Joseph A. Xerri (Claiming merit TMID, 7 November) stated that all Constitutions (except the Republic Constitution) were granted by the British Government including the Independence Constitution. He asked me a figurative, if not a stupid question. He wants to know if there is a local political party that has the right to claim any merit for the Independence Constitution.

What a silly question. Surely Mr Xerri knows that it was the Nationalist Party in government, alone, and with four political parties opposing the proposed Independence constitution, that fought the British government for our freedom. Plus, the Nationalist government being a truly democratic government, put the Independence Constitution to the vote of the electorate in a free and fair referendum.

I can assure Mr Xerri that no ‘trusted friend’ was allowed to influence the voter while he or she was at the polling booth casting their vote.

Dear Mr Xerri, Malta was deprived of any form of elected government from 1933 to 1947 and therefore no political party can claim that they were responsible to attaining any constitution during that period, or, for that matter, at any other time, before or thereafter. Of course this excludes the Independence Constitution, which was attained solely by the Borg Olivier government.

With regard to the Republic Constitution, this was nothing more than an amendment to our Independence Constitution. By the way, the only reason why the Borg Olivier government did not go for a Republic from day one was due to the fact that his government understood that there was a large percentage of the electorate that could not see us doing away with the British Monarchy. One must not forget that those individuals, only a few years before, had voted for complete integration with Britain.

I challenge Mr Xerri, or anyone for that matter, to prove that the Nationalist Party has ever advocated against women having the right to vote. One must keep in mind that one of the Nationalist Party’s founding principles is “Let the people’s will be respected”. The Nationalist Party has always been in favour of endorsing major changes via a referendum or a general election. Labour does not cherish such qualities…1981 is proof and the 2003 Referendum result confirms it.

John Saliba

Cape Town

South Africa