The divorce vote in parliament
This is going to be the subject of my column in The Malta Independent tomorrow, so I won’t be posting anything about it tonight. But I will say this: the prime minister has committed political suicide, and because general elections in Malta are all about who we prefer to have as prime minister, he has signed his party’s death warrant too.
He seems to have forgotten that he won only by a hair’s breadth against Alfred Sant, who had been tried, tested and found very seriously wanting. What chance does he imagine he now has against untried Muscat?
Not everybody has the imagination or the insight to work out what Muscat will be like as prime minister from what he is like as leader of the opposition, or the ability to make deductions and extrapolations based on his personality.
And not everybody thinks as I do, that what with everything and all, Gonzi remains streets ahead of Muscat in terms of ability, competence and trustworthiness, and that’s all that concerns me. What many others will see, even if they don’t have faith in Muscat, is that Gonzi voted against the will of the people, that holding the referendum was a cynical ploy that failed to work out for him, and that his inability to distinguish between personal opposition to divorce and understanding the need for divorce legislation is, quite simply, inexplicable in somebody of his intelligence, which means that he has probably put blind faith before democracy.
What a shame. Instead of taking this miraculously presented solution to the divorce problem, this deus ex machina, and running with it all the way to victory at the polls, the Nationalist Party has – to use a timeworn cliche – snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
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I can already imagine Muscat at his meetings in 2013: “Gonzi ma jirrispettax ir-rieda tal-poplu!!!”
And whatever people think of Muscat, there will be no other way or train of reasoning but to say that he’s right on this one.
Quite right.
The worst, saddest and stupidest thing is that the Prime Minister gave Joseph Muscat this particular rope to hang him with.
It was so simple: Swallow the medicine of a Yes vote and scrap the paternalistic arrangements of the cohabitation bill. But it was not to be.
The ‘Italianates’ and other assorted Christian democrats are already comparing Gonzi to Sir Thomas More, a “martyr” who burnt people at the stake for the evil of owning a Bible in a language they could understand. That is who we get in 2011. A political party hijacked by zealots and martyrs.
The orange minger from Burmarrad only has to wave the flag of civil unions – or indeed anything liberal – a month before the election and that’s all it will take for the PN election campaign to implode.
A swing of three thousand liberal votes, and Castille is theirs for the taking; five years of the Muscats, Inspector Gadget and the Dinosaurs.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110713/local/gonzi.375350
Here is a quote from the Prime Minister from the above article.
It refers to MP’s rights on how to vote on the bill, after the population spoke through the referendum that came about because he was too chicken to tackle it through Pariament, as part of his, and all the MP’s, job that they are paid to do.
“The voice of the majority should not gag the vote of the minority.”
Bloody cheek. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
That is EXACTLY what the Nationalist Party had been doing for years and years on end – effectively gagging the right of the minority who wanted divorce.
Hypocritical and two-faced, and all in accordance to convenience.
And you wonder why he and the Nationalist Part has committed political suicide ?
I consider myself to be a rather analytical and rational person, but I am sorry to say that I am voting Labour next time round. First vote only, but Labour nonetheless.
I am sick and tired of the Nationalist Party with their now openly declared official policy of religion comes before everything.
The PM just can’t shut up can he ? Nooooooo. He has to keep on drumming into the population that he is reasoning like a priest.
I will not tolerate such a party or Prime Minister in power any longer, and yes, the untried Joseph Muscat is the only alternative.
Joseph Muscat is simply the lesser of two evils.
How depressing is that.
ALAN, this is not the first time that you’re voting Labour. I’am afraid you will have to tolerate such faces for quite a long time. Mela hsiebtna bcicen?
Actually yes, it will be my first time. And it will.
I warned of political suicide from day one of the anti-divorce stand of both Gonzi and the PN.
At the next election people will vote for WHO THEY DON’T WANT irrespective of who they will vote for.
The faces in government have become immensely unpopular.
I for one have seen enough of them.
Political suicide indeed!
There will be a swing at the next election because people vote for WHO THEY DON’T WANT.
They will vote for anyone else.
