Second annual State of the Nation kicks off Thursday

The second annual State of the Nation conference opens tomorrow, convened by the Office of the President of the Republic, in a day-long series of talks on Maltese social and political development and national identity.

Convenor Lou Bondì kicks off the conference, ahead of the second national survey by statistician Vince Marmara on the “state of the nation”.

The conference will be addressed at the start by President George Vella, as well as the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola.

Speaking to MaltaToday, Bondì said the key idea behind the survey and national conference lies in the play on words in Maltese – ‘L-Istat tan-Nazzjon’ – the state of the nation, but also the state that belongs to the nation.

“The survey has a single, clear scope – to get an accurate and real time picture of our national identity, values and culture. The questions are designed to throw light on our deep and ingrained beliefs and attitudes,” Bondì says.

“The conference’s scope, however, is much wider than the survey. The rationale is to bring together speakers and participants from all walks of life to give their contribution to the debate. Each of the conference sessions will take the form of a panel discussion.”

Bondi says both the survey and the conference generated more media traction and debate than expected, and says that as long as the Office of the President continues to collaborate on the initiative, he plans to do it annually.

“From a survey perspective, we will be asking more or less the same questions every year, to gauge any emerging trends. For me this is the real added value of this initiative, that we take the pulse of the nation and compare it with the past in the hope of anticipating the future.”

Bondì does not discount ‘bigger and bolder’ formats for the coming years, taknig a cue from the recent Conference for the Future of Europe and its massive year-long effort to convene national and local conferences. “To be sure, the survey already brings the public’s voice to the heart of the conference and its debates. Having said this, we’ll consider widening the scope.”

Without giving away anything from his conference speech, Bondì’s own address to the conference this year focuses on the relation between nation and state. Or perhaps, its absence. “I’m beginning to suspect that there is some sort of a disconnect between the two, and people are confused, perhaps marooned in it. Are we losing our sense of nationhood, assuming we had one? Has the nation guided the evolution of our state or did it happen largely independently of it?”

Tomorrow’s moderators are Melvic Zammit, PBS head of news Norma Saliba, Prof. Andrew Azzopardi, Times journalist Mark Laurence Zammit, and MaltaToday executive editor Matthew Vella.