Many well-known and highly placed people during this last week have expressed surprise that the Yes vote carried the Divorce Referendum.  While I was disappointed with the result as much as the PM was, I must confess that it came as no surprise to me.  I was always skeptical of a No win. Why?

The first reason is that the PL put its resources, unofficially of course, into campaigning for a yes vote and I know how hard they worked in my district.  The participation of the PL leader and his wife is well known.  Even in his May Day speech, the Labour leader, after telling the crowd to vote according to their conscience went on to encourage them to tick the Yes box. All this helped to swing in the Yes direction PL followers who immediately took this to be the opening shot of the electoral campaign. 

There is a postscript to this. If the No group had the backing of the official church, there were many who received emails and text messages from clerical sources urging them to vote yes.  Matters have a way of balancing out.   It is just that the media, strangely, failed to dig this up.

The second reason is a very simple one.  I am a doctor.  I have said this before and I repeat it now.  What I have been witnessing in my surgery these last twenty years is proof enough of the great and growing malaise in our society.  What I see, what I hear and what I am at times requested to do, is beyond description.  Men and women come in believing that the doctor can help them hide the ill effects of their sexual adventures and, believe me, adventures they have especially with the world’s citizens now present in Malta in considerable numbers.  I was more than surprised to hear an eminent theologian say that the result was not what he expected.  But then I believe that doctors are today in a better position than any confessor to identify the state-of-play in our society.  This is why in my article of last week I stated that, in desperation, I had asked our President of some years ago to try and intervene and had even talked to Minister John Dalli re the prevailing social support model, which years ago was already in need of repair.

So in a way, I am grateful that the referendum took place, since it seems to me that an uncomfortably high number of relevant people are totally unaware of the realities that matter.  Oh yes, we knew that the number of broken families, and hence cohabitation, was increasing and that attendance at Mass was decreasing, and that the religious preparation of the young leaves much to desired. But it seems that some can still express surprise at the way things went.  When I once discussed matters with a priest of my acquaintance he seemed to be quite upbeat about the fact that the number of true believers was still fairly high and that though people might stop attending Mass, they had not really abandoned their Church.  He may not have realised that the rise in sexually transmitted diseases, the increasing numbers seeking medical advice regarding their sexual proclivities, those who do not bat an eye-lid before entering into extra-marital relationships, those who find cohabitation attractive (up to now), are hardly the type to go and kneel at the foot of the confessional.

An unintended irony

The real loser was in fact always going to be the Church.  One newspaper graced its front page by gloating that a huge amount of “sinners” had voted yes and therefore defied the Church.  For those of my generation, this brought to mind the days when every MLP club hung out a board showing the number of “suldati ta’ l-azzar” who, in their day, had defied another Gonzi, this time an Archbishop of that name.  The Church has been in retreat since those days and it is ironic indeed that when it decided to make its stand, like General Custer, it chose the wrong place and used the wrong tactics.  To read that only now has the Church discovered that in Malta most people are ignorant of the tenets of their religion is unbelievable. 

Has the Church forgotten when people were urged, quite a while ago, to stick labels on their doors asking Moonies to keep away in fear that, unable to match them in a religious discussion, people might be swayed by Moony arguments?  Are the parish messages not getting through to Church H.Q?  Does lay opinion really form part of the mystical body of Christ? To many, the local church has become a mirror image of the international Church, which despite the tremendous paedophile scandal hanging round its neck, which has forced thousands to seek solace elsewhere, could issue nothing stronger than guidlines for dealing with similar cases.  The zero tolerance demanded by followers all over the world is still nowhere to be seen.  For some spiritual leaders, the safeguarding of the institution apparently still comes before the needs of the people of God.  There is more than soul-searching needed.

Small island, hidden roots

I am also grateful for another thing.  The referendum allowed the nation to express itself.  Due to our unfortunate history, as a people we are eminently equipped to hide and dissemble. Odysseus, we read, did not even dare confide in his mirror, lest the figure it reflected might prove to be unworthy of trust. Most Maltese and Gozitans will often tell a listener what they think the listener wants to hear.  I myself made that misjudgement once.  But it seems that with their back to the wall, and in the secrecy of the polling booth, our people found the courage to let their leaders, civil and religious, know exactly what they felt about this particular issue – and indeed surprised many of them.

Civil society go, go.

I need not go into the specific conditions that made this referendum available to the citizens of Malta.  Those reasons as we know were tactical ones.  But the fact that civil society was given the chance to express its opinion may mean that in the future it might be less difficult for burning issues to be settled this way; nay civil society should demand that they be settled this way.  The fact that so many instant groupings were formed and added their weight to the discourse is a positive sign, one that should encourage all citizens in the future to be more active.  Perhaps – and none too early – we are waking up from centuries of kowtowing to authority, civil and religious, and finding the courage to stand up and be counted.  Though I dislike the result, I support this new awakening. 

I would like to believe that this is a definite development in the political history of our islands.  In my last foray into politics I had suggested the use of referenda as an expression of the sovereignty of the people, a sovereignty that had been clearly spelled out in the Constitution of 1964 and unfortunately later curtailed in the horse trading and blackmail that went on during the turbulent Mintoff years.  No, we are not Switzerland in the Mediterranean, but specific issues that are relevant to the life of our citizens should in fact be decided by referenda. Dare I hope that an increasingly daring civil society will reclaim those lost privileges?

The ball now is at the feet of our politicians.  Do I already see some backtracking from positions held and stated previously?  We have spent four million euros that we could ill afford and, as the PM promised, the voice of the people must be respected.  That’s good news for it has not always been the case recently.  He also stated that MPs who do not agree could abstain.  Full marks up to there.  Unfortunately, he also went on to add that those that do not agree could also vote against the Bill.

I sincerely believe that voting against the Bill would be a weakening of the democratic process were it to prevent the Bill from becoming law.  Should that be the case, then those MPs who, for reasons of principle, find they cannot vote for it should have the courage to resign with honour.  The breaking news coming in as I write informs that that is precisely what M’Louise Coleiro Preca has done.  But with all respect I’d rather hold my breath a bit longer.

Footnote

Things are what they are.  Now, as I jokingly remind one of my friends, he and I must ensure that we do not end up as the last two faithful husbands on the island: we would really deserve the term “fidili” then.