The faces in government have become immensely unpopular.
I for one have seen enough of them.
I don’t agree Gonzi commited political suicide. He was consistent throughout. I believed him when he assured us after the referendum that divorce will become law. I don’t care how he does it as long as it’s done.
I also don’t agree with Muscat being untried. In my eyes Muscat has been tried and failed. For heaven’s sake a few years ago this guy’s vision for Malta was the Partnership.
[Daphne – Yes, Drinu, you and I see it (correctly) exactly that way. But others will just see an untried prime minister, and not a tried, tested and failed politician and remarkably dull-witted human being.]
I don’t agree with you, Drinu and Daphne.
Saying (and seeing it correctly) that “I don’t care how he does it as long as it’s done” , is wrong.
The only right way for the Prime Minster to have acted was to vote ‘Yes’.
Absolutely nothing else cuts it.
[Daphne – Let me just make myself clear. I agree with Drinu on the fact that Muscat IS tried and tested, not on the bits you mention.]
I do see it the way you do. But when I see PN right now, I see a confessionalist party and writhe in disgust.
The only honourable way out for Lawrence Gonzi is to bow his head in shame and make a very quiet exit.
Looking at the list of names of PN MPs who have voted yes in parliament today, it becomes instantly obvious that there’s a new breed of politicians coming up – the 40something type.
There’s a particular name which strikes me as the most appropriate one for party leader, and we could finally get a classier version of what the PN has come to be. Such a move would allow me to pledge my vote to the PN in the next general elections.
Otherwise, agree with Daphne, the prime minister has committed political suicide and has given himself a longer rope to hang himself with.
With regards to Joseph Muscat, I think the people are looking at him in a different way. I’m sure most now think that he wouldn’t be the worst thing that has ever happened to Malta. Having said that, I’d rather not vote than vote for Joseph Muscat.
I disagree, Daphne. Next election will not be decided on this issue. We are still two years away from an election and here is much that will happen until then. by the next election divorce will have been consigned to history and though the PL will labour the point (excuse the pun) they will not have a leg to stand on because they have not been consistent in how their deputies voted – ML Coleiro (cannot figure out her no/yes voting intention) & A Vassallo.
For the majority Gonzi voting with his conscience (much as I disagree with it) will be seen as a positive – think of all the anti-divorce voters.
The next election will be lost because people have had enough of the Nats. No amount of crowing will change their mind unless we have a major scandal…..that would be nice! The country does not deserve Jowsef. It will be more disastrous for our economy than the planned Air Malta strike on Saturday!
Delacroixet —
I will stand corrected on this, but wasn’t Sir Thomas More beheaded because he wouldn’t recognise Henry VIII’s right to divorce Catherine of Aragon? He refused to take the oath required by the First Succession Act which undermined Henry and Katherine’s marriage. He also refused to recognise Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England.
Henry kicked the Pope in to touch, divorced Catherine and married Ann Boleyn. Sir Thomas More is the Patron Saint of (amongst others) court clerks, lawyers, politicians and statesmen!
He is also the patron saint of journalists, I think. He is quoted to have said on the scaffold ”I die the King’s loyal servant, but God’s first”.
Indeed. But before that he was the same Most Catholic Henry VII’s loyal inquisitor and hound dog: As chancellor to the then Defender of the Faith, he burnt six men at the stake because they owned a Bible in English.
To paraphrase Stephen Fry’s excellent discourse on the matter: You can say it is ancient history. Fine. Except it was around 1935 when Sir Thomas More was made a saint by a pro-Fascist papacy to spite ‘old England.’ And it was in the year 2000 that this lovely individual was made the patron saint of statesmen and politicians.
And what does Catholic Malta do? The secular state builds a school, a college nonetheless, and names it after this saint, who burned men at the stake for reading books.
Think what you want of him, but he was not the fluffy martyr of Catholic history, nor the do-gooder presented on television series. But all this is not the point. The point is Gonzi should emulate someone else.
or you could see it as a fight to expel the temporal powers of Rome from Northern Europe. I doubt the King could have gone so far without a popular movement.
