ON KEEPING MOUTHS CLOSED

My good friend, for all that we see eye to eye on nothing in the context of our outlook on political life, Toni Abela got himself into a bit of bother over abortion, to the extent that he was moved to issue a statement that despite malicious attacks on him, he remains against abortion.

I'm not too sure of the provenance of the malicious attacks. If they were from the PN side of the fence, surely this is not the first time, and nor will it be the last, that the dear fellow has been in the cross-hairs? And yes, I know I'm making a puerile reference to one of the many, many, many televisual feasts that our hero has provided for our delectation over the years, albeit ones the temptation to watch I have eschewed. One of the programmes had a representation of a sniper's cross-hairs, I seem to recall.

I don't read the PN papers or watch or listen to their media, in the same way that I don't ingest the pro-Labour outpourings or the stuff that oozes from the MaltaToday stable, so I'm not sure if this is where the attacks on Dr Abela have emanated. If they are, he shouldn't be so touchy or he should get out of the scratch and kick of political life, which latter course of action would probably be beneficial to his health and well-being.

On the other hand, if the vicious attacks came from the so-called Pro-life Movement, or whatever it is that it chooses to call itself, again, why is he so surprised? This is a movement that delights in ambushing politicians on their way to Parliament, that makes statements of the bleedin' obvious sound like they were dicta pronounced by Moses himself on the way down from the Mountain, that thinks nothing of using peculiar plastic models to make eminently ridiculous points and that raises a furore about amending the Constitution as if their suggestions were ones that had any merit.

And Toni Abela is surprised because they were attacking him? If it was they who were attacking him, that is, maliciously or otherwise. I've had people dumping all manner of effluent on me in this blog whenever I've dared to express a view that these paragons of all virtue deems be insufficiently four square with theirs, for all that I've made it clear that I am against abortion.

Perhaps the caveat that I insert, to the effect that however much I am against abortion, I would hesitate to sit in judgement on any woman who resorts to it, renders my position not sufficiently fundamentalist for the proto-Taliban amongst them.

The problem for Toni Abela, however, lies not so much in the attacks being made against him: he's a big boy and can take it. It lies more in the way the Labour movement (see, even I can make a nod towards progressive embracing of all and sundry) is seeking, at the moment, to be all things to all men and all women and all people somewhere in between.

Dr Abela, in his Dissett interview, qualified his position on abortion from being one that is "anti" to one that is "anti but...", a position guaranteed to call all manner of fire and brimstone down upon him when those who espouse uncompromising positions are concerned. To be fair on the latter, Dr Abela's exceptions to his own rule, which reportedly included the possibility of abortion not being so heinous if the child-to-be is severely handicapped, were dilutionary (a word that Mr Gates asserts does not exist) to a pretty significant degree, but I believe that this is a symptom not of Toni Abela's departure from an anti-abortion stand but of his party's innate compulsion, now that Joseph Muscat is at the helm, to include everyone all the time, even when it is patently impossible to do so.

As Toni Abela is now finding out (he is intelligent enough to know this but until it is pointed out to you, the point might escape) it is not possible to be warm and cuddly to everyone all the time. Well, it is when you're in Opposition, of course, and Labour has been there for so long that you can't really blame them for thinking it's a natural way of conducting politics.

It might be the way to do politics, but it sure ain't the way to do governance, which is why so many people are starting to realise that they need to take a position and not sit there sniping all the time.