What choosing Malta means

I am a fresh face to politics. It has always been my passion to serve others. It has always been my joy and pride to see my hard work improve the quality of life of others. As an employment lawyer I have been asked to assist companies and employees alike to ensure that the law serves and benefits both in a way that improves their individual and collective prosperity. 

When I decided to enter the world of politics I opted to commit my efforts to strengthen and bolster the Nationalist Party electoral list. I made a personal vow to extend my mission to a national level of public servitude. I choose your prosperity, I choose our success. I choose Malta. 

This is not the self-profiteering business we have come to see and abhor in the last four years.  Day in, day out we have seen dirty oil come to surface.  When we thought all of the oil had surfaced, a new day exposes even more skeletons hidden in the closet. Every month of this legislature brought to light a new scandal. Every moment storms ravaged this island of ours to uncover even more secret attempts. 

We had all heard the nice words of the Malta we want. A Malta that rewards merit. A Malta that has a government driven only by the desire to allow Malta to prosper, to improve our collective quality of life without distinction or discrimination. Many of us fell in the trap. Some of us voted against our traditional choices expecting this change to be one for the good.

Once in power, we quickly realised that instead of these promises we were being handed vinegar to our mouths. Those we trusted with our future continue to shower us with wonderful but empty words and promises. It became clear to us that some of our politicians have sought power to make your taxes work for them as their business and for their profit. Quickly we came to realise that behind the nice words conjured to mesmerise and fool the masses was the intent to mask the truth. If we needed more confirmation, then all we have to do is to read Godfrey Farrugia’s assertions. His perspective comes not from intuition but from a person who experienced government workings from his post in Cabinet.

But as the saying goes; you may run, you may hide but the truth will always catch up with you!  Smoking guns there are plenty and they all point in one direction. No matter what one may say, secrets do not belong to a government of the people. And this government has plenty of secrets. Some are kept by lame excuses not to provide the necessary access to ensure proper transparency and accountability of government. Promises to publish important contracts remain unkept.  

Of course to keep the lie alive we were sometimes given the bait. A real-life example of this government’s notion of transparency and democratic accountability! So sometimes we were allowed to see the documents and contracts. On one condition however. That we see them only in pitch darkness of blackened out text!!! Some transparency that is!

But the cherry on the cake is the justification that it is OK for our top brass to hold secret companies in distant lands under secret guise of ownership. If not illegal, it is certainly unethical of any self-respecting politician to ask of its citizens to obey the law, to declare all their income, to pay all their taxes and at the same time hide his / her assets from proper scrutiny of national authorities. 

Where is the shame?  Where is the commitment to lead by example? Where is the commitment to serve first, foremost and exclusively the people of the country? Where is the fulfilment of the obligation to rise above all notion or suspicion of wrongdoing or ill-intent in the execution of one’s political responsibilities and duties to the public and common good?

In this government all these values and principles are nowhere to be seen and we have ample proof of this. That is why I have chosen to lend my full-energy and support to the Nationalist Party. I believe in its values. In its determination and commitment to give Malta a democracy it truly deserves. A government that has only one focus – Malta.

As a new candidate I cannot promise you the world. I will certainly not promise you what I cannot deliver. My promise is that I will be true to you as I am true to me. I can promise you that I will strive and deliver to the best of my abilities. I am convinced that when you weigh the options you will realise as I have that in the next election, your positive voting option is only one. Choose Malta. 

Dr Roselyn Knight is contesting the ninth and 10th districts for the Nationalist Party