Public trust is always hard to win. If it might be difficult to do so during an election campaign and it becomes even more of an uphill struggle when seeking to restore public trust in the way government is run and the manner in which key institutions work.

The new government will be judged by how resolved it really is to make one-nation politics the centre piece of its way forward

This is going to be the new government’s biggest challenge.

Regardless of the mess we might have inherited, pointing accusing fingers will not be enough. People have every right to judge us by results, as well as by the extent to which we can implement the EU standards, norms and practices that are expected of us.

Consoling ourselves that other EU member states might be in a tighter financial position than us, as others have tried to do to offer themselves a comfort zone of sorts, would be a gross mistake. The fact that change happened in such a massive way, regardless of these ‘considerations’, goes to prove how eager the Maltese electorate was to change political direction.

When some friends of mine used to talk of a 20,000 majority I used to come down hard on them and tell them that such talk merely gives room for complacency. That they were modest in their predictions speaks for itself. We experienced a landslide of gargantuan proportions. I am not saying so with a sense of triumphalism but merely to emphasise the great expectations of this overwhelming majority.

We must start delivering well ahead of the famous first 100 days, not only for the benefit of those who voted for us over the years, and those who switched to Labour in more recent years and months, but also for the benefit of society in general – including those who still distrust us. Otherwise “Malta Taghna Lkoll” will be instantly reduced to a hollow mantra.

At the end of the day, the new government will be judged by how resolved it really is to make one-nation politics the centre piece of its way forward.

While I will not be drawn into the internecine strife that is going on within the PN’s ranks in the struggle for the leadership, I am inclined to agree with an outgoing minister who recently told me that the worst thing that could have happened to the PN would have been to have lost by a whisker. That way they would have resorted to mere patch work and cosmetic tidying up. Now their task is bigger and bolder. They need to rebuild the party anew.

The fact that the new government is already committed to having the Budget approved within days of the opening of Parliament is as much of a positive as the fact that it is already working on the three most important pieces of legislation that it intends to see through before the summer recess: the Whistleblower Act; the removal of a time bar on crimes even by politicians, whether past, present or future, and the law on party political funding. This shows that directional change is already well underway. The most important and telling lesson to emerge from last Saturday’s celebration on the Granaries was the point made by the Prime Minister that we shall govern as if we had a single seat majority, implying that we shall not allow our comfortable majority to go to our heads.

While we have long been resolute not to repeat past mistakes, the biggest mistake others committed was that they allowed those who hijacked their party to drag them down the road of negativity, in a manner that made Joseph Muscat’s positive message and talk shine and stand out even more.

Although polls cannot be ignored, I could sense this rejection of negativism in the house visits that I conducted – particularly in the most predominant Nationalist-leaning areas of my constituency. Even were our finances ship shape, people dislike intensely those who resort to arrogance, intolerance and insensitivity.

It is ironic that those who were meant to lead the other side’s campaign proved to be, by default, our strongest secret weapon.

I am aware that we were accused of being populist but there is a big divide between showing concern about one and all and promising everything to everybody. If my party earned any criticism during the campaign it was from certain party stalwarts that we did not promise as much as the PN did. Time has proved us right, since people do not like being taken for a ride, especially after having had to put up with so many broken promises and wrong priorities.

We are committed to striking a balance between good governance, efficiency and a stronger measure of fairness and social justice. Unless we do so by showing understanding and compassion we might risk losing the plot even though we might technically be still on track.

As far as I am concerned, I intend to be fair with all those that I shall be dealing with. I am open to ideas and suggestions from people from all walks of life. I will welcome criticism from any quarters and have no intention of wasting my time and energy on those who have a Ph.D in character assassination. I will also be more selective in my writing.

Neither will I be drawn into commenting on the power struggle underway within the other party. Even though I remain fascinated by the way those who have been responsible for what a former minister defined as a sinking ship seem far more interested in self preservation than in seeing their party get its act together. But so be it. That is their responsibility and ball game.

We politicians are expected to be doers, but we also need to listen more. This listening process cannot be postponed till the end of a legislature, by when the rot might have already crept in. We might succeed or fail. But the most important thing is that we have the political will to remain in sync with the people. And by people I mean regardless of their political views.

Brincat.leo@gmail.com

Leo Brincat is the Minister for Sustainable Development, the Environment and Climate Change.