It’s disingenuous to base history on personal peccadilloes, considering that Spain and France were using the religious pretext to gain power in the north.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_wars_of_religion
It’s like saying that the French Revolution started because of the Queen’s expensive lifestyle. It’s funny how apologists get lost in a warren of details. Tying a gordian knot to baffle and obfuscate the truth: statecraft and religion need to be separate. Religion is a personal jihad to strive for personal perfection, not a club to pummel others with.
The experiment of a confessional state started with the Catholic Church taking over the Roman Empire and failed miserably. It’s been a long and bloody struggle but state powers are being wrestled away from it.
I won’t vote for any of them.
Only when Simon is leader will I vote.
Busuttil?
Yes, you’re right. He is the only better alternative to Dr Gonzi now.
It’s him or Mario de Marco.
Lawrence Gonzi was never particularly bright. He’s a decent chap all right, but it takes more than decency to make a prime minister. It takes a superior intellect.
I’ll go for De Marco anytime. Although some might not agree, his name is etched in PN supporters’ minds better than Simon Busuttil.
The other one who luckily threw it all away is Beppe Fenech Adami.
Joseph has as uperior intellect which varies from blonde to brunette and back to blonde.
Ninu, what you say about Joseph’s intellect is roughly in line with his physical appearance of recent weeks, when, overnight, his complexion changed from fair to tanned, and then back to fair within days.
Look, gentlemen, the PN is spoilt for choice.
Now let’s look at the other party: PL . If Joseph was their best choice who can replace him? Anglu or Dr Mangion ?
Apparently Simon is now ruled out from potential party leadership due to some recent personal events.
No he isn’t. I know it for a fact. But he’s been away from Malta for some time now, and in our band club political landscape that scores against him. Besides, if we remove Simon Busuttil from the European Parliament, who will remain? We’ve one good MEP and it’s him.
In a nutshell Muscat’s logical ability when yesterday he was addressing parliament.
The government will increase retirement age without knowing the serious repercussions. For example grandparents who currently babysit their grand-children will not be able to do so because they will need to continue working!
Question! If they are currently babysitting why will they need to continue working if retirement age is increased?
God help us come 2013
Daphne,
ma nafx ghaliex dal plejtu kollu, ma ghaddiex ir reading b`Gonzi u minghajru?
Allura inti issa ser tivvota ghal partit laburista fl ellezzjoni li gejja?.
sa fejn naf jien fil bidu ta din l istorja ta referendun int kont ghedt illi jekk gonzi jirbah il referendum jitlef l ellezjoni generali.
Allura issa li tilef ir referendum u ser tghaddi il ligi ta divorzju ser jitlef l ellezjoni wkoll kif qed tghid int.
Iva , jien nammira lilu u kull min ma ivvotax favur u ivvota skond il kuxjenza.
Mela issa fl ellezjoni li gejja ivvota kontra Gonzi u ivvota lil Joseph Muscat
I admire an MP who stands up for what he believes is right and votes according to the dictates of his concience. However a prime minister does not have this luxury.
If the vast majority of those who bothered to cast their vote voted “yes” for divorce, the Prime minister was duty bound to bow his head to their will.
It is to be expected that the political opportunist Joe Muscat will take advantage of the situation come next election and keep harping on how “Gonzi does not respect the will of the majority”.
It is now up to the goverment to ensure that in a couple of years time people will find it wiser and more reassuring to vote PN and dismiss Muscat for the charlatan that he is .And this, the goverment can do without any further diversionary tactics from the usual publicity-hungry disgruntled primadonnas.
“And not everybody thinks as I do, that what with everything and all, Gonzi remains streets ahead of Muscat in terms of ability, competence and trustworthiness, and that’s all that concerns me.”
Daph, your statement above must surely come as a result of your preconceived political bias, because no way can a rational being regard Gonzi’s administration as competent, never mind trustworthy.
Don’t take me wrong here, this is not to say that a Muscat victory should be considered as the second coming of Jesus, but when it comes to measuring what positive has come out of the Gonzi administration so far, frankly, and in spite of how many PR stunts Natalino, Peppi and Bondi throw at us time and again, I can hardly come up with an answer other than “zilch!”. And what better political yardstick could there be than one’s own track record?
