ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY DR GEORGE ABELA, PRESIDENT OF MALTA ON THE OCCASION OF THE 234^TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AT THE UPPER BARRAKKA GARDENS, CASTILE PLACE, VALLETTA.  SUNDAY 4 JULY 2010.

Honourable Prime Minister and Mrs Gonzi,

President Emeriti,

Honourable Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries,

Honourable Members of Parliament,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Ambassador Kmiec, thank you for the interesting presentation you have just made.  I would like to express my congratulations to you and Mrs Kmiec on the national day of the United States and I kindly ask you to convey my expression of friendship and congratulations to President Obama on my behalf and on behalf of the Government and People of Malta.

It is customary, on the occasion of national days, to speak mostly of bilateral relations between Malta and the country celebrating its national day.  As you have all seen, today is an exception in that His Excellency Ambassador Kmiec and I agreed to do something different.  Ambassador Kmiec has just made a very inspiring presentation about one of the most revered American Presidents, Abraham Lincoln, and on my part I have chosen to  speak about Malta's National Anthem, L-Innu Malti.  

The image that appears on screen captures a moment during my inspiring meeting with His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI last April.  The playing of the Maltese National Anthem had just ended and His Holiness remarked after hearing me singing it softly, that it sounded beautiful.  As I explained the meaning of the lyrics to him in a few words, His Holiness was evidently touched and remarked how fitting it is that a country like Malta should have a prayer as its National Anthem.

Moreover, while watching the playing of National anthems in these World Cup matches, I could not fail to notice the emotions, the tears, the pride and concentration on the faces of these players with some of them even turning to face their National flag while singing their respective national anthem with their hands on their heart.

By definition, a national anthem is, generally speaking, a patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes a country's history, traditions and the struggles of its People.  It is recognized by a State as its official national song and this recognition, as in our own case, may be enshrined in the Constitution.

Anthems rose to prominence in Europe during the nineteenth century, though some may be older in origin.  Many national anthems are either marches or hymns in musical style. The Maltese national anthem is not a march but is written in the style of a solemn composition.

Malta was still without an official national anthem up to the first two decades of the twentieth century.  In the nineteen-twenties, the Maltese people were demanding more political rights and a sense of nationalism was very much in evidence by that time.  Following the 1919 riots, the British Government had given Malta, then still a colony, the 1921 constitution which was the first to provide for self-government.  It was at some point in 1922 or 1923 that Albert V. Laferla, Director of Education at that time, came into possession of a musical composition by Dr Robert Samut.  It seems that Dr Samut, who had studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh but was also very attracted to music, especially piano playing, had been asked by his fellow students to sing the Maltese national anthem.  It was then that it dawned on him that Malta did not have one.  He therefore decided to compose one on his return to Malta.  Samut played his musical composition to Dr Laferla who promised to find someone to write the lyrics.  As Laferla had great esteem for Dun Karm Psaila, the choice naturally fell on him.

Dun Karm, a priest who was later to become Malta's national poet, had written poetry in Italian since 1889 and in Maltese since 1912.  He had actually already written a sort of patriotic hymn on the occasion of the granting of the 1921 Constitution which, however, he refrained from publishing.  When Laferla presented him with Samut's composition, he tried it on his piano and set about writing the lyrics for the anthem.  It seems it was first played and sung in 1922. 

The wording of an anthem may be patriotic or even revolutionary.  In the case of Dun Karm's Innu Malti, it is a prayer to God.  Dun Karm himself wrote that, in writing the six-verse anthem, he had considered the situation in Malta at that time and, as there existed a high degree of political antagonism, he tried to unite everyone in a bond of religious love and patriotism.  The poem is a prayer to God to protect Malta, the sweet land that gave its People its name.  The poet reminds God that He (God) had endowed this land with the sweetest light.  The poet asks God to bestow wisdom on those who govern the country, to enlighten the employer with compassion and to give strength to the worker.  He also prays God to strengthen unity and peace among the Maltese.  I believe this idea of national unity is close to that expressed by Abraham Lincoln when he said at Springfield, Illinois, (November 20, 1860) five months before the start of the Civil War:  "Let us at all times remember that all American citizens are brothers of a common country, and should dwell together in the bonds of fraternal feeling".

