Gianluca Bezzina’s brief intervention last weekend at the general council of the Nationalist Party seems to have solicited quite a furore because of his reference to changing values in our society. I viewed some of the posts that were written on the social media that ranged from fair criticism to what I felt amounted to outright manipulation.

However, this is Malta and in Malta whenever one speaks out publicly, we take great pleasure in labelling him or her in one way or another, especially if the ideas that have been expressed touch upon two of our national hobbies: that is politics and religion.

One problem with having non-political persons roped into political events such as general councils, general conferences, conventions or whatever one may call them, is that they are immediately and automatically politicised. Like it or not and despite his claims to have neither interest in the PN or Labour (as he was reported to have stated in Times of Malta on Wednesday), Bezzina has been somehow categorised by many as being of a particular political persuasion and of upholding ‘conservative’ ideas. Despite all efforts to try to distance himself from such popular perception, it will not be easy for him to return to his Garden of Eden status.

I was rather surprised that the other guest appearance at the same event, that by the KSU president, did not seem to provoke the same level of interest. Possibly because ever since the KSU election was tragically more or less reduced to a contest between a pro-PN student grouping and a pro-PL student grouping, and since the KSU president was the candidate of the former, then it is taken for granted that the KSU is already tainted with more than a tinge of blue.

In his speech, Gayle Lynn Callus stated that “we are living in a situation where an individual’s choices and opinions are being questioned. Whenever someone comes out as in favour of the government, he is labelled as a Labourite, and if someone speaks against the government, he is labelled a Nationalist.”

Political parties need to become more open towards listening to ‘outsiders’ – non-affiliated individuals

Old story. Yet, case in point.

Will Malta ever change? Will this attempt to label people as Labour, Nationalists, switchers, liberals or conservatives and whatever else ever cease? Is it so impossible to conceive that individuals are individuals, born free and with the capacity to think, to choose and to decide for themselves?

I believe that the number of individuals in Malta who are refuting to be labelled or categorised in one way or another is fortunately on the increase. And here I do not refer only to people who are more susceptible to switch their vote from one party to another and back again according to their views of which party would represent the individual’s interests best and promote the common good.

Though this increasing phenomenon is no surprise at all, it is, in my view, naturally correlated to the fact that the two main political parties in Malta also switch more easily from ‘left’ to ‘right’ and vice-versa according to specific issues. I find it very difficult today to classify either one or the other in terms of political ideology though, formally speaking, each one is still affiliated with a European grouping that claims a specific political orientation.

I am looking at this from a socio-cultural viewpoint and not as a political analyst which I do not claim to be and who may have, I am sure, a totally different perspective from mine.

Moreover, what is happening in Malta is not isolated and one can see this tendency in many other European countries particularly in those where extreme right or left parties are growing in support with the traditional centrist or moderate parties becoming more difficult to distinguish in terms of what they stand for.

Gradually, our society is being ‘liberated’ in terms of individuals no longer willing to be carried along by the flow. Even though Bezzina may have been labelled following his speech last Sunday, he had the courage to go and speak out for what he upholds and believes in with conviction irrespective of whether one agrees with him or not and of the fact that he must have known that there would be consequences.

This is an important statement in itself. And although clearly there would have been a different kind of reaction by certain people (both in favour and against) had the doctor addressed the PL general conference rather than the PN general council, the resulting controversy was more about his views on values and morals rather than a criticism of the fact that he accepted to participate in a political event of a particular political party.

Our political parties need to become more open towards listening to ‘outsiders’ – non-affiliated individuals.

However, this needs to be more than just some publicity stunt.

The listening needs to happen at the core, without any cameras prying and vying for an opportunity to come out with the best headline. I have seen too many good politicians thwarted because they only listened or listened mostly to those who had too much of a finger in the pie to be objective or completely truthful.

It is not only the political parties that need to do this. The positive result of the recent referendum on same-sex marriage in Ireland led the Archbishop of Dublin to state that the Church in Ireland needs “a reality check”.

However, it is not going to get it if the discussions continue to take place in internal fora dominated by individuals who consider the changes happening in society as threats to traditional values and so on.

Large organisations thrive on the faithful! A position that is not 100 per cent in line with the official line is regarded as a threat and the person is considered a maverick or a rebel. I yearn for this to change. Dissent is not desertion.

In my view, individuals should be encouraged to speak out their minds rather than to conform at all costs. I accept that for individuals belonging to an organisation, there has to be some degree of affinity with the aims of such organisation and the positions it adopts. However, one can be self critical and loyal at the same time.

I live in a town where, at the moment, wearing green or red is making a statement out of filial love and devotion to St Catherine of Alexandria! Even today you still receive comments about the colour of the tie you wear though, admittedly, far less than one used to.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu described post-apartheid South Africa as a ‘rainbow nation’. This would make a nice change in Malta to our bicoloured vision.