I have a strong feeling that yet another con and/or hoax is about to be perpetrated on the people. It is deja vu.

I remember quite well the hype orchestrated by the polity and the Church, way back in the fifties on the occasion of the Integration referendum, some years later on the Independence Constitution referendum and much more recently on the EU referendum.

The hype was always so high that it hypnotised and intoxicated the people to a state of irreversible polarisation. Those that voted yes were never fully aware what they had really voted for, while those that voted nay were not fully aware of what they had voted against.

Back in the sixties, after the people had voted the ‘antichrist’ away from the government, and later voted for ‘independence without bloodshed’, the hype had been such that we, the people, so hypocritically and conveniently labelled as sovereign by a prevaricarious polity, never, till this day, knew that we voted for a religious state, a state with its own religion.

Not only so, but this seemingly legally binding state through Article 2 of the Constitution, is being continually hidden, kept from us by a very glib polity, seemingly in collusion with the Church.

Some months back, Minister Tonio Borg went on record as saying that he was prepared to entrench in the Constitution the protection of the unborn child according to Catholic teaching and belief. I wrote several letters to different dailies and weeklies, in English and Maltese, questioning the need for such action as this was already entrenched in the Constitution through Article 2. Surprise, surprise, none of these letters was published. I also know other correspondents who share my view regarding a legally binding decision about the implications and obligations on the lawmaker of Malta of Article 2. These people had their letters suppressed. Was this done in collusion with the polity too?

The people, if they are really sovereign and if they are to be treated as such, have got to be told whether they live in a state that is controlled by a religion or whether they live in a secular state whose lawmakers are free to legislate for minorities in a multi-cultural society. Peaceful co-existence in a multicultural society does not start and end with the acceptance of African immigrants. Polity and Church please note.

The hype is already on. Polity and Church are carefully evading this issue. Soon enough, road-show TV programmes will be orchestrated where road-show characters, like retired judges, lawyers, family and child psychologists, will be voicing their expert opinion. It will be nothing more than that: an opinion, however expert, is an opinion just like mine.

But most of the viewers will be conned into believing that the opinion of some retired judge or of a popular priest or road show expert is something final when it is not; just like MY OWN VIEW.

That is why I have the guts to ask for a final decision and ruling in regard of Article 2 from a competent quarter. Before we, the people have that kind of decision, it is futile to discuss the introduction of divorce legislation. Just for the record and to confirm what I have just written, is how those Church authorities that really count swiftly shot down a recent statement by a popular priest, stating that cohabitating couples can receive Holy Communion.

That is just what I am asking for: a final decision from quarters that really count regarding the status of the Maltese nation, either religious or secular. The reason why the polity are evading this is because they know that if the status of Malta is declared as a religious one, then it would be up to them, a two-thirds majority of them, to decide and legislate whether this status is to remain or not, with all its implications for them and for us the sovereign people.

Do not waste lives anymore, please. Life is so short and passes so quickly. Please do show by your actions that you care for the people. Fulfil your duties with no more prevarication and empty time-wasting rhetoric.

Frank Galea

ZEBBUG