Toni Abela, the outgoing deputy leader of the Labour Party, addressed this evening's Freedom Day ceremony held by the Labour Party at the foot of the Freedom Monument in Vittoriosa and stressed that no one should be afraid of showing what he believed in. 

In his address Dr Abela spoke on the significance of freedom. He said no freedom, and no independence, was perfect. They had to be nurtured because even after any country achieved its independence or freedom, sections of society still needed to achieve their freedom. 

In the US, for example, despite independence and freedom, it took centuries before the first black man was elected President. In the UK it took 200 years for women to get the right to vote. 

In Malta, many rights were achieved before actual independence, such as universal suffrage. When George Borg Olivier achieved independence in 1964, he still continued to work to achieve more rights, and then the process was taken over by Labour in 1971.

March 31, 1979, Freedom Day,  was the beginning of a new process.

Labour's election in 2013 and Joseph Muscat's fresh ideas meant new rights like those given to the members of the gay community and people with disability who would otherwise be without a job. Malta would have no divorce law, no civil unions without this change. This showed how freedom was built step by step.

Dr Abela said he was a Catholic, though not one who went to church frequently. Recently he was told not to make the sign of the cross because that could be open to some interpretation. But, he said, he had to enjoy the freedom to express his views. He feared that society was approaching a time where parity meant being afraid of manifesting one's views.

"We should not be scared of showing our political and religious beliefs, without harming anybody else," he said.

This freedom, he warned, should not be lost. "We should not be afraid to say who we are and what we believe in."

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat will also be addressing the ceremony.