User:Jean-Pierre Sammut/Alleanza liberali
ALLEANZA LIBERALI, also known as Alleanza Liberal-Demokratika Malta, ALDM and Liberal Alliance - Malta, is the Liberal Party for the Republic of Malta.
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The Lighthouse: the symbolic emblem of ALDM
Foundation[edit]
In May 2004 Malta joined the European Union - a fully official integration.
For a country to join the EU it must be in harmony with the EU's modes of culture, yet Malta is completely disharmonic with most of the EU's basic social conventions. fi kliem iehor Shocked by this anomaly, John Zammit[1] and Emmy Bezzina [2]formed the Alpha Liberal Democratic Party, a new political movement intended to turn Malta into a real European country. They both contested the Euro-elections in 2004 and obtained several hundreds of votes. Considering the small size of the Maltese nation, they got enough votes to prove that the