True democrat and man of integrity

Who would have thought just a few months ago that Malta will have introduced divorce? No one. It only happened under Lawrence Gonzi’s watch as Prime Minister because he is a true democrat.

When a Private Member’s Bill on divorce was lodged a year ago, it was clear that there weren’t enough MPs in favour to get it approved. Voting forthwith on the Bill would have killed it. Dr Gonzi did not choose that road. He gave a free vote to Nationalist MPs and, even after that, voting on divorce in Parliament would still have killed the Bill.

Dr Gonzi wanted the electorate to decide. That is the sign of a true democrat.

No one else wanted the electorate to decide. Not even the proponents of the Bill. Not even many pro-divorce columnists. And certainly not Labour who were, in fact, arguing against a referendum, saying that “minority rights” should not be decided upon by the electorate.

The Nationalist Party adopted a stand against divorce. True democrats don’t hide their opinions and don’t stop others from voting according to theirs. The Prime Minister made it abundantly clear that he would respect the referendum result and make sure Parliament enacts a divorce law if and as approved by the electorate.

He didn’t need to reiterate this minutes after the first indications of a Yes vote emerged but he did. The Prime Minister brought the Bill to the House immediately so divorce will be enacted in less than two months since the referendum.

We know that it’s Parliament that enacts laws, not any individual MP, and not the Prime Minister. If we expect the Prime Minister to enact laws on his own, that would be a dictatorship. Parliament collectively had the duty to legislate on divorce.

The first reading of the Bill passed without any naysayers. During the debate on second reading, it was more than clear that the Bill would have at least 40 MPs in favour with just a dozen against. A law needs just one favourable vote more than those against to make it to the next stage. The divorce Bill beat that requirement of one by a full 30.

We know that when prime ministers and ministers are also members of Parliament (not all countries have our same system) they have two distinct roles. In exercising their role as MPs when they vote they have no special privileges or duties and have an equal vote just like any other MP.

With 44 votes to 13, the majority in favour of divorce was almost two-thirds of all the members of the House. Just 18.8 per cent of MPs voted against, including the Prime Minister.

This result would clearly not have come about had Dr Gonzi not granted a free vote to government MPs. It would not have happened had the PN employed the argument so repeatedly used by Labour in the EU referendum about the Yes votes as a percentage of the total electorate (37.7 per cent in this case).

Parliament voted substantially in favour of divorce only because a number of Nationalist MPs exercised the free vote granted to them by the Prime Minister. The 32 Labour MPs voting in favour of divorce were not enough to ensure enactment and certainly inadequate for a two-thirds vote.

The Prime Minister had already stated, and reiterated on the second reading, that he would have acted differently had he any inkling that the divorce Bill would not have mustered a majority in Parliament.

One would have thought that all this is enough for the pro-divorce campaigners and columnists to conclude that the Prime Minister acted in an unexceptionably democratic manner, seeing to it that a Private Member’s Bill goes beyond the first reading for the first time ever in our political history and that Parliament enacts a law the Prime Minister disagrees with. No, it isn’t enough. Self-defined “liberals” want much more. They want to force the Prime Minister to vote against his principles and against his very well known opinions. They want him to lie. That’s what many on the Labour benches would have said: “convenient liar”, “being led by the nose”, “hypocrite”.

But the Prime Minister is no hypocrite. He is a man of principle, honesty and integrity. He has brought about the introduction of divorce according to the vote of the electorate while remaining true to his principles.

The self-defined “liberals” in the media have reinvented fundamentals like freedom and democracy for us. We are free as long as we agree with them. After a referendum, the minority must shut up and should not have any representation at all in Parliament. The people are one, not 122,500 people voting yes, 108,000 no and 94,500 abstaining. So 53 per cent of the vote should become 100 per cent in Parliament.

I fundamentally disagree with these “liberals”. The essence of liberal democracy is to freely form opinions, express them and vote according to those opinions. Freedom is enjoyed by all. All. The Prime Minister has as much right as I have to vote according to his principles having ensured that divorce is enacted by a (huge) majority in Parliament.

That is why Dr Gonzi is a true democrat and a man of integrity.