The Hon. Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando is not everyone’s cup of tea, for all the insouciance he showed when he was snapped with a rather fine China cup containing, presumably, tea some time ago when the debate about the bit of land he owns resurrected itself.
I don’t count myself as one of his fans, though this is hardly germane to any issue that I can think of, given that he doesn’t contest a district I vote in, so the question of whether or not I would vote for him doesn’t even arise.
But I have to admit, his latest stunt (and I don’t mean that in a pejorative sense, people pulling stunts is what adds to the general gaiety of the nation) is quite a doozy.
In one fell swoop, he has pulled the Persian carpet from under the Leader of the Opposition’s neatly-shod tootsies and no mistake. Simply by doing what private members do (whether or not they are on the Government side or the Opposition side) JPO (I use the initials merely for convenience and not to imply familiarity) demonstrated the total failure to comprehend the nuances of the issue that resides within Joseph Muscat’s mind.
Dr Muscat hopes to be Prime Minister in a few years. In order to do so, he will have to convince the middle ground to come out for Labour, a phenomenon that is not necessarily a given, though many are already assuming that it is. They assumed that when Dr Sant was at the helm last time around, but more of that in the years to come, no doubt.
To get out the middle ground, Muscat will have to seek not to alienate their affections and, since the middle ground can quite easily be classified as a mixture of Sliema ladies who lunch, Birkirakara men who deal, middle-aged churchgoers who, erm, go to church and multifarious other pretty conservative folk, it is rather clear that coming out for divorce unequivocally is not necessarily the best way towards getting these people to vote for you, especially if the Church Organised does a de Gaulle.
But on the other hand, Muscat also has to try to appeal to the liberals amongst us, those who are not almightily obsessed with what people do in the privacy of their own homes, so he has to give a nod towards favouring divorce at the same time.
His solution? When he is PM, he will propose a Private Member’s Bill to introduce divorce, giving his people a free vote. Now, it occurs to me that he might be confusing being Prime Minister with being a Private Member (is this indicative of a failure to be convinced that he’s going to win?), being as the initials P and M work for both, but I’m pretty sure that this is not the case.
So, by doing what a real private member does, JPO has drawn a stark picture of the political opportunism that was being planned by Labour.
The Archbishop’s reaction was predictable, though he too, with all due respect, demonstrates a failure to understand the nature of a Private Member’s Bill. This aside, it is entirely within His Grace’s remit, and I don’t mean to sound condescending, to agitate against divorce and to do his utmost to scupper the idea.
To this, I would respectfully suggest, the answer should be simple and non-confrontational: having divorce available does not make it obligatory. If your personal beliefs do not brook divorce, you’re perfectly free not to adopt it as a means towards ensuring your happiness.
On the other hand, your personal beliefs should not militate against my own or the bloke down the road’s.
If I might make so bold, it might become the Church Organised at this juncture to take to heart the learned words I heard last Sunday at San Gorg in Gozo: it is not up to the organs of faith to rely on the institutions of the State to ensure the spread of the Good Word but it is, on the other hand, up to the Faithful to ensure that by their example, they mould the behaviour of their fellows in tune with said Good Word.
To this I would add that it might be just about time for the Church to show some degree of compassion and eschew the hard line: we’re all human.
And just to square the circle, JPO also dropped a slightly warm spud in the Nationalists’ lap, which is a pretty good idea, frankly, in the context of the recent lurches towards unsavoury fundamentalism this country has been witnessing of late. Having to confront the twenty-first century, the twentieth having gone by (did anyone notice?) might concentrate the minds and remind these people that it’s nigh on time to bring this country back on track to being a secular State.