Law and oppression
www.timesofmalta.com Harry Vassallo
Arnold Cassola has given 14 years of his life to politics, to the service of his country. In all these years, he has never benefited from a single cent of public funds. On many occasions, he has been generous in financing Alternattiva Demokratika, through which he has served the common good according to his lights.
Had he been madly ambitious or power hungry, he would have gravitated towards one of the other two parties who retain a 50/50 chance of being the next government at every election. He is consistent, persistent and persuasive. He would be an asset to any political party. Instead, he has been unflinchingly loyal to the Greens and the value of their message to his country.
Lobbying for his election to the post of secretary general of the European Federation of Green Parties (EFGP) in 1999 I was glad to realise that his standing with the representatives of 10 million European Greens was every bit as good as it is with Alternattiva Demokratika. They chose him to be the key person at the heart of their transnational organisation.
Returning from the EFGP Council in Bratislava, the extent of our achievement began to sink in: it was the first time that any Maltese politician had held such a post. It was an honour for the Maltese Greens. It was an honour for Malta. Imagine what a victory it would have been for the MLP to place one of their own as head of the secretariat of the PES, or for the PN to do the same with the PPE. We'd never hear the end of it.
Arnold quietly became the heart of the matter in his office at the European Parliament building in Brussels. Thanks to e-mail, the internet and his frequent visits, his participation in the AD committee decisions went up another notch in quality. We had first-hand information throughout the EU membership negotiations process. If we wanted to check something out, we would ask Arnold to get the facts from the horse's mouth.
His presence in Brussels has been invaluable to AD at this crucial time. Many times we knew more than the government did of the EU reaction to Maltese proposals.
Whenever anybody else wanted a contact or information on any issue connected with EU accession, he was available to AD, to the PN, the MLP or any private citizen or NGO.
At times we were able to exploit the personal contacts he developed over many years as AD delegate to the EFGP. His friends and colleagues had become MPs, MEPs and Green government ministers.
Over the past three years, he has travelled extensively around Europe and the world. He has been a key element in the formation of political alliances and the mending of rifts in Spain, Portugal, Bulgaria and Slovenia.
He has met with politicians, ministers and heads of state across the continent. He represented the EFGP at the Global Greens Conference in Canberra in 2001 and has been the representative of the European Greens since.
Every month we hear of Green parties formed or Green parties taking on government responsibility in countries around the world.
Green ministers took office in Kenya and Brazil in recent weeks. We are in touch with Greens in Mexico, Morocco and Venezuela.
The US Greens attend our council meetings. Thanks to e-mail, the global Green family exchanges information and ideas and coordinates its actions.
As one of the largest political formations in the European Parliament, the Green Group/EFA is a major asset to Greens worldwide who rely on its advocacy, support and example.
I am inordinately proud that a Maltese is one of the most influential figures in this global change.
Not so the Malta Labour Party, who have filed an objection to his registration as a voter in Malta. They hope to prove that he has been away for more than six months in the last 18 months and thereby to eliminate him as a voter and as a potential candidate in Maltese elections.
Alternattiva Demokratika has never, in its 14 years of existence, filed a single objection to eliminate any voter. The other two parties keep databases to classify voters by party loyalty and at every election proceed to eliminate as many of the rivals as possible. It's disgusting.
Hundreds of people are summoned to court to defend their most basic democratic right: if they fail to appear for whatever reason, they are struck off.
People who have been away on business or study are struck off regardless of whether their future lies in Malta and will be determined by the outcome of the election.
In the run-up to the EU referendum the Nationalist Party even attempted to exercise its right to eliminate as many elderly voters as it could on the grounds of mental infirmity. It was an affront to human dignity.
It's the law, of course. And we are all very legalistic about it. Are we all Shylocks demanding our pound of flesh from our rivals and trying to get our friends off the hook?
The law deprives some Maltese citizens of their most fundamental political right. So far AD has allowed the PN and MLP to battle it out among themselves.
We have refused to take part in the shameful exercise. We believe that if any Maltese citizen stills cares enough about his or her country to take the trouble to vote, nobody should prevent it.
The attempt to eliminate Arnold Cassola as a voter and as a candidate illustrates the stupidity of the law and leaves us no choice but to challenge it.
We propose to make a common cause of it and reach out to all those who have been struck off their country's electoral register to join us in making the country truly democratic.
We would also be delighted to have the support of those of our political rivals whose sense of fairness survives electoral hysteria and blind party interest.
Dr Vassallo is chairman of Alternattiva Demokratika - The Green Party
www.alternattiva.org.mt