Of storks and ostriches

I am quite sure all people are talking about is this wretched referendum that has been imposed on our country in a shameful abrogation of responsibility on the government’s part and also the part of the opposition, which agreed to it. This is not a political issue and should never have been. What the President’s, the Prime Minister’s or the Leader of the Opposition’s religious beliefs are is of no consequence at all. What they privately believe in should, by all accounts, not be imposed, nor should they influence, the electorate. One should by rights gauge the competence of a politician and support him/her not because of his/her religious beliefs but by his/her achievements in “serving us the people” efficiently and effectively.

The divorce issue has divided up the parties themselves for in both are people who are for or against the introduction of divorce and it was in my opinion a grave political mistake for the Nationalist Party to take an official stand against divorce because, although there may be many people at present who are probably patting the Prime Minister on the back for resisting the winds of change, in the long run this issue will return to haunt him like Banquo’s ghost, for it is not going to go away. The referendum is not going to sweep the issue under the carpet and, even though it is highly improbable that there will be a yes result by Sunday, this is merely a delaying tactic for, sooner or later, divorce, superannuated as it is, will become a reality.

What I cannot understand is how both the movers and shakers in both the yes and no groups who go around brandishing “statistics, statistics and more damned statistics” have singularly failed to understand the realities in which we live. More and more people are choosing to avoid marriage altogether in order to avoid commitment, which, in my book, is a zillion times worse than opting to get married civilly with the option of having a fire escape in case one needs it and the possibility of starting over again in a recognised union.

One can compare it to an agnostic and an atheist. Although the very word atheist sounds dire, at least one can respect the belief or lack of it for it is a definite and definable stance: a belief that God does not exist, period. On the other hand, an agnostic has the best of both worlds or thinks he does for the Lord is not mocked. An agnostic believes that, just in case there happens to be a God, he had better conform as lackadaisically as possible by making his own rules and regulations and not giving a tinker’s toss about what doctrine dictates. This attitude will, no doubt, be reinforced if not legitimised as soon as cohabitation becomes a reality. This is the height of cynicism.

This referendum addresses a mere symptom in the inherent malaise that plagues this country, which is caused by the constitutional status of the Roman Catholic religion. I am a Roman Catholic because I believe in the precepts of Catholicism and not because Lawrence Gonzi or Joseph Muscat says I should or, even better, must be! Imposing social laws that are built on Catholic principles is not a bad thing per se, far from it. However, the law is there for everyone, pink, orange , red, blue, green or white, and should make adequate provisions for all denominations and not practising Catholics alone for, then, against all modern principles of liberty, equality and fraternity we would be creating a class of second- and third-class citizens whose rights are denied as vehemently and finally as those of the black Americans before the advent of Martin Luther King.

No, God is not mocked and the hypocrisy of our national situation, which is a direct consequence of the pusillanimity of the politicos who lead it or are supposed to, will, in the long run, bear ill-gotten fruit as the government, torn between wanting to do the right thing and having to pander to the whims of the majority, will find it impossible to govern effectively and hide, as they already do, under the miasma of bureaucratic instructions issued by Brussels and the ecclesiastical petticoats of a Church that is far more pragmatic and au courant than they are.

Yes, the governments, the political parties and, above all, most unfairly, the Church itself are in a lose-lose situation, caught between a rock and a hard place. As time passes and the memory of Saturday’s referendum fades into insignificance, the social anomalies and contradictions will get worse and worse to the extent that even the most hardened anti divorcist will be crying out to the government to legalise it and bring some sort of order into the country.

Again, do these people who have their eyes wide shut to uncounted unmarried mothers bearing children to unknown fathers (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) and who benefit not a little from our hard-earned taxes believe that with the divorce issue being defeated the situation will be changed for the better? Go on, if anyone seriously believes that will happen they probable believe that babies are flown in by storks… or was it ostriches?

kzt@onvol.net