Of mistakes and errors

It appears Jeremy J. Camilleri completely misunderstood or chose to misunderstand my letter titled Politics Of The Old School Still Alive. In his reply (July 16), Mr Camilleri makes a number of points which are plain and simple, incorrect.

Mr Camilleri states: "As a remedy, is Mr Micallef suggesting that the only way forward in a new style of politics would be a total ban on any articles pointing out both of the parties' past mistakes?".

First of all I would like to point out that at no point did I suggest such a remedy nor, for that matter, do I agree with such a remedy. I have no problem with discussing past errors of the Nationalist Party.

Indeed, even Lawrence Gonzi himself faced up to past errors by apologising for them outright. Had the criticism levelled at the PN been on something justified I would not have objected to the past being brought up.

Learning from the past and being humble about it is something which even the PN as a political party has never shied away from and has always sought to keep at its core.

Having said this, stating that once a fascist always a fascist is not only absurd but downright unfair.

The implication in it is that the PN was a fascist party and is to this day a fascist party at heart when the truth could not be further.

Fascism has connotations of barbarity, cruelty and acts against humanity. Surely brandishing the majority of the electorate as such is far from a fair political debate.

Finally, when I mentioned Joseph Muscat, it was in the context that he has been stressing on the importance of starting a new page in Labour and one augurs that such does indeed occur.

It seems, however, that, sadly, some within his party are refusing to do so and people like Mr Camilleri are applauding them for doing so.