Divorce was not a civil right and Malta should be proud to be one of only two countries in the world that had no such legislation, President Emeritus Eddie Fenech Adami said yesterday.

“I do not accept the pro-divorce argument that only Malta and the Philippines do not have divorce and, so, our country should have such legislation.

"It is good we are still bound to the principle that marriage is for life and we should be proud of this,” Dr Fenech Adami said during a dialogue meeting at the Santa Luċija Nationalist Party club, organised by former party president Victor Scerri, an electoral candidate on the district.

Dr Fenech Adami said marriage was a contract that bound the individuals for life and this was the principle at stake in the divorce debate.

“Does this mean we will be contracting marriage for a defined period if divorce were to become law? Will we have to change the definition of marriage?” he asked.

When it was pointed out that in countries having divorce legislation the definition of marriage was not changed, Dr Fenech Adami said the rest of the world was “living a contradiction”.

Acknowledging there were families in difficulty, he said divorce did not necessarily solve their problem and insisted experience abroad showed the opposite was true.

During the hour-and-a-half meeting, which saw Transport Minister Austin Gatt and European Commissioner John Dalli sitting in the audience made up mostly of PN veterans, Dr Fenech Adami was questioned by three journalists.

Asked about the political murders of Karin Grech (December 1977) and Raymond Caruana (December 1986), Dr Fenech Adami said in both cases he was dismayed because when they happened the police did not treat the investigations in a serious manner.

He recalled the moment he arrived on the scene of Mr Caruana’s murder at the Gudja PN club and described the mixed feelings of sadness and anger.

“It was a shocking experience seeing Mr Caruana in a pool of blood. In my life I never saw so much blood. I was also angry and started screaming because the police were not doing their job properly. They did not secure the scene of the crime to collect the necessary clues,”

Dr Fenech Adami, a former Prime Minister and PN leader, said. He expressed incredulity at the fact that nobody came forward with reliable information that revealed who had perpetrated Ms Grech’s and Mr Caruana’s murders.

“I appeal to anybody who may have information to speak up; it is a national obligation. I keep hoping the truth will prevail one day,” he said, insisting there was political willingness to solve these “atrocious” murders.

Dr Fenech Adami said it was not enough for the PN to recall the struggles of the 1980s that characterised a generation of party activists, acknowledging there were people who did not live those times and did not know what happened. “A niece of mine was watching Bijografiji recently and she turned to me in surprised asking whether what happened when our house was ransacked by political thugs in 1979 was true,” he said with a smile.

“It is important to look ahead and today’s political milestone for the PN is to continue modernising the country by making sure the best tools are in place to face up to the challenges,” he said, mentioning IT and education as examples.