On 25 July, Malta’s parliament will take a final vote on the divorce Bill. It will pass, and once it does, the country will breathe a collective sigh of relief.
Parliament will rise for summer recess, the days will get hotter, and before long we will be in the August holiday mode. Some will laze on beaches and at lidos, others will take a well-deserved break abroad and others will get down to doing DIY and organising barbecues.
Traffic on the roads slows as more people decide against braving the blazing heat. Before we know it, it will be, what we call, the ‘Silly Season’.
But leading up to that vote on the 25th, there have been many meetings by the Committee for the Consideration of Bills. This newspaper has spoken to some of the MPs on the committee, and one cannot ignore the sheer amount of work that has been put in, both in terms of content and man-hours. It is abundantly clear that there have been great attempts made to secure the best possible law for the citizens of Malta, and that is not an easy thing to do, given the schism between MPs on the divorce issue.
Schism or not, the committee members have gone through the proposed law, clause after clause, seeking to fine-tune and improve it where possible. Not only, there have been suggestions and amendments made to improve the rights of children, who might not be affected by ‘divorce’, but suffer other curtailments. A few warning sounds were made by lobby groups and the political parties themselves, but it is clear that all differences have been put aside in an effort to draw up as responsible a law as possible.
As a people, we are used to following politics very closely, and people still do listen to parliamentary debates. Yet, perhaps, we do not give enough importance to the committees. The Social Affairs Committee, Foreign Affairs Committee, House Business Committee, Bills Committee and others all meet up regularly to thrash out the details of each and every issue that the House ends up discussing.
The arguments about attendance and the taxpayers’ ‘value for money’, will continue. We do believe that the only way forward is to have full-time MPs in a new parliamentary building. There, they will have offices and can be tasked to go through more material, and to get more involved in the parliamentary process. A living, breathing political building, staffed by ancillaries, and most importantly the MPs themselves.
This must materialise, and soon, if we wish to revive the quality and content of our politics. But until then, while the general public is right to complain about abuse, it should also appreciate the work that goes on behind the scenes.
Most of the MPs who are discussing the Bill have jobs or a profession. But for the past week or so, all have given up time and effort to offer a service to the people.
This, as we have mentioned, takes place in more than one committee. It is where, perhaps, the real ‘work’, takes place.