For hundreds of years the lives of Maltese citizens were determined from birth according to the family they were born into. “Who’s your father?” was a question asked by almost anyone making a new acquaintance. A Labour government started to change all this some 40 odd years ago, and I was lucky enough to grow up during a time when it no longer mattered who my father was.

Had I been born 10 years earlier, I would not have been able to receive a university education. Since my father was neither a doctor nor a lawyer, the establishment would have made sure I never ventured into medicine or law – professions which at the time were reserved only for the elite.

The elite thrived on the belief that they were better than the masses, made up of the lower classes. They did not wish to be proven wrong, and so they denied the lower classes an education to maintain the status quo. The whole system was naturally abetted by the Church, which could only stand to benefit from an ignorant populace.

Opening up university education to the masses gave birth to a social ladder, which meant the demise of the perpetually privileged. The establishment was anything but destroyed, however. Behind the scenes the elite regrouped and gathered their strengths, coming to power once more as a democratic government.

They could not turn back the clock on free education or social benefits, so they decided to freeze the clock instead. Social mobility started to slow down once more, and the chasm between the upper and middle classes widened until there was no middle class left.

With unemployment on the rise, young people whose parents were not part of the elitist circles started to feel once more that they did not have the same chances at success as their classmates or friends. Some decided to move abroad, while others had to settle for jobs for which they were overqualified.

The past two decades of Nationalist governments have allowed the establishment to take strong roots once more

Naturally, the situation was not as bleak for everyone, and some did manage to succeed against the odds. The odds, however, were becoming odder than ever, and the number of young people who actually had faith that they would succeed through their own merit and hard work was in decline.

It was a Labour government that started to thaw the clock which had been frozen for years. Social benefits increased along with job opportunities, and after three-and-a-half years the change is not only reflected in statistics, but can be felt most acutely by those who had been disheartened up until a few years ago. I am glad that my children are once more able to live in a country in which they know that they can build their own future, and that hard work actually leads to rewards.

I like the fact that my sons will not have to rely on their father being a GP and an MP, because they know that they have the opportunity to build their own career of choice, and that ultimately they might do even better than their parents.

I do not want my children, or any children, to have their whole lives pre-determined from birth on the basis of their family tree. I do not want to have to watch once more the sure and steady erosion of the social ladder. This is primarily why I believe in the need for a Labour government, and I cannot help but share Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s vision for better social mobility.

In the natural scheme of things, supporting social mobility will mean dismantling the establishment. This is no easy feat, as the past two decades of Nationalist governments have allowed the establishment to take strong roots once more. But the battle is underway, and the establishment is already feeling the brunt, and its colours are coming to the fore.

We have seen the establishment acting out in the Opposition’s attempts to smear Malta’s name abroad, using any means possible to discredit the government, seeing it is no longer able to do it on home turf without looking foolish.

More telling are the outbursts by other quarters who had been silent for years in the face of blatant abuse and corruption, but who have now found a voice to criticise lesser sins and preach on good governance.

Etienne Grech is a Labour MP.