CNI's 'moral right'

It has become a habit for the MLP and Opposition Leader Alfred Sant to criticise the Campaign for National Independence (CNI) for daring to urge Labour MPs and delegates not to vote for the ratification of the EU Constitution, but to abstain.

In your front page report of May 29 - "MLP delegates' secret vote" - you quote Dr Sant as saying that "The Campaign for National Independence had no moral right to tell the Labour Party what to do".

Like any other Maltese organisation with whom Dr Sant meets regularly, and who keep telling both political parties what they should be doing about the problems which beset our country (we do not recall any instance when Dr Sant has told them that they have no moral right to tell him what to do!), even CNI has every right, moral or otherwise, to urge the Labour Party to defend Malta's Constitution, as they had taken the oath of allegiance to do on being elected to Parliament, by not voting in favour of the ratification of the EU Constitution.

If Dr Sant believes that he holds the high moral ground on this issue, while we at CNI do not, may we remind him that according to the latest opinion-poll carried out by Xarabank and announced on May 20, of the Labour voters who gave a definite reply one way or another, a resounding 91.6 per cent are against ratification of the EU Constitution, while a meagre 8.6 per cent are in favour!

PN respondents who also gave a definite reply were 60.9 per cent in favour and a surprising 39 per cent against ratification. Taking all respondents together (MLP, PN, AD and other floaters): 56.48 said No (just like the French!), while 43.5 per cent said Yes.

Our question then is: What moral right has the MLP leader to urge Labour MPs, the National Executive and party delegates, to agree to ratification, against the overwhelming No reply of Labour voters?

All CNI and Dr Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, as MLP delegate, are doing is precisely to appeal to the MLP leadership and party delegates to respect and represent the will of the overwhelming majority of Labour voters, who, after, all, had elected them to Parliament in the first place, on an anti-EU membership ticket!