For far too many people in this country, politics is a spectator sport. It is something other people do. Many voters think democracy begins and ends with the right to vote and forego their right and duty to actively participate, appeasing their civic conscience by signing the odd petition or sharing a Facebook post or news article broadly consistent with their views.

Nevertheless, at key moments, these spectators may be moved to a grand passion. In much the same way I become the football know-it-all during World Cup season, some can turn from onlookers to knowledgeable election pundits in a matter of weeks, holding forth some very detailed and quasi-professional opinions about the ins and outs of the game. And then, once the vote is turned in, they move from the pulpit back to the armchair and on to other entertaining intrigues.

This trend has been stronger with PN voters. For decades, the PN has been the party of normality, contrasting with the mass hysteria mobilised by the PL in its many crusades against real or perceived threats. The PN has made it its mission to meet a fairly reasonable common aspiration: to live in relative peace, not to have to think too hard about the politics embraced by our neighbours or watch what we say at work.

But that ‘normality’, like ‘democracy’, is a notion that ends up being confused with militant neutrality and conscious indifference. A mistaken idea has taken root that the PN will get elected by default even if its supporters abdicate from active participation for four-and-a-half years out of five.

We now know full well this is not the case.

Joseph Muscat has exploited the totalitarian characteristics of the party he took over, and turned the PL into his personal and presidential engine of mass mobilisation. He has reversed long-standing PL dogmas (anti-EU, anti-gay, anti-business), burnt the past and replaced it with the cult of personality, eliciting shades of 1984.

That quasi-religious cult did not stop at the PL’s doors. It was driven through our society and percolated in every town and village, in every square and every street, until anti-establishment views and a wilful disregard for convention became an act of faith and, by definition, the new normal.

Politics is the greatest charity. It is people coming together to decide how to build a better country for generations not yet born

The PN’s political supporters were stunned by how well this new totalitarianism worked. If the election result angered you; if you were shocked that the rest of the country seemed indifferent to massive corruption and the erosion of the rule of law; if you are worried about the long-term economic sustainability of our rudderless country; if you are concerned at a government running roughshod over the will of its own party, let alone the institutions of the State meant to keep it in check; if you are alarmed at the propensity of personality cults silencing debate, this is for you.

It is time to roll up your sleeves and get stuck in. No more looking on. It is another misconception that the way ‘to help the party’ is to wait until four weeks before the election and sign up as a general elections candidate. Only in very rare circumstances is that of any real use.

Here’s what you should do.

1. Sign up as a member.

At the last election, already widely considered its lowest point since 1947, the PN attracted 135,000 votes. Yet it has 23,000 members. You should not become a card-carrying party member merely to add to that number. You should become a member so you can commit.

This is counter-intuitive to the average PN voter, who prides herself she is a free thinker, unchained to one political party, and at liberty to call it like it is. Allow me to dispel another myth. Becoming a member of the PN does not mean you are wedded to it and have to support it unquestioningly. Disagreement and dialectic produce a synthetic view that drives policy forward.

You do not commit to agree. You commit to belong. And even if you thought you didn’t, you actually do belong. Statistically, if you voted PN in this election, you are very likely to have voted PN in at least the last three elections and also not a party member. You support the PN even if you have not yet admitted it to yourself. The party needs you to join its ranks because the party is you. Your views, even the dissenting ones, are needed for the grand national coalition the party aspires to present to the voting public at the next election. Do not wait four years. It will be a mere formality then. Join up now.

2. Join your section committee.

There is almost certainly a vacant voting seat to which you can be co-opted, and if there are none, you are welcome to attend as a non-voting member and speak your mind. Call party headquarters to get the number of your local section secretary and join in.

This is how you participate in the democratic process. Go round your neighbourhood and encourage other people to sign up. Face them when they are angry or disappointed with the party. Understand them and help them find a solution. Bring them closer to the issues you hold dear. Politics is not just about voting. That is merely one of its rituals. Politics is about discussion, compassion and persuasion.

3. Persist.

Do not, for a minute, think this will be easy. You will find most of your veteran colleagues on the committee sceptical of your new-fangled ways. You will find many jaded, tired people who love their party but are suspicious of neophytes. You will come across surprising belligerence in some and disturbing zealotry in others. And you will find a love for the party but frustration at the lack of boots on the ground. Ultimately, they will be happy to see you on board.

As a new card-carrying member with a mission to engage family, friends, neighbours and strangers in equal measure, you will catch yourself wondering if your time would not be better spent on some other good cause. But politics is the greatest charity. It is people coming together to decide how to build a better country for generations not yet born. How to create jobs, build schools and hospitals and maintain the surrounding environment in a good state of repair. How to make sure no one in the community is made homeless or left in want of basic necessities. How to embrace and include others who arrive from foreign shores with just the shirt on their back.

I urge you to belong and to commit to a grand old party that, even at its lowest ebb, is the largest and most significant force for good in our country. Join me. Our party needs us. Your country needs you. Enlist!