Members of Parliament are not elected to the House of Representatives to serve their conscience. They are there to serve the people who elected them. Now that the majority of us have voted in favour of divorce legislation, there is no other alternative for them but to endorse the people’s decision – and vote “yes”.

Those who cannot bring themselves to do so would be going against the people’s will, and should resign. If they don’t, they should think again before contesting the next election. I, for one, will not be giving any preference vote, not even a five or a six, to anyone who ignores the people’s wishes.

Marie Louise Coleiro Preca has already decided to call it a day. The Labour spokesman for health has chosen to abstain because a “yes” vote goes against her principles, but she then said she would not be contesting the next election. She has realised that her decision to abstain comes at a cost, and that the electorate will not forgive her for choosing her conscience over the people’s decision. She’s opting out, knowing that if she doesn’t do so herself, it will be the voters who will eliminate her.

Austin Gatt has said that he will vote no. It was impossible to expect someone as hardheaded as he is to change his mind. But for him it must have been an easy decision to make as he had already announced that he would not be contesting the next election. So he had nothing to lose. Likewise Adrian Vassallo, who will also be going against the people’s wishes. It looks likely that his political career is over too.

This is what will happen to those MPs who will not accept what the people want. Those who intend to abstain or vote “no” should take Dr Coleiro Preca’s example and either resign now or choose not to contest.

An abstention is equal to a “no” vote, as it would go against what the people voted for last week. An abstention is equal to an abdication of an MP’s duty. We want MPs who take on their responsibilities, not sit on the fence.

Trying to camouflage a vote by planning to have them all shout at the same time – in a previously-agreed stunt to have the Speaker declare that the vote has passed without knowing who is in favour or against – would be a ridiculous way for the law to be enacted.

The Opposition should not accept this suggestion coming from PN quarters, as they would be acting as their accomplices.

MPs should have the guts to vote individually in a roll call – so that each and every one of us would then know who voted yes and who voted no. Those who vote no or who abstain should then do the honourable thing and resign.

It’s pointless for MPs to go round in circles and try to explain why they will be voting “no” when the law is brought up for discussion in the House, or why they are not going to turn up for the vote. It’s useless speaking about their principles and representation of minorities because voting against the law or abstaining would be tantamount to dishonouring the people’s wishes. Saying that they will take into account what the voters in their district said is futile, as this was a national referendum, not a district affair.

Those who do not accept the decision taken by the people are anti-democratic, and should not have a place in the highest institution of the land. Those who do not vote in favour of the law are not fit to be called the people’s representatives.

They had the ball in their court. They had the chance to legislate on divorce, but they chose to shirk their responsibility and pass the buck to the people. Now that the people have made up their mind, voting overwhelmingly in favour of divorce, all of them, and I mean all of them, have no other way forward but to say “yes”.

Of course, although all MPs will be in the people’s focus when the time comes for the vote to be taken in Parliament, those on the Nationalist side will have a much brighter spotlight on them. This is mostly so because their party took an official stand against divorce, and some of them took quite an active part in the campaign against divorce.

Now we are all waiting to see what they will be doing in Parliament.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, for one, is still to say what line he will be taking, and most Nationalist MPs are waiting for his answer. Many of them, in all probability, will follow suit.

Dr Gonzi has to carry most of the blame for the situation his party finds itself in – he was the one who insisted that the PN takes a stand against divorce, and he was the one who pushed for a referendum, probably thinking that the people would have saved the day for him by voting “no”.

This is just one instant that shows how detached the Nationalist Party is from reality. It thought it had the majority of people on its side, or believed that a strong campaign against divorce would have swayed the majority of voters in the direction wanted by the PN (and the Church). But it turned out to be completely wrong, as many Nationalists went against the party’s guidelines.

What is perhaps worse is that the PN remains defiant in the wake of the referendum outcome, and its exponents keep on expressing themselves as if nothing has happened. Some of them strongly hinted that the majority of the people were wrong in voting “yes”, and they are the ones on the correct side. Their arrogance knows no bounds.

Rather than accepting the people’s say, it is clear that most Nationalist MPs intend to vote against or abstain, claiming a crisis of conscience. Some of these MPs are members of the Cabinet, but none of them had such a conflict when it came to accepting a hefty pay rise, and then allowing two years to pass before they told us about it.

It is also rather funny to think that many of them are waiting for the party leader to make his personal choice known and then do the same thing. It’s as if they do not have their own mind.

All these MPs want to do is toe the leader’s line, perhaps fearful that if they go against Dr Gonzi it would somehow make them look ugly in the eyes of the party delegates and might jeopardise their personal ambitions.

Their individual goals are more important than what the people think and want.

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