Alternattiva Demokratika - The Green Party is and has always been very clearly and positively pro-life on the abortion issue. Despite the steadfast commitment to this policy throughout our 18 years in politics, a smear campaign, openly aided and abetted by our political adversaries, especially in 2004, persists to this day.
Having made a public commitment to sue for libel damages anybody incorrectly ascribing to AD anything but its publicly stated pro-life policy, we intended to proceed immediately against Alexia Manduca, the purported author of a letter published in this newspaper last Sunday.
Our efforts to identify the author, with the help of this newspaper's editor, proved fruitless and the personal details and address supplied turned out to be false. This leaves us unable to prosecute or sue the anonymous author/s of this viciously defamatory libel deliberately aimed at fabricating a damaging political fiction.
Anybody who sinks to such depths to harm another deliberately and maliciously can never claim the high moral ground of those purporting to be the champions of moral rectitude as the fictitious Alexia Manduca attempted to do.
What he, she or it has effectively done is to reveal for all honest readers to see as clearly as possible that the anti-abortion campaign, so genuinely embraced by the vast majority of the population, is deliberately exploited by scheming and unscrupulous persons for their own political ends quite separate from anything to do with abortion or saving the unborn child.
Extremist right-wing groups have adopted these tactics in a campaign across the EU exploiting real political issues such as immigration as well as political fantasies such as the altogether absurd fear of the introduction of abortion in Malta where all serious political parties are pro-life. Their desire is to provoke an opposition in order to demonise it, thus fuelling further panic in order to roll back the freedoms gained by ordinary citizens in the last 50 years and which allow them to achieve peaceful co-existence through mutual tolerance.
Their prime target in Malta is Alternattiva Demokratika (AD), which is by far the political party most sensitive to ordinary citizens' rights and freedoms as well as the party least likely to be paralysed in fear of losing votes in an election when the covert exploitation of populist issues by right wing extremists does create a panic.
We will combat the outrageous smear campaigns not only to set the record straight in our regard but also to expose the assault on citizens' and minority rights being prepared under cover of the defense of nationalism, the family or the unborn child.
In the matter of the malicious letter of the fictitious Alexia Manduca, The Sunday Times, despite its best efforts, has objectively failed to protect AD's reputation regardless of the fact that our views and policies on the issue of abortion should be well known to all those who follow national politics with any level of attention.
Rather than suing for libel, we invite readers of The Sunday Times to make out a cheque payable to the Movement for the Protection of the Unborn Child (Casa Leone, High Street, St Venera) of which AD is a corporate member. We hope that The Sunday Times will agree to this initiative and also to underscore its determination not to be exploited by letter writers with ulterior motives.
I trust that the malicious damage attempted by the anonymous authors of the Alexia Manduca letter be transformed to benefit a worthy cause.
Editor's note: We support Dr Vassallo's appeal. The false letter is being referred to the police. Letter writers are urged to abide by the terms published every week on this page.