrective seats that the Electoral Commission allocated in favour of the Nationalist Party to make up for the injustice committed when the electoral boundaries were drawn up. The corrective mechanism works in favour of those candidates from the relevant party who would have polled the highest number of votes in the last count, all districts considered together.

Had Alternattiva Demokratika managed to elect one MP, we would have in office a Labour government and no coalition would have been possible to alter that fact for the simple reason that the corrective mechanism only comes into play when two parties are elected in Parliament.

Within the PN we chose to tell the people the truth. We pointed out that it was a very close race and asked people attending our mass meetings to act as our ambassadors and persuade others to vote. On January 1, 2008, I pointed out: "The forthcoming electoral race will be close. Polls keep placing the two major parties neck and neck... The statement that every vote counts was never as true".

The government in office has an ambitious electoral programme which it is determined to fulfil - to be able eventually to stand before the electorate and again be judged not by what it said but by what it delivered.

When it comes to tourism and culture, I am confident of the capability and commitment of my successors. Achieving a record year in tourism and making Malta a hub of high calibre events throughout the year was no mean feat. It is a track record that I shall always cherish. The necessary homework is in place: Next month Hilton will expand and another major low-cost airline (Easyjet) commences operations to and from Malta. At the end of June, Isle of MTV comes back to Malta. In this sphere as in others, it is time to look ahead - going for further growth and success is achievable.

On a personal note, I am discovering the joys of new challenges and opportunities to which I had never given any importance. More importantly, I remain committed to a public life, to work close to my constituents. The formation of Cabinet is the prerogative of the Prime Minister and should never be made to depend on any other consideration apart from that prerogative which I wholeheartedly respect.

While I remain willing to serve in whatever area of responsibility may be bestowed upon me, I know that a choice in favour of a public life includes various interesting possibilities, apart from remaining closer than ever before to my constituents.

The words of Winston Churchill come to mind: "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts".

That is the kind of courage that had led me to choose a public life in the most difficult of circumstances and regard it ever since as a mission. I am determined to carry on being of service, to proceed with my preference for a political life.

On June 12, 1987, Pope John Paul II met a number of Polish young people at Westerplatte in Gdansk - where a group of young Polish soldiers had borne a victorious witness of courage and perseverance in fighting against decidedly superior forces. The Holy Pontiff encouraged the young people: "You must make demands on yourselves, even if others do not make demands on you. (There are) responsibilities that you must assume and fulfil, a just cause, for which you must fight, a duty, an obligation, from which there can be no withdrawal, no running away".

It is by drawing an analogy between that wonderful appeal and looking upon public life as a dutiful mission that I am reiterating my own commitment to carry on with that duty, passionately and vigorously. That is what keeps me looking forward with determination.