I wholeheartedly welcome news that a referendum on divorce will be held which finally addresses a real and pressing social issue.

However, I have a nagging feeling that those who are genuinely yearning for such an overdue legal remedy have been virtually abandoned to their own (dejected) fate by the government.

I say this with all due respect to those who may oppose the enactment of divorce legislation.

I strongly feel the divorce issue should be approached from a strictly legal perspective and not straddled with traditional, moral and/or personal religious beliefs.

Divorce legislation in Malta will not rob anyone of their personal values and much less impose itself on those who choose not to resort to divorce as a legal option.

That said, there are many others whose heartbreaking personal circumstances cry out for a much needed and long overdue legal remedy.

The question then arises as to why government has chosen to put the matter to a referendum. Are our politicians unable or perhaps unwilling to take the responsibility of enacting a law, which may require them to segregate their moral beliefs from their principal duty to act as our elected representatives and legislators?

Or has this referendum been announced because it provides a convenient screen for our apparently obtuse yet politically savvy MPs to hide behind?

In these circumstances, would it be inappropriate to suggest that this smacks of a half-baked political version of ‘passing the buck’?

The only responsible approach by any government on the divorce issue should be to legislate. In so doing, each individual member of our society would still be free to choose whether or not to resort to this legal remedy.

To approach the issue from the tail-end, asking the public whether to legislate or not, denotes political weakness and muddled ideology.

This is not an ‘across the board’ type of legislation, which drags everyone into the net. Freedom of choice rests solely with the individual, in his/her own conscience and personal circumstances.

Our representatives in Parliament are in duty-bound to uphold and preserve our individual and collective legal rights. Correspondingly, pontificating over ethical and religious matters is the explicit mission of moralists and the clergy.

To toss the divorce issue into the caldron of public opinion will not guarantee a just and acceptable social outcome.

This referendum may be the easy way out for our government.

It is definitely not the way to nurture a progressive and socially sensitive Maltese nation.