The war effort and resistance by the Maltese people during World War II earned the admiration of the 32nd president of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt.  In a scroll, today etched on the façade of the Grand Master’s Palace in Valletta for all to see, Roosevelt defined Malta as a ‘Beacon of Hope’.

He opens his scroll with words that should make each and every Maltese proud of their heritage.  He says:

“I salute the Island of Malta, its people and defenders, who, in the cause of freedom and justice and decency throughout the world, have rendered valorous service far above and beyond the call of duty.”

Since my childhood, I felt moved by these words. I felt inspired. I felt that I had to carry in my heart these values which make us the people of Malta, such a beacon of hope.  Indeed in Malta over and over again we rose to meet challenges, we stood up to be counted and in doing so we earned our place of respect in the international community.

We took Malta to heights which our ancestors only dreamed of. We have taken the name of Malta and placed it alongside the strongest democracies of the world. We have made of Malta a nation that inspires others and because of this we brought prosperity, we set direction, we established visions.

Just like that, eroded and evaporated the respect of Malta by the international community, its credibility and its moral authority

We anchored our country, ourselves, our children in the rule of law, in human rights, in freedoms – in strong Western values. We built institutions, gave them their autonomy and enshrined them in the laws of the land. We wanted to make sure that never again would we witness violence, never again would our democracy be threatened. Above all we rooted with conviction our country in the European Union. We defied the odds, we overcame the obstacles and we did it.

And because we stood upright, because we embraced our values, we could take principled positions. So we were able to condemn dictators, we could speak our mind, defend human rights, and speak the truth. We were a proud nation.

But in four years this changed.  Swiftly, in stealth our leadership, our Prime Minister and his gang, betrayed our values.  They put a price on our citizenship and sold it like a commodity. Worse, they befriended dictators like Aliyev of Azerbaijan and went to bed with them, giving them energy monopolies and in the process making Malta a servant to them.

Likewise, in stealth they set up offshore accounts where they thought of siphoning their commissions.

And just like that, eroded and evaporated the respect of Malta by the international community, its credibility and its moral authority.

And this beacon of hope is now extinct by corruption.

Our values are now defunct under the rubble of the devastated environment, of corruption, of immoral financial transactions. This is the class of 2013, the class that sold our soul, the class that flirted with dictators, that corrupted us and shamed us. The class that betrayed our values, the class that switched off our beacon of hope.

This beacon of hope we can regenerate. On June 3.

Ryan Callus is a member of Parliament and a Nationalist Party candidate on the sixth district.

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