[Daphne – Excuse me, but Muscat has a long track record too and it’s beyond abysmal, including his gross miscalculation on EU membership, partnership and the referendum result. How stupid did he have to be for that. Well, unless they’ve invented IQ-improvers that I don’t know about…]
Gonzi’s administration is fairly competent down in the engine room, and you know I don’t easily lavish praise. It’s the guys on the bridge who mess it all up.
On the other hand, Muscat’s is a ship of fools. Right down to the rats in the hold.
Good one, Baxxter. When you don’t drink you become quite coherent.
But I haven’t touched a drop since December 2009.
I can think of one very clear positive under Gonzi. Now I can’t stand the stance he has taken and I am repulsed by his finance minister as a man, but we all have to admit they did a pretty good job in the recession. I know we felt it too, but you have to admit we avoided the brunt of it.
Almost all of the old (which can easily translate to experienced) PN politicians voted against the bill. How surprising is that?
I disagree with you, Daphne.
The result of the referendum has and will be respected by Parliament.
Assuming that the final vote will be taken before the end of July, come October most people would have put the divorce issue behind them and got on with their lives.
A week is a long time in politics. Twenty months to the elections is a very, very, very long time. There will be countless issues resulting in innumerable political skirmishes. In 2013, the referendum and the Parliamentary vote will be a distant memory.
Daphne, all new Prime Ministers are untried and untested. You have to have something to judge them on.
If you look at the economy, you know it’s in a big mess. The tested prime minister and his friends made a huge mess of Malta and of our economy.
If I were you, I would encourage Joseph and not try to demean him – one day, you and many others may be shocked and surprised how a new prime minister was able to turn things to the better after some 22 years of downhill trend.
[Daphne – I’m awfully sorry, but I hadn’t known the trend in Malta has been downhill for the last 22 years. I thought differently. Obviously, you and the man you call Joseph know better.]
Oh, you call it uphill with the huge deficits and debts you have, right? Are you standing at the top of bottom of the hill, Daphne?
[Daphne – I have huge deficits and debts? Sorry, I don’t get you. You’re not making any sense at all.]
Not you – I should have said WE and not YOU – I meant, Malta.
In other words, A Grech, you honestly, hand on heart, truly and whatever, believe Malta was even slightly better under KMB and Mintoff than it is today?
David, let’s put it this way – Malta started to move ahead under Mintoff in the 50’s. Before that, we were a third world country. If anyone denies that, that person is suffering from dementia.
[Daphne – And anyone who doesn’t know that post-war Europe was the same everywhere is suffering from ignorance.]
With all his faults, Mintoff did tons of good to Malta and his work was inherited and partially continued by GBO who was a very good person but a so and so pm.
KMB was a disaster.
Obviously, it had to improve since Mintoff’s time. Sant had plans but unfortunately he was stopped from putting them into action.
[Daphne – Those plans were what exactly? Unfortunately? Even he thinks he was lucky to be relieved of the burden of government so prematurely. The man had NO plans beyond CET.]
NP never seriously cared for the average citizen – in fact, right now we are experiencing very high utilities that make life miserable for thousands of Maltese.
Gonzi and Co. need to pack it up – Malta needs new blood and it needs it badly before some people start to starve.
CET wasn’t ‘a plan’. It was something cooked up on the fly when he realised that VAT had to be replaced with something. His pre-electoral promise was to remove VAT. CET was never mentioned, hence the mess.
A. Grech, in my mind, the issue that most characterised Mintoff’s government was a failed economic system that brought deprivation to the country in the form of water cuts, bulk-buying and widespread shortages, street black-outs and rampant unemployment.
Mintoff’s economic system was clearly unsustainable. It was only the introduction of a more market based economy that brought a degree of prosperity to Malta with full employment, a growing business environment and optimism.
Tell us how, exactly. Tell us how the economy is doing badly and then explain to us how the Gonzi administration is to blame for it.
