The one good thing about all this is that Adrian Vassallo will not be contesting the next election. He calls himself a conservative, but in reality, he is nothing short of a closed-minded individual who does not seek to conserve ‘what is good’, but to drag Malta back into the dark ages.
We speak, of course, about Dr Vassallo’s comments about invitro fertilization in parliament yesterday. He labeled liberals as “pigs”, saying that he had been called a “dinosaur”. So witty, so clever, so mature for a politician.
Dr Vassallo probably doesn’t even know the meaning of liberal. To him, it probably means casual sex and swinging parties. Liberal views are not that at all. What being liberal is all about is to not judge, to allow others to make a free choice, to allow others to live their life as they see fit.
In calling all liberals “pigs”, Dr Vassallo has also called his own party leader a pig, because Joseph Muscat has gone on record to say that he is a liberal. We say this not because we want to tar the PL, but because we believe that no politician has the right to insult people in this way. In any case, the PL made itself pretty clear with Dr Vassallo, practically ignoring him when he listen a number of issues that he felt put him in conflict with his party. A few weeks later, he announced that he was not going to contest the next general election – and thank goodness for that.
We do not mean to imply that this publishing house feels that anything goes – far from it – society needs regulations and norms and laws. But we do believe that Malta has been held back for far too long thanks to overly conservative dinosaur parliamentarians. The reality of divorce and the opportunity for people to have another chance at life was ignored for decades, leaving people in suffering and unhappy marriages. Those that did try to have another chance were outcasts because there was not even a law to cover such couples. The PN also shot itself in the foot because though it did not want to introduce this civil right, it put the decision to the people and inspite of a huge yes margin, 11 MPs still decided to vote against it in parliament.
To this day, we still await the horribly titled co-habitation bill. The stigma of gay relationships has only been tackled through society opening its eyes and being more tolerant and liberal. Our politicians still refuse to tackle it.
The issue of women’s rights and protection from abusive husbands is still a hot one, and for all our prudishness, priests who abused boys in their care only got five and six year jail terms. A father who molested three of his pre-teen daughters was jailed for only 10 years.
Perhaps that is slightly off point. But the crux of the matter is that our electorate is ignorant and the political parties capitalize on that come election time. How can political parties endorse candidates who call liberals “pigs” or others who say that couples seeking IVF treatment are to be screened to see if they are in a stable relationship? Such people should be struck off the list and if both the parties were to do some soul searching and proper research, they would have to remove a fair few. We understand that politicians may have their personal views – this is perfectly acceptable – and, of course, liberal. But to mix that up in the portfolio of public service or in the House is simply not on. Good riddance, is all we say.