One hell of a good point

This is from Fausto Majjistral’s blog at www.malta9thermidor.wordpress.com:

The force of inertia
22 February

In my last post I said that the opponents of the project to extend St John’s were greatly helped by the fact that they had the force of inertia on their side; in Malta the adherents of any “do nothing” side in whatever cause start with a significant advantage.

Think about this scenario: an NGO which is well-funded and has quite some media savvy, riding on a wave of public support, backed with a petition “signed by thousands” and has some friends (and, possibly, a majority) in the House of Representatives. This time it’s not FAA but Gift of Life (GoL) and their campaign to have the right of life from conception entrenched in the Constitution that I have in mind.

There are, admittedly, reversals which GoL’s campaign suffered that FAA’s did not. First, it was the respective organisation’s sense of timing. GoL foolishly decided to suspend their campaign first for the general election then for the summer; FAA knew that they had to throw all their weight behind their campaign sooner rather then later or they would have had to face the situation of confronting an extensive study with little more than scattered opinions, whether expert or lay.

But in everything else GoL’s campaign was not very different from FAA’s. Yet, this is where their campaign is at.

“The Prime Minister remained non-committal on Gift of Life’s proposal to amend the Constitution to protect the right to life from the moment of conception, during a meeting with the organisation yesterday. Lawrence Gonzi summarised the different arguments being made the organisation’s proposal at a meeting in Castille, where techno music from carnival celebrations below blared in the background. He stopped short of saying whether he agreed with the constitutional amendment, insisting he did not know what the position of the MPs was. The amendment proposed by Gift of Life would require a two-thirds majority in Parliament. Dr Gonzi said the criminal code was clear enough in making abortion illegal and that the Constitution already protected the right to life. He added that there was a debate in the country on the proposal and the path on the subject was still open. However, the Prime Minister said the issue of when life started had to be addressed during the debate on legislation to regulate in vitro fertilisation, which will be presented during this legislature. The press was invited for the initial part of the meeting, which continued behind closed doors.”

I have no doubt that, if GoL’s proposed amendment to the Constitution were to be presented in the House, it would garner the two-thirds majority it needs easily. But it will not even get to that stage because there is no enthusiasm to get things that far. Inertia wins again. And this time I’m unequivocally happy it did.