And come up with hard figures, not the usual fits of parotitis that seem to assail all party militants.
A Grech, where were you during the last 22 years?
You must be looking from the top of a mountain to see Malta on a downhill trend.
Ninu, do not expect a government to do nothing. Certainly some improvement have to occur but in the meantime the standard of living has gone down for many Maltese.
[Daphne – Gone DOWN? Exactly when did you begin measuring?]
Malta could have done much better if we had a caring government. Situation is dire right now for many Maltese and it had been going downwards since Dalli was the finance minister who was generous enough to load us with more and more taxes in every budget he came up with. Finance ministers after him didn’t change and continued in the same route.
Who hatched this guy?
A maximum tax rate of 35% isn’t too high. Several countries enforce much higher rates – 42% in Germany, for example, and 50% in the UK.
Mate, you make no sense at all! Try harder.
Truth is democracy is also about cycles. Clearly the PN’s clock ticked a long time ago but unfortunately the Alfred Sant alternative (may I add – rightly so) was never going to be taken up by the Maltese voter after the absolute blunder he made out of it in 96-98 and the political suicides (one after the other) he committed in following years.
Let’s face it, today, the perception is different. It is clear that the vast majority of the electorate is willing to give Joseph Muscat a shot. Time will tell if this will be the right choice.
What’s sure is that the PM and his cabinet are making it a hell of an easy ride to power for the PL.
Wake up!
I do not agree with you, Daphne. He held the same position right from the start. After all even Joseph harped that even if he was going to be the only one to vote yes he remained of the same opinion.
So I ask why is it for Joseph OK, but for the PM not acceptable to hold to his convictions? Now if we judge this present government only from this outcome or compare it with the old type of dictatorial leaderships than I feel we still have to learn a lot.
[Daphne – I don’t think you understand. Nobody is asking the prime minister to change his personal opinion about divorce. He was asked here about something quite different: whether he respects the will of the majority. And he obviously does not. The true test is this: if everybody on his side of the house wanted to vote No, would he have been the one prepared to vote Yes to ensure that the will of the people prevails? And if then, why not now?]
The problem then is that our prime minister does not understand how parliamentary democracy works. Bad enough for you and me, but breathtakingly shocking for a prime minister.
I fail to understand this country’s low democratic temperament…
Kieku waqa kiser siequ
The true test is this: if everybody on his side of the house wanted to vote NO, would he have been the one prepared to vote Yes to ensure that the will of the people prevails? And if then, why not now?:
……. Kieku waqa kiser siequ
P.S. …What do you think LP would have said if he voted Yes? let me think … U Turn …. ‘bla sinsla’ ….. bezziegh …. etc.
[Daphne – Rubbish. He could have made exactly the same arguments Mario Demarco, David Agius and Censu Galea did, and be all the more respected for it, by both sides.]
What the Labour Party would have said is irrelevant because the Prime Minister is not accountable to the Labour Party, nor, it seems, is he much affected by their slings and arrows.
I have to keep on repeating. There is still a chance of winning the next election if and only if, we have a change at the top. Gonzi and his inner circle must go and they must go now.
`bit hard when you’ve marketed the party as GonziPN. Gonzi is the party and the party is Gonzi. If he goes now, the Nationalist Party will have to invent not just another slogan, but another vocab, another electoral programme, another image, another everything.
Eddie Fenech Adami had his house ransacked. The Nationalists at Tal-Barrani endured bullets and batons. What for? To have 1930s-like personality cults in 2011? Surely when they said Xoghol, Gustizzja, Libertà they had something better in mind.
I do not agree with the way the PM voted but I don’t see this issue as having much impact come the general elections because it will fail to raise emotions. Unlike the 500 euro weekly increase.
The thing is, Gonzi has now been ‘tried, tested and found very seriously wanting’ too, hasn’t he.
For my money, that drags him down to the level of the competition.
I mean, this is very serious, right? Serious enough for the thinking voter to consider any alternative.
Ignoring the comparisons between the two men and simply concentrating on the implications of a prime minister who is willing to show a huge lack of political sense, courage and trustworthiness in order to favour a personal position based on religious belief… it makes me shudder and takes us to a very unpleasant place where democracy is the first to suffer when our elected representatives are up against it.
