Evarist Bartolo | Sunday, 05 April 2009

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More than a tale of two feasts

National politics is still dominated by a parochial mentality, as if we are a village divided by pique and rivalry over either the feast of St Independence and that of St Freedom Day. We still have yet to find enough common ground to agree on one national day with which we can all identify. Other countries also took years to resolve similar controversies. The Labour Party celebrated the 30th anniversary of the closure of naval and military bases in Malta not out of nostalgia or as partisan folklore; but as a very sensible way of navigating in today’s uncharted and dangerous seas.
The whole country should have celebrated this 30th anniversary in the same way we should be celebrating the 45th anniversary of our national independence and the 35th anniversary of becoming a republic later on this year. Our constitutional neutrality and our choice to take a new historical direction away from Malta’s traditional role of serving as a military and naval base to wage wars on others is still relevant today although the world has changed since the fall of the Berlin Wall, with the passing away of global politics dominated by the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States and the emergence of new global players like Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Even as members of the European Union in an increasingly borderless world that renders insular mindsets irrelevant, we must still strive to build and develop our collective memory out of the crucial historical developments we lived through, from centuries of being a colony to becoming a sovereign state. We must liberate ourselves totally from the mindset of the colonised past within us if we do not want to wipe out the valuable heritage acquired painfully, by those who strove hard before our times to give us the necessary self-confidence and self-assertiveness to run these islands.
Neutrality is good for us. Not serving as a military, naval and air base for other countries and their alliances is good for us. It makes good economic, political and military sense. As a state on the southern frontiers of the EU it is also good for the EU and enhances its diversity and flexibility if it has a member state that can build on its reputation as an ideal meeting place for states, cultures and religions in conflict. It is such a pity that in the last five years we have been largely absent from being a protagonist of Mediterranean politics within the EU and within our region.
By being neutral and small, and so not in a position to pose a threat to others, we can use our moral authority to speak up for peace, dialogue and negotiations in times of conflict. If these values are considered powerless in today’s brutal world, we have enough examples to show that waging war is more expensive and simply reinforces a spiral of violence and further violence and becomes part of the problem, not of the solution.
Our neutrality means that we will deny states, entities, terrorist organisations and individuals the use of our territory from where to threaten and hurt others. We have always been ready, and will remain ready to help people who are suffering, also by taking part in humanitarian initiatives coordinated by the United Nations.
But we should not go back to the past that we cut ourselves off from 30 years ago. Other countries can afford not to involve us in their war operations. Our tiny size does not make any real difference to them and technology makes geo-strategic locations irrelevant. In our case we simply cannot afford to get involved in military conflicts. We must make use of our tiny size and position on the crossroads of the Mediterranean, without any self-aggrandisement, to be intercultural mediators and bridge-builders. The dominant mentality in our islands is still that of fortification builders. The strong strain of xenophobia on illegal immigrants is inhibiting us from taking an active and positive role in a world where different cultures and ethnicities have to learn to live together and shows that we are still not equipped to live in the world of the 21st century.
The quality of life of our families and pensioners depends on our ability to generate economic growth in manufacturing, tourism and services. We need to trade with as many different countries as possible in the world. Multilateralism – building strong links with as many countries as possible – is essential for a small country like ours, not to allow anyone to dominate us. It is in our interest to live in a multi-polar world where the EU becomes a self-confident world player even in matters of security and defence.
Our ability to survive and thrive in this century depends on our ability to see with our own eyes, think with our own brains, overcome mimicry in our attitudes and behaviour, and manage successfully our relations with other countries in an interdependent world.

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