In the days when everybody thought the world was flat, not round, and when the whole world had not yet been explored, they used to draw limits on maps of the known world. The unexplored areas beyond those limits were often listed in Latin as ‘Hic sunt dracones’ − here in the great unknown dragons lurk!
Last Wednesday’s vote in Parliament, when a Nationalist backbencher chose to vote with the Labour Opposition in a motion presented against the Minister of the Interior, Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, is a classical watershed and eye opener for all those who want to see. One of my daily prayers to God is to grant me the sight and wisdom to see. Domine ut videam. And seen I have, as we all have on this occasion. Domine ut videamus − we can all see now, if we really want to. It is generally taught in the great halls of legal learning, that people who are innocent often have rights that are absolute. Last Wednesday’s vote showed what a progressive Opposition we really have. Sensing that the renegade Nationalist MP had a bone to pick with the Minister, Labour put forward a motion against the Minister, which was in due course supported by a Nationalist MP whose ultimate duty was to support the government!
Here we have before us the paradigm of Labour’s progression showing us all how they intend ruling the country if ever they are voted into power. It seems they find it beneficial to rule the country by progressively picking on innocent people in order to satisfy their own political expediencies! If that is what they call progressive, frankly, I call it highly regressive. They have descended into the depths of ethical relativism to satisfy their desire for a small short-term gain. I wonder what they will do if the scales were to be loaded with heavier issues? Would they sell their own parents? Benthamite utilitarian ethical relativism won the day last Wednesday and a great injustice was committed. The end justified the means. I hate to think who might be next when Labour is in power. Innocent people like you and me, who try to carry out our daily duties with difficulty and sacrifice in order to earn a living!
Justice is one of the mainstays of government. Who will be the next victim to be sacrificed on the altars of expediency and injustice? Injustice is a tool they seem ready to use to achieve their aims. Not very different from the past it seems. Not only are they ready to sacrifice innocent persons to reach their aims, but they have also unknowingly exposed themselves to be judged in the same measure by which they have judged others whenever they will be in government. I wonder how they will vote on other issues where innocent human lives are at stake? They have also brought into question the validity of our democratic system of government, which has now been weakened by this act.
As for the Nationalist MP who has done this, I have no words except to say that he has let the machinations in the corridors of his ever blind ambitious mind get in the way not only of his good judgement, but also fly in the face of the greatest juridical traditions and values of a party that always based its big decisions on solid objective values inspired by Christian tradition. Not a tradition that is relativist in the least. He has also let down his side very badly. The most basic of human virtues, lealty, fidelity and solidarity have been sacrificed to his own god of expediency and greatness. I hope, for all our sakes, that he is never allowed to occupy even the least seat of power if that is how he reasons!
To my friend and colleague, Carmelo, I have only this to say. The failing is not yours but the system’s, which is in essence utilitarian – the greatest happiness of the greatest number. The failing also belongs to the nature of man, which is intrinsically fragile, and who alone does not have the capacity to redeem himself. There was one who many years ago passed through the same experience as he has just done, like many others before him have and many others after him will. I only bring him words of courage. He will overcome this and live to be a better man. He has his integrity and his family behind him, what more could he want? He will live to fight another day and like the proverbial phoenix, I am sure that he will rise out of the ashes of the mediocrity heaped around him.
To the Prime Minister, who has had to bear the brunt of all this, I can only say that when faced by all these relativistic machinations, he has no other options but to resist! Like it or not he is now the paradigm of an objectivist philosophy pitted against one that is purely subjectivist and relativist in nature! He has to show the nation that there are other better and more satisfying ways to do things in life than the way Labour is intent on doing. This will be the real choice all voters have to make come polling day!