Malta’s two political leaders have now clearly positioned themselves on the side of hope, not hate.

For party media to tone down the generation of hate towards Malta’s two main political groupings is a step in the right direction

Joseph Muscat and Simon Busuttil have started this new legislature on the best possible footing. They have both pledged to do what they can to reduce the extremes we have all witnessed in party media over the years. Extremes which are, of course, only part of the reason for the depth of distrust between the two parties and their followers. This is not unique to the party media in Malta.

Editors, online contributors all over our globe have to balance presenting the facts as known at the time against the ease of short-term gain and shock headlines that attract viewers and, hence, commercial or other strength. Not all aim for the highest possible standards all of the time.

I consider this step by our political leaders to be a first and very significant pledge for hope rather than the generation of more hate. This is to be commended, followed through and copied by us all, in all spheres of our lives.

Those who hate monger within any capacity in our society or any other are the only ones who deserve our absolute opprobrium and condemnation.

Hate mongering isn’t only common in party media. It is now commonplace in our social media and in blogs. Hate mongering is mainstream and it is probably the worst form of bullying, a term we more readily understand simply because most people have or know someone who has experienced this in some form or another in their childhoods, in the workplace or within social circles.

Bullies want us to hate those they hate, en masse. It’s as simple as that.

We shouldn’t be condemning or hating those with different political, religious or other divergent culturally based views.

We should reserve and direct our condemnation as a whole society onto those who generate hate.

Hate mongers should be viewed as the social misfits rather than having any credibility in their attempts to mould and direct public opinion towards hating others who don’t share the same views, have the same political background or in any way don’t fit in to what is viewed as the norm by the hate mongers.

Hate mongers may get a buzz from spreading their venom, may get some relief from their own personal insecurities, unhappiness and more, but the venom that hate mongering spreads taints and influences us all unless we make a concerted effort to avoid being influenced.

Recent tragic attacks in London and Boston remind us all where hatemongering can lead, albeit in its most extreme form. Minds, often young minds, turned into killing machines for the sake of the cause they believe in. However what is most shocking to most people of goodwill from every part of the globe is the absolute hate that these people feel towards the very society that is their home.

The ones who perpetuate the crimes have of course initially been influenced by hate mongering, probably one of the greatest threats to society today.

Fortunately, where this has recently occurred, the respective world leaders from across the political spectrum have responded with a form of leadership that can give us hope rather than one which can be negative in its consequences.

Once hatred can lead to such destruction it is essential that we all collectively stop hatemongering in its tracks by not producing it in the first place. For party media to tone down the generation of hate towards Malta’s two main political groupings is a step in the right direction.

It is a brave step because some or many diehards on both sides would not want the hate mongering to stop. One can see from the absolutely venomous-in-tone blogs, that hatemongering is prevalent.

Hatred may be as old as man himself but in this regard I think it is essential that people put their own real and full name to blogs because a lot of bullying is anonymous and that can be dealt with immediately if good intentions are there.

And importantly, these bloggers don’t represent the whole of public opinion though they give the impression that they do. They simply represent those who blog on the media, a tiny proportion of the public.

Agreeing to disagree is one thing. But implying those you disagree with are to be hated is not.

Yet if people follow and read and enjoy those who hate monger they are spreading hate too, and it is important that this education reaches all our people especially our young people who can hopefully start on a different and more positive footing to those who came before.

The news of course mainly focuses on tragedies, the hatemongering and the times when things go wrong.

Despite all the tragedies the world faces on a daily basis we are blessed with world leaders, from every side of the political spectrum, who are clearly on the side of what is right and who can give us hope.

Our own political leaders are doing the same.

While they lead by example let our media, others who have influence, and their followers try to do the same.

It really is the time to emulate those who give us shining hope rather than those who generate shocking hate.