I can’t, and won’t, legitimize that by voting for it.
I find that Gonzi was true to himself and true to his voters. Same applies to Beppe and Austin.
Put it another way, can you imagine these MPs voting NO while Gonzi gave a free vote to his MPs .
The clown would have said that our PM is being lead by the nose and had to vote against his principles and make ‘another’ U turn. He would have been right (not on the ‘again’).
From what I observe I can see a lot of PL supporters feeling cold at Dr Muscat’s utterances. I for one was flabbergasted at the way Carmelo Abela uttered “damn my principles stick to my party” when he is in his heart of hearts all out against divorce.
People know a lot about the candidates they vote for and there are a lot of people who are very disappointed with their candidates behaviour.
When the PN got Dr Gonzi as its leader they knew precisely what they wanted.On the other hand the PL will lose a lot of votes because they never expected the unelected Zero No 2 to throw his weight around on his MPs.
Were the PL democratic when they voted against VAT which was a PN main electoral promise?
If on divorce parliament was expected to vote a resounding yes, why in the first place is it being asked to vote (or rubber stamp) on a bill which technically is not being respected on the ‘guarantees’.
Adrian Vassallo’s no pussy-footing direct question to Anglu Farrugia, on the free vote, was significant and will have a lot of consequences in the future.
My observation is that Joseph is not a good leader simply because he ‘likes to work away from the limelight’ in other words backstabbing, wheeling and dealing and threatening.
Joseph did not have the balls to push his private member’s bill through. It had to be a member from his opposing party to do the ‘dirty’ and risky job. He just rode JPO’s bandwagon to get what he was ‘fighting’ for! In no time we will be told that he was the brains behind the whole thing.
If there were no threats how would one explain the damascene conversions of so many PL exponents?
Would anyone believe that the PL had a free vote, I would say that there was a lot of ’gentle’ persuasion by the liberal, progressive and moderate leader.
And if we get Joseph instead of Gonzi it will serve us right because we would be cutting off our nose to spite our face.
The divorce bill divided both parties.
Following today’s vote I am lost for words. I expected the PM to stand up, declare his personal view against divorce, and then declare he would vote YES because he is the PM of a country which has unequivocally spoken in favour.
This is crazy! Does the PM actually realise he is personally throwing a political party, its honour and its little chances of winning the next elections down the drain? I am truly gobsmacked!
Bye bye next elections. Thanks Dr. Gonzi.
And while Rome burns, JOHN DALLI is counting the days for his comeback.
And Gonzi prepares the way.
In order not to have Muscat in power (and having Malta in the doldrums), the only way forward now is for the PN to split into two parties: the Conservatives and the Liberals. I am sure that both parties would then get more than 50% between them.
I’m afraid there is a risk of the party becoming an uneasy coalition of two factions: conservative Christians who worship a 2000 year old tome’s god and the libertarians who worship the Invisible Hand and Ayn Rand. I’d hate to see the PN turn into a shell of its former self. Witness what happened to the Republican Party in the US. No sane intellectually honest up-and-coming politician would want to throw their lot with that party now.
To those who laugh at the intellectual deficit in PL: the situation could easily reverse if liberal middle Malta switches sides. After all the underbelly of both parties is as chav as can be. It takes fear and greed to make a sudden change. The fear factor is growing, both of sleaze and ideological extremism.
what? panzavechiani and mizziani all over again?
@ A.Attard: I’m ashamed to say I’m ignorant of Maltese political history. I assume that the larger, more educated and cosmopolitan middle-class today will keep the country moving in the right direction. Talking with friends my age and younger, even practising Catholics, I get the impression that they’re past party politics and religious impositions. Imagine a practising Catholic who accepts that gay marriage should be legal for example.
You need Baxxter’s “Maltese political history for dummies” here. Malta’s middle-class is not growing (as a percentage of the total population).
