Some sobering ideas for National Day (2)

In an astonishing comment, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi stated that "Independence Day marked the birth of the country". I heard this news while driving and I thought it must be my old car stereo playing some tricks. Unfortunately it was not. Now, how can a Prime Minister leading a country with a glorious history of 7,000 years ever make a statement like that? Is it ignorance, arrogance or perhaps one becomes so naïve that one ends up swallowing his own lies?

Primarily one has to study its significance during the era when independence was achieved. The Queen remained our head of state, the British still occupied vast areas exclusively for their own use and managed strategic sites such as ports and airports. Malta became a truly independent and sovereign country 15 years after, when another deal with the British led to Freedom Day. Beside the fact that, from day one, Independence Day continued to divide the population, as it was accomplished during the darkest decade of our recent history. And when you look into the matter in the present millennium, Independence Day and even Freedom Day continue to lose their significance due to the fact that we are now members of a European political bloc and eventually lost the right to various political decisions to a centralised European Union.

And what exactly is Dr Gonzi alleging to have been born in Malta after Independence Day? The morning after, we were busy demolishing aesthetic buildings in Sliema and elsewhere to make way for hideous flats. We destroyed all of our valleys and countryside in order to build villas, factories, garages and even more flats in order to mark our "progress" from independence. Dr Gonzi might imply his mentioned "birth of a nation" being a welfare state which was created and today is far from sustainable, or becoming an Arab nation by aligning ourselves with Libya, or being the whole cultural degeneration throughout the decades since independence. Independence, followed by Freedom Day, were the nails in the coffin for our country that had been steered on the wrong track since failing to get the integration with the Brits in the 1950s. Only EU membership half a century later saved the day.

In an era of EU Malta, the only national day that stands out for its factual significance to the whole nation is September 8, 1565.

On that day Maltese honoured their victory in their fight to remain European.

Many, and that includes intellectuals, bureaucrats and politicians, limit their EU membership accomplishment to the fact of having a road fixed by EU funds or job opportunities around Europe, but the actual achievement was that we managed to regain our European identity and that's worth far more than the millions of euro supposedly pouring in from Brussels. Unlike Freedom Day and Independence Day, September 8 is the only National Dday that truly unites the people and, for this essential aspect alone, it should be recognised as our one and only National Day.