Difficulty of defining the word ‘liberal’

The current examination in our media of some of the basic concepts that are behind our day to day politics is an interesting development. Three highly relevant articles appeared recently, two on July 22 and one on July 25; all were concerned with the way the word “liberal” is used or bandied about in the ongoing political discussion in and out of Parliament.

Was Francis Zammit Dimech more liberal in his approach in the debate on the Second Reading of the Divorce Bill than his colleague Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando ?

Was it a “liberal” section of the Nationalist Party that felt like Cyrus Engerer, that Lawrence Gonzi should have voted in favour of the Divorce Bill in Parliament?

Is being a self-defined “liberal” a good thing in politics?

As Lawrence Zammit so well explains, there exists some confusion in the use of the tag “liberal” and as is often the case the term calls for definition if such were possible.

Liberal can mean different things to different people in different contexts and is thus practically undefinable.

It was the liberal Lord Beveridge that set out the outlines for a national health service in Britain in 1946 but it was the Labour Party in 1948 that put the NHS on the statute book. Meanwhile spokesmen in the present Republican Party in the US hold that any state intervention in health provision is an incursion into civil liberties.

It is true that liberal ideology was regarded as within the territory of left-wing political thinking but it is doubtful whether it was the collapse of Soviet Russia or the economic success of the US that veered western liberalism towards a laissez faire state committed to privatisation and a free market.

However the whirlgig of time has now shown that a completely free market system can also lead to economic disaster.

It may be that the profit motive is the prime motor in achieving better life standards but human greed is forever lurking in the wings threatening to pull down the whole edifice.

Our political situation calls for a pragmatic approach to the nagging problems that beset us and thus as honest citizens we should avoid claiming any virtue by calling ourselves liberal, or try to discredit others for not being “liberal”.

The old political slogans are wearing thin. It is perhaps more useful for us, particularly at the day of reckoning, to identify the honest, hard-working politician than to rely on the political parties with their candidates and any “liberal” label accredited to them.