Your correspondent Martin Scicluna in his last article entitled “Lions led by donkeys” goes on flogging a dead horse to the point of putrefaction (TMIS, 19 June).

He is intent on castigating the government and the elders of the Nationalist Party on their handling of the divorce issue in a most unbecoming manner as if he wants his cake and eat it, besides his pound of flesh.

· He charges ‘the party in power’ with abdication of parliamentary responsibility by going for a referendum when the decision was taken in company with the Opposition;

· He claims that Gonzi and his government were ‘ignoring its duty to the people’ when in fact it was acknowledging the right of the people to decide on this important and controversial issue which will remain of major importance for generations to come;

· He accuses the Nationalist government of moral cowardice and ulterior motive when Gonzi accepted the result of the Referendum right away and without question stating that the wishes of the electorate would be respected.

At the same time he exults in the fact that “the electorate has spoken loud and clear” and that “by a massively clear majority” has opted for divorce.

He drags in an ex-president comparing him to Pilate washing his hands of the whole business when Fenech Adami was sticking out his neck in defence of what he thought was in the nation’s interest.

In fact Scicluna betrays a suspiciously confusional state of mind, a doubt perhaps strengthened by his reference to lions and donkeys. I assume that as a military man he needs no reminding that the donkeys were the officer class produced by the British military academies to which he belongs.

The government and the Nationalist Party have had little to do with them.

J.A. Muscat

TA’XBIEX