Over the past few weeks, after seeing the results of the polls, I have often thought: why is it so difficult for people to decide how they will vote in the general election when it is so easy for me?

I have been around for some time now. I have lived through the not-so-easy 1960s and witnessed Malta pull itself out of colonialism and become a proud independent State.

I was around in the early 1970s when the people voted for change and I was not worried because I told myself: nothing can go wrong now. We are on the right path.

I was also around in the disastrous mid-1970s to the late 1980s, when unemployment was at the highest levels ever, when education was available only to the chosen few, when the economy was at a standstill or, should I say in reverse, when violence was the order of the day.

I witnessed the attempted assassination of democracy.

I was around in the late 1980s to the mid-1990s and saw the miraculous changes that took place and how quickly everything started to come back into place and our lives were transformed from disastrous to on top of the world.

I was around in the mid-1990s when we suddenly saw all we had worked for starting to slip away in the 22-month-long Labour Administration. Again, I have been around since the late 1990s and watched things being put back into place, Malta taking its place in the EU.

I have been around in the last 15 years to see things get back on track, to see record employment, record tourism, record numbers of students in higher education, record female participation in all walks of life and much more.

Yes, it is easy for me to decide how to vote as it should be for all those who, like me, have lived through what I have. As for the younger generation who do not have this hindsight, it may be a little more difficult but all they need to do is take a look around themselves, use their minds, see where we are and where other countries are. They may or may not wish to look through history, which is the mirror of the future, but the present in itself – the sense of safety, of security, of knowing that there are employment opportunities, education and healthcare – should be enough to show them the way.