It is utterly ridiculous and absurd for this tiny country, important though in reality insignificant to the majority of the four hundred and fifty million citizens who form up the European Union up to now, that we still evaluate DIVORCE on a parametre as to whether there is a majority or minority who are in favour or against Divorce.

This is utterly absurd and ridiculous, I repeat, and this very line of thought coming either from our Politicians, from Leaders of Religious Institutions, from Presenters of Television or Radio programmes, or from ordinary discussion or debate be it verbal or in print or even the internet by any would-be contributor, does not make sense. It is completely illogical in view of the fact that Divorce is a Right that appertains to each and every individual and is regarded in the European Union and in other Countries or Continents as a Fundamental Right which if violated runs counter to the protection of private and family life of any individual, and would be thus an infringement of his or her Fundamental Rights and Freedoms.

It is a known fact that our Marriage Act as emended in 1995, is an outright abuse of our Constitution and the Independence of our Sovereign Court. We know that there is a classic Court of Appeal Judgment on this point, apart from the fact that there is Jurisprudence within the European Union that the decisions by Ecclesiastical Tribunals of the Catholic Church relating to the annullability or otherwise of a marriage runs counter to European Law and Regulations. It is a direct violation of Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms as protected by the European Convention of Human Rights and Freedoms (which incidentally since 1987 has formed an integral part of Maltese legislation) and, therefore, Government is in duty bound to see to it that the absurdity of the Marriage Law as emended in 1995 be rectified before Government is outrightly embarrassed before the rest of the European Union!

This has got nothing to do with majority or minority rights where in any case a truly liberal democracy contemplates that the basic, intimate and social rights of individuals are equally protected in a state where the majority may feel otherwise relating to those basic, intimate and social rights. So in this country we are here within the parametres of social absurdity to still keep putting on programmes, even if these programmes are for the less erudite masses, where we still evaluate an important social topic within the parametres of majority or minority percentages. It is equally a pity that serious newspapers, such as ‘The Sunday Times’, waists precious space in its columns to declare that there is a majority or minority opinion relating to Divorce or Abortion as emanates from a particular Television programme, as if a particular television programme is the ALPHA and OMEGA of public opinion in our country: as everyone knows this is far from being the case.

In conclusion let us grow up once and for all: we are now Members of the European Union, a Union which allows for pluralistic and cosmopolitan opinions and ideas, and we should follow what we now form part of, namely European Union Laws and Regulations, The European Union Convention, The European Union Constitution, and Judgments by the European Court of Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms at the Hague, The European Courts of Justice at Luxembourg, and other European Union norms that in the remaining European Union Member States, and for practically four hundred and fifty million people are acceptable except apparently in this tiny country, which with all due respect due to my beloved Malta, is by-and-large considered as insignificant to at least 96% of the remaining European Union Citizens.

After all, as one of our Parliamentary Secretaries stated recently, on another level of thought and argument, that since we are now part and parcel of the European Union we cannot allow a mode of behaviour and regulations in our country that clearly if not outdated run counter to what is acceptable and actually practised in the rest of the European Union: what goes for one line of argument in these circumstances automatically follows that it has to be applied also in relation to Local Divorce Law, where persons in this country would be able to apply and obtain a valid Divorce Decree or Judgment. Nothing could indeed be easier were it not for the outright hypocrisy of the regrettably the majority of persons who seem to be able to influence public opinion in my country who want to adopt an attitude of holier than thou, even though in reality, in practice, and behind the social façade these are aware that what they are uttering is a nonsensical absurdity in itself!

Yours Truly:
Emmy D. BEZZINA:
Chairman/Founder-ALPHA: partit politiku