I have just received an email from the Hon Dr Joseph Muscat, Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Partit Laburista. I felt flattered till I noticed that this was not an email just addressed to me. I was just one of a large group of people who received it. My ego was flattened – a very positive penance for the period of Lent.

In this email, Dr Muscat announced great tidings. Malta is on the way of becoming a true European country! We make just one step forward, but as everyone knows, even a marathon begins by just one step.

At this time of year when there is a great dearth of good news, the heading of the email from Dr Muscat was welcome indeed. I read on; and discovered that more surprises were on the way.

The Communications office of the Partit Laburista had, some time ago, informed us that the Partit had “unanimously approved a motion for a Parliamentary Resolution calling for a consultative referendum and a referendum question for the introduction of responsible divorce.” Dr Muscat is now informing all and one that the vote asked for in Parliament was not a vote for a referendum or for divorce. The vote had a much deeper significance. This vote was about whether we want our country to make one-step forward and become a true European country.

Let me try to analyse why what happened last Wednesday was no step forward for Malta to become a true European country.

Have we become more European because we most probably have become the first country in Europe where a free vote implies that you have to declare beforehand how you are going to vote after being “gently” persuaded to sign a collective motion? Has it ever happened that although party members are given a free vote they all vote in the same way?

By the way, has anyone heard an ouch or two resulting from arm-twisting?

Have we become more European because Parliament adopted a referendum question which, as the Maltese proverb goes, “turik id-debba u tqabbizzek il-hmara”? This is what the motion of the Partit Laburista does. Just one example suffices since I have written about this topic at some length. It promises people that it will guarantee maintenance when it definitely cannot guarantee it. Now the pro-divorsists told us that this phrase in the referendum just means that only one’s recourse to the Courts for maintenance will be guaranteed!

Will we become more European if we legalise JPO’s non-fault divorce i.e. you don’t have to have a reason to divorce? The Arabs, for example, practiced divorce before the Europeans did. So does divorce bring us closer to Europe or to North Africa? European countries have also legalised abortion. I am certain that Dr Joseph Muscat is adamantly against abortion and will oppose its legalisation. Will he now start advocating a pick and choose Europe? Will we do one-step forward by legalising divorce and one-step backwards by refusing to legalise abortion? And what about same sex marriages and euthanasia? All these are become standard fare in Europe. Will we accept to become an exception?

Dr Muscat’s reference to “a true European country” is just a shallow attempt to take over slogans which he used to ridicule up to a very short while ago. Another such shallow attempt was made when he tried to take paternity for the slogan “is-sewwa jirbah sgur.” Politics should not be a game for shallow slogans.

One would expect more depth and gravitas from someone who considers himself as a Prime Minister in waiting.