‘Stop the oppression’ | Edwin Vassallo

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil, like Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, is nothing but a fake liberal and a totalitarian, suppressing religion and the right to live according to one’s beliefs, Nationalist MP Edwin Vassallo has said of his leader.

Vassallo has been branded a rebel and a dinosaur after voting against the Marriage Equality bill in the second reading in Parliament earlier this week, despite the PN saying it would be voting in favour and issuing a whip order to that effect, denying its MPs the right to vote as they felt.

Vassallo was the only MP to vote against the bill’s second reading and has consistently insisted that MPs should have a free vote in such matters of conscience.

A final vote will be taken on Wednesday following the formal third reading of the bill. In the interim committee stage discussions, the government has refused to accede to any amendments proposed by the opposition.

“With the decision to unilaterally support Muscat’s bill, Busuttil is an accomplice in the suppression of religion and religious freedom,” Vassallo told MaltaToday. “My appeal to Busuttil is: Stop the oppression!”

He said that by not allowing a free vote, Busuttil was denying people like him their right to freedom of expression, as well as their freedom to practise their religious beliefs.

“As a Christian in politics today, I can no longer even say I am conservative,” he said. “Today, if I want to practise my faith and still be in politics, I have to be a radical, because conservative politics has now been replaced by fake liberalism.”

Vassallo said he was not alone in his thinking, and insisted that many MPs – across both parties – were afraid to stick their neck out.

“All I want is to ensure justice is done, and that the voice of the many people who oppose the spirit of this deceiving bill is heard. So I call on Busuttil to stop the oppression!”

Vassallo said that Muscat was the most dishonest politician ever, presenting the bill as gay marriage law when in fact there was so much more in the bill and so much more it could lead to.

“Labour promised gay marriage in its electoral manifesto, but this bill goes way beyond that,” he said. “No one promised us that laws which reflected and respected popular mainstays of our culture – like motherhood and fatherhood – would be changed to become gender neutral as proposed in this disgusting bill.”

He said one of his biggest fears was that the bill would pave the way to surrogacy and sperm donation.

Vassallo acknowledged that the PN too had promised gay marriage in its manifesto.

“That’s all the party promised though, not all these changes to laws that would see the terminology in our legislation no longer running parallel to the language used in everyday life,” he said.

He also revealed that he had notified Busuttil and other PN officials – way before the party’s electoral manifesto was finalised and published – that his conscience would not allow him to support such a bill.

“I got no reaction then from Busuttil or anyone else, so I cannot understand why he is now insisting on a whip for the vote on the bill or why some people are talking of taking disciplinary action against me after Wednesday,” he said.

Vassallo said that Muscat’s dishonesty was in proposing one thing and then presenting another.

“And the PN’s mistake is that it followed Muscat’s lead,” he said. “This is part of what makes Muscat and Busuttil fake liberals, because this legislation in fact disrespects the LGBTIQ community. Whereas I, as a Christian, am a true liberal.”

He noted that equality minister Helena Dalli herself, when addressing an event organised by the NGO Drachma on 21 February this year, had acknowledged that the existing Civil Union Law gave gay couples the same rights as heterosexual couples, albeit not calling it marriage.

“Our Civil Union Law is already on par with marriage,” Minister Dalli had said back then. “All the rights are there and it’s just different in name, so we’re changing that. We’re working on it.”

Vassallo said that, in light of this, he could not understand how no one else spoke out against Muscat’s deceit and duplicity when he presented the bill as worded.

“Why did none of these so-called political commentators say anything? Why did even the so-called independent media not point out the deceit? I will tell you why. It’s because everyone is distracted or bought.”

Vassallo said he was not against any individual loving another, but insisted he was responsible as a politician – even more so than as a Christian – to safeguard society from any adverse effects of any proposed legislation.

As for the PN itself, he said that many conservatives were not recognising themselves in the party today.

“Not only is our party practising fake liberalism, it is also totalitarian, in that it is dictating the thoughts and beliefs that its members should embrace,” he said.

When pressed, Vassallo would not confirm that – come Wednesday’s vote – he would be voting against the bill and against the will of his party and its leader.

“My adversity to this bill rose out of a reality built around a spiritual experience, and it is imperative that it remain so,” he said. “To take it beyond that would be turning it into an expression of self-pride.”

The MP insisted that he had a lot of respect for Busuttil personally, and that he believed that respect was reciprocated.

“I was brought up to respect authority, and I have always sought to do just that,” Vassallo said. “But I must now use the next few days to determine whether my faith and religious beliefs should supercede any respect I have for the party leadership’s authority,”

Vassallo is first to point out that he would not want to carry on this fight from outside the party, and he has no intention of going rogue or leaving the PN parliamentary group.

“I want to change the PN and help it regain the dignity and liberty it has lost,” he said. “But make no mistake, my value is within the party.”

Vassallo points out he also has no leadership ambitions and is not doing anything to gain attention or favour.

“I just want to be sure to give God what is God’s and give Busuttil what is his, no more, no less,” he said.

“Now I just have three days to decide if I would be committing political suicide if I vote against the bill – thus denying people who embrace my same beliefs a voice in parliament – or whether I should place my faith and religion above any other authority.”