It is becoming less cosmopolitan as creature comforts become increasingly available back here in Malta, and while it is accumulating diplomas, in no way does that imply more educated. So you have a smaller, less educated and more provincial middle-class.
You’re right when you say that people are past politics and religious impositions. But they’re definitely not past ignorance, bigotry and village thinking.
I’ve written elsewhere that the hight point was reached in 2004, with EU membership. Since then the whole country has settled into a comfortable “U issa ghandna kollox, x’jonqosna nzidu” inertia. We peeped out briefly from the underworld of our troglodytic dark ages, signed some obscure treaty in Athens, had a few beers and gekk kowks, and then slid back into our MCAST/Smartcity/UOM/skemi-bedecked nest.
Cyrus Engerer may think he left the worst behind by leaving PN. Alas, he needs to leave Malta altogether.
I had great faith in Dr Gonzi when he was elected as leader of the Nationalist Party, however that faith was all lost in the last few weeks.
I have commented about this numerous times both here as well as on other blogs. MPs are elected to represent the people. They can normally get away with doing something contrary to public opinion because they were elected on a particular programme and can claim to be abiding by it.
This time, however is something totally different.
When the divorce issue cropped up, the prime minister himself told the people that since divorce was not on the party’s electoral programme, his party did not have the mandate to legislate for divorce.
He himself therefore opted to go directly to the people for their mandate.
The people spoke very clearly and told the prime minister loud and clear that they wanted him and his government to legislate for divorce. It is here that the prime minister gave himself no choice.
The people told him clearly that they wanted divorce and his only option was to pass the law and champion it himself as the leader of the people he himself asked for guidance. I will never ever trust someone who asks me for instructions, I give them clearly and then he himself does the complete opposite.
This is a very serious matter of principle.
I will never vote for any candidate who either voted ‘NO’ or even abstained, and that includes the prime minister.
This might be a blessing in disguise for the Nationalist Party as the next election will pose a great opportunity for the electorate to rid itself of the ‘old’ and conservative elements and elect new, fresher and more liberal politicians who would be able to modernise the party and lead it and our country in these modern times.
It is a pity that this party had to fall to such a low level.
The Nationalist Party modernised our country in the eighties but failed to modernise itself and will now pay the price.
Frankly speaking, I am fed up with our prime ministers and ministers messing up and than come out saying sorry for not being close and listening to the people. The divorce debate showed us all clearly that they still did not get it.
The people will not forget this as it’s not just a tax raised, where we all grumbled but realised that could have helped save our economy.
This is a matter of principle where the prime minister and the vast majority of the senior cabinet members and party officials just simply ignored the people’s direct instruction. This is not something I can forgive and forget.
I may not agree but Gonzi was consistent in his vote. He made sure the bill would pass through parliament, but voted freely.
The Labour Party were supposed to have a free vote, but tht free vote was Yes or abstain. Adrian Vassallo defied Muscat and he is now out of the political picture – but not Gonzi.
Elections are won and lost oin the basis of choice.
Would you vote for Joseph Muscat rather than Gonzi?
If it’s a yes, then I have no argument.
But deep down, you know you cannot allow this country to be run by a fledgling without principles.
I don’t have any formula for ousting a dictator or building democracy. All I can suggest is to forget about yourself and just think of your people. It’s always the people who make things happen – Corazon Aquino
Cyrus, it takes some courage to quote the President of the Philippines on the matter of divorce.
Cyrus, I think you are part of the PN’s bright future, but if I may, avoid making such references without giving the context of such statements were made! Particularly this one by Aquino who was staunchly against divorce.
The PL usually does that.
So that is why you quoted out of context. Should have seen that coming!
Nationalist MPs who voted YES to divorce in Parliament. Remember them in your votes come next election: David Agius, Robert Arrigo, Joseph Cassar, Franco Debono, Mario de Marco, Joseph Falzon, Censu Galea, Michael Gonzi, Karl Gouder, Jesmond Mugliett, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, Chris Said.
[Daphne – Jeffrey Pulicino Orlando? Forget it.]
Et tu George Pullicino?
Same applies to Jesmond Mugliett
Yep, we’re in a pickle alright.
Why not?