UPDATED: Understanding the rules of democracy and how to bend the rules to suit our needs

There is little doubt that former Labour maverick Dom Mintoff knew what democracy was all about. He also knew how to make a mockery of democracy.

But at least he knew he was doing something wrong.

There is a moral here.

In other words he knew when he committed conscious mistakes and errors of judgement. Or better still he knew when he was acting like a pocket dictator.

For that reason many people decided that 25 years ago the man and his minions should go.

Those 25 years are seemingly up.

There is abundant proof that Lawrence Gonzi does not know what democracy really stands for.  He also thinks that his kind of democracy is the one that should be taken for granted.  And the one we should be respectful of.

Let me be more direct.

Most Roman Catholics know when they commit a sin.  But some do not. Those who pillaged and killed in the name of the Lord were those who believed that murdering the infidel for the cause, was justification in itself.

There are many who think that fraud, is no sin. I mean sin in the Christian sense.

So when one sees that Frans Borg, the brother of Father (Beirut) Joe Borg who as we shall see next Sunday is actively involved in the no to divorce campaign is a top civil servant and tolerated one starts to asks serious questions.

Well more than a top civil servant, he is the deputy secretary to the cabinet and in terms of civil service his position with the Zwieg bla Divorzju is clearly untenable.

I am sure the Prime Minister¹s right hand man, Edgar Galea Curmi thinks that is not the case.  He will probably argue that divorce is not a political issue.

Now that is what Godwin Grima, the permanent secretary and effectively head of the civil service, said.  He is of course wrong.  Awfully wrong!

What gall Godwin? I thought he knew better. But then again, Godwin is a religious (good man) who sees anyone crusading against divorce as perfectly justified!

These people are so bloody self-righteous that they cannot even see the problem with having such a senior civil servant actively involved in such a controversial political campaign.

The wonderful thing is that throughout these last 40 years, anyone remotely linked to the civil service was barred from being active in a matter of controversy.

More than barred. Countless teachers for example, were forced to give up their careers and move on to become heads of schools in favour of taking up a life in politics. If only I look back and see what happened to all those political activists who had so much to offer in politics and had their career shot down by civil service code.

I remember way back – under a Nationalist government – when I was employed with the Environment Department – that my activity with NGO’s was not, and was to be stopped at once.

I mean, anyone who ever thought of being active in politics – most especially with a movement or a political party that was not on the side with government – would be constrained to resign.

Mr Frans Borg is, of course, a very special case. He was held responsible by the Labour Party for the suspension of EU funds for Life Long Learning programmes after serious shortcomings in the administration of these funds was discovered.

But instead of being held responsible for the mess, it was the new permanent secretary Christopher Bezzina who got the blame. And Dolores Cristina typically washed her hands of this, and did what was expected of her: that is, blame everyone else and do the honourable thing and not resign.

Better still, the EU funds we lost were anyhow guaranteed to all those students who were expecting their foreign studies to be covered. They were covered by our taxes.  And everyone was happy, including Cristina – who managed to deflect much of the flak.

But back to the questions related to democracy and deception.

There is this Christian belief that the end justifies the means.

So much so, that in recent correspondence which I have seen and which will be elaborated upon in next Sunday’s MaltaToday, there is abundant proof of collusion between the Nationalist party, the Roman Catholic Church and the ‘Zwieg Bla Divorzju’ movement.

When I spoke to Andre Camilleri, I asked him, point blank, if he was the Andre Camilleri they saw at the Nationalist HQ. He categorically denied this.

But the eyewitness who told me swore that he saw him because he literally bumped into him. They must have seen an apparition.

But the Borg case proves beyond any doubt that the government wants to see its best people give a helping hand to this cause.

The civil service rules are of course applicable only if its suits others.

In next Sunday’s edition, I will be looking at the people in public office, and this includes the public domain of national broadcasting… those responsible for supposedly disseminating ‘objective’ news who are involved with the anti-divorce movement.

The control of the news – or the ability to report irrelevant news – is one way of controlling public opinion. 

It is of course widely known that the Nationalist party has a network of people within public entities and public agencies who are on its side and waiting to serve.

The referendum on divorce is perhaps a taster of what it will be like when the national election approaches. 

What is expected is a fair election… but it will not be the case. If it were, we would not have PBS run like an extension of the PN HQ.

Yes, this country cannot even agree on the rules that govern a free and fair election.

It is that bad.

The real good thing about this referendum is that whether the referendum for divorce is won or lost, the establishment is bound to lose.

Yes, the Church will have to face the reality that all Churches in Europe have had to face. The overwhelming influence of secular society will side-line the Church.

History does not only repeat itself for other societies.

And the Nationalist party will have to confront its own reality; that of being led by a party leadership that looks backwards, and not forwards.

This opinion article appeared on MaltaToday's Wednesday edition