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MaltaToday referred to President Edward Fenech Adami and his communication to the press after his resent audience with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.
Your liberal newspaper indicated that Dr Fenech Adami told the press that he had expected the reference to Christianity to be omitted from the EU Constitution since it had been an “uphill struggle all the way.”
It has been stated time and again that the Nationalist Administration has repeatedly taken my country and my people up the garden path.
In its negotiations with the EU the PN administration was either not aware of all the implications of whatever was being discussed; or else, if it knew, or could have concluded as to the resulting consequences of what was being discussed, it purposely did not inform the electorate of the potential and probable resulting effects of the negotiations.
The remarks MaltaToday quoted our current President to have stated were an affront to the obvious intelligence of my people. Repeatedly the remarks projected the idea that Malta as a full member of the European Union will have to radically alter not only its laws and regulations, but more important its mentality and cultural out look.
One recalls the repeated assertions of Fenech Adami that the Christian values of my people would never be touched or that these would be upheld. Everyone knew that this would not be the case, but we are a nation that is willing in our myopic political view of life to gulp down constant lies that are being pushed down our throats. We do so rather than reflect on truths that are communicated to us by people who will and truly not only wish this dear country well, but are prepared proverbially to call a spade, a spade!
Within this factual parameter, it is more than evident that the recent visit to the Vatican by our President with all his family entourage was no more than a public show of a Presidency that has, to date, yielded nothing to my people. Fenech Adami’s legacy is a set-up to ridicule my country and my people in the sense that a few inner-circle individuals are literally doing as they please.
These friends of friends are heavily-depleting the resources that this country has to offer and want to squeeze out whatever they can from this country and its people. To add insult to injury, these same people cannot care less about what will happen when they are gone.
Most of us who are, to some extent, cognisant of what was going on and what might still be being discussed on issues that will signify radical changes in the Maltese way of life, were perfectly aware that, for instance, the relevant Article in our Malta Constitution pertaining to the Catholic Faith would have to be removed completely as the first draft of the European Union Constitution came to light.
Notwithstanding repeated statements that this would be the case, individuals from the Malta Information Centre kept denying and leading exponents within the Nationalist Party kept repeating that our Christian values would be strongly defended.
Do you hear anything of the sort now that it is becoming obvious that reference in our Malta Constitution relating to the Catholic faith is tantamount to be discriminatory against other faiths and even relatively to those who profess themselves Agnostic or Atheistic. What are we going to do about it?
European Union Law supersedes the laws and the regulations of any of its 25 Member States and where the two legislations are in conflict, the EU Law is operative. We did not need our current President to inform us that “he had expected the reference to Christianity to be omitted from the EU Constitution since it had been an up-hill struggle all the way” - we all knew this. The point to hammer home is, however, for our people to attempt to learn once and for all that we are regularly hoodwinked by our politicians-in-power.
The European Union Parliamentary Elections already gave a warning note in that respect to our politicians-in-power. It is, however, important for the well-being of this country and its people that we now create a new political culture in our country, not ascribing to Blue or Red, but ascribing to those individuals who repeatedly have shown that their one major interest is the true welfare not only of our country, but also the individual needs and aspirations of each and every person residing in our country, considering that we are now also European Union Citizens.
At the end of the day, the issue is not so much that there be reference to Christianity in the EU Constitution, or that “it had been an up-hill struggle all the way,” but that those who profess to be Christian see to it that they live Christian values in their daily lives.
For, it is by example that we teach and not merely by words! After all, as the current President of the United States stated on Tuesday June 29, 2004, during the NATO Summit in Istanbul and Ankara-Turkey: there should be no particular religion that feels it has exclusivity within the European Union.
Hence, let us be reasonable and accept realities. Realities imply that the sentiments of each and every of the four-hundred and fifty-million citizens within the current European Union have to be respected. Respect means that the current EU Constitution, if ratified by all member countries is an ideal compromised document to please one and all in matters of faith.
Within these parameters, our Malta Constitution has to be dually up-dated by the deletion of any Articles that refer to any particular faith.
Not doing so might imply procedures to have the House of Representatives remove the anomaly from our Constitution when juxtaposed over the European Constitution, naturally once the matter is dually officially accepted by all twenty-five-member states.
In Malta, we appear to have already done just that, as the government has already implied that there is no intention to hold a Referendum in Malta to see whether this country through its electorate approves the EU Constitution or not.
Dr Bezzina is the leader
of the Alpha Party
WebSite:www.emmybezzina.org
E-Mail: alpha@emmybezzina.org
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