Tonio Fenech and Irrelevance

On the Malta Independent today, former P.N. minister, Tonio Fenech, expresses his view that he is befuddled by what the P.N. stands for today, and argues that the P.N. has been left in a vacuum and has become irrelevant because of that. He says that he wasn't puzzled 20 years ago on what kind of party he belonged to i.e. that he knew that he belonged to a Christian Democrat party. He then makes us believe that he is against the new position  adopted by the P.N. on civil liberties, and he goes as far as to the say that we cannot compete with the P.L on such issues, because Joseph Muscat doesn't have a problem when crossing the red line. What Tonio Fenech seems not to understand is that the kind of homogeneous/confessional politics he stands for will definitely relegate the P.N. to irrelevance, rather than the kind of openness brought on by Simon Busuttil's leadership.

He speaks of "a stronger and fairer society"and then says that "while embracing globalization, we did not shy away from protecting our society from its negatives". On one hand he is saying that we need to be fair, and then says that we need to protect society from the negatives (how paternalistic that sounds!!!). Tonio Fenech must realize that people do not need anyone (him included) to protect them from the civil liberties that have reached our shores and made our country fairer. What kind of negatives is Fenech referring to? He speaks about the idea of upholding the values of the traditional family (i.e. as against the rights of LGBTIQ couples?). Does upholding the values of a traditional family mean that other kinds of families are inferior, or that they should not enjoy the same rights as those that he deems as "normal" and "traditional"? Is this the kind of fairness and justice that Tonio Fenech stands for? He says that what he suggests is what Christian Democracy is. Well, yes, Victor Orban of Hungary, who is far cry as far as democratic credentials go, and is condemned by the same E.P. group we and he belongs  to (the E.P.P.) reasons that way. Angela Merkel, who is also a Christian Democrat believes the contrary to what Tonio Fenech is suggesting, and is for the kind of Christian Democracy that the P.N. stands for today i.e. an economically conservative but socially liberal political party. Considering sections of society as "lesser animals" isn't Christian, nor is it just, and worse still it is highly undemocratic as it seeks to suppress the rights of minorities. As a councilor and a Christian Democrat, I will back a more open and inclusive party as Simon Busuttil does. I will fight wholeheartedly against the kind of confessional and discriminatory politics that Tonio Fenech and his kind stand for.