“Dear people of Malta and Gozo, let us continue working together to make Malta a sustainable socio-economic, ethical and just model. Although challenges will exist, we should be hopeful. Our hope should lie in the fact that, together, we are capable of overcoming our prejudices, differences and partisanship.

“We should have hope because we have already achieved great successes. We should have hope because we, as a nation, are well-known for our resilience, which has always helped us overcome our challenges.

“Let us, dear people of Malta and Gozo, look to the future with courage because I am convinced that, united, we are capable of creating a brighter future for each and every one of us but, most of all, for our children.”

That was the appeal President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca made on Republic Day. It is an appeal all of us should make and, more importantly, resolve to work for and implement.

Yet, the opinions expressed by two authors writing on behalf of the two larger political parties in this newspaper last Saturday does not augur well at all.

In its weekly series ‘Question time’, the Times of Malta asked the two parties what peace message would they like to send to the other side.

The secretary of the Labour Party’s national executive, Lydia Abela, declared that, rather than just a message of peace, it should be one of unity: “But we all know that, for far too long, politics has divided our small nation in unpleasant ways.”

Why should it be so?

Dr Abela also referred to Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder, adding it should serve the country to unite even more. She then remarked that elements within the PN tried to link this murder to politics and noted that the police have filed charges against three men.

The fact that three men have been arraigned in connection with the car bomb murder does not mean the case is solved. To start with, they are still presumed innocent.

And, unless all the culprits – even those who could have commissioned it – are apprehended, tried and convicted, how can anyone exclude anything, including a political connection?

The parties still need to put the people first, not themselves.

Ivan Bartolo, the PN’s spokesman for social housing and the fight against poverty, launched an appeal to PL supporters: “Be critical, be vociferous and do not be afraid to disagree within your party. This is not a break up or a party in disarray, as you are apt to call us.” Political parties and politicians continuously fail to practise what they preach.

Judging by what some dissenting past and present PN members/supporters went through, the party in Opposition still has a lot to learn and rectify before pointing fingers.

“Politics runs in the Maltese blood but, together, we are capable of overcoming what can divide us,” Dr Abela wrote. So say all of us, especially, on the first day of a New Year. But all of us – not least political parties and institutions – must be determined to walk the walk.

Today, as we make our New Year resolutions, each of us must be repeating what the President said on Republic Day: “I have hope.”

Hope springs eternal but, regretfully, past political experience teaches us not to raise expectations too high.

This is a Times of Malta print editorial

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