In 1945, the Innu Malti was declared to be the official Anthem of Malta and was later enshrined in the Independence Constitution.  There is no doubt that the Maltese People became proud of their national anthem as a symbol of their identity as a Nation.  In fact when during a football match on the 2^nd March 1945 between Malta and Hajduks, a Yugoslav team, the anthem was not played together with the Yugoslav anthem and the God Save the King (Malta was then still a British colony), the Maltese spectators burst out into a spontaneous chanting of their national anthem.  Another famous Maltese poet Rużar Briffa recalls this memorable event in one of his patriotic poems entitled Jum ir-Rebħa:

U l-kotra qamet f'daqqa u għajtet: "Jien Maltija!

Miskin min ikasbarni, miskin min jidħak bija!"

And the crowd rose up as one and cried "I am Maltese!  Woe to him who despises me, woe to him who ridicules me!"

As Oliver Friggieri states in his beautifully-crafted booklet, analyzing the wording of the Innu Malti, [and I translate his words from Maltese]:

"The Innu Malti, as a prayer, recalls the fact that religious tradition is fundamental in the culture and history of Malta.  The Biblical origin of some phrases indicates the Maltese bond with Christian tradition while the phrase "great God" is both Biblical and Islamic.  The wording of the anthem, which is entirely Semitic in origin, is employed in accordance with literary form and in accordance to stylistic tendencies of Latin and Italian origin.  In this way, Dun Karm wrote six lines which reflect the essence of the Maltese character: Christian Religion, Semitic Language, European Culture."

The metaphor of the generous mother, the Motherland, is central to Dun Karm's poem.  In the first stanza, Malta is described as a "sweet" mother, perhaps evocating the popular belief that Malta, the Latinized version of which is Melita, is etymologically derived from the Latin word "mel" meaning "honey".  The poet reminds God that He endowed Malta with the "sweetest" light, meaning Christianity, a biblical metaphor, and he asks Him to protect this Mother.  Here, therefore, we have the image of God the Father being implored to protect the Mother as He had always done.  It is the metaphor of a nuclear family unit - God the Father, Malta the Mother and the People are the children.

In the second stanza, the poet widens the scope of his prayer from the family to the nation.  He prays God to enlighten those who govern Malta and insists on harmony and unity.  He asks God to inspire employers with compassion and to give strength to the worker, thus ensuring social harmony and social justice according to his view of society at that historical point in time.  It is Dun Karm's idea of a social dialogue, so to speak, of a collective effort by employers and employees to work in harmony.  He finally prays God to strengthen unity and peace among the Maltese, a sentiment that is as relevant today as it was in Dun Karm's time.  As Oliver Friggieri writes: "the last verse is an expression of the desire that the two social levels mentioned in the preceding two lines should form a society built on order.  The State, the labour sector, political parties and the people that respect the law; they are three components of a modern nation".

In my opinion, Dun Karm's inspired thoughts as expressed in the national anthem have lost none of their relevance today.  It is still of the utmost importance to call for national unity.  While discussion and controversy are of the essence in a vibrant democracy like ours, we should never forget that we are one nation.  Political debate is healthy and essential but it should not be divisive.  It should not lead to the mentality of "us" and "them".  We must always remain one nation, all Maltese, united in diversity.

This applies not only to the political arena but also to the industrial relations one.  Employers and workers have a common aim, that of ensuring that the country maintains a viable economy so that all may live in prosperity.  In the present international financial and economic turmoil, this is even more relevant than ever before.  Trade unions have the aim of protecting and defending workers' rights but at the same time it is not in the interest of workers that their unions should be divided, at loggerheads with one another about a number of issues.

Political parties too, while having different points of view about the best way to ensure progress and prosperity for everyone, should be united in their common goal - the national interest.  This should also be reflected in the House of Representatives.  Since the Constitution lays down that Parliament is composed of The President and the House of Representatives it is therefore incumbent upon me to express my views on the workings of Parliament.  Members of Parliament are elected to represent the interests of the nation and that of their constituents and these aims are to be achieved not by a divisive approach but by one which aims at finding solutions through informed debate. Parliamentarians have the duty to give an example of unity to the Nation.

The final purpose should be clear and unmistakable to one and all: the national interest and the common good in this "sweet land" of ours should always prevail.

In conclusion, what has really struck me while going deeper into the meaning of L-Innu Malti is that we have been a people with our distinctive identity and before we even became a State.  Listening attentively to my Ambassador friend's presentation, I cannot help thinking that after all we people are basically all the same the world over.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is now my pleasure to invite you all to raise your glass and drink to the excellent relations that happily exist between Malta and the United States and to the health, peace and prosperity among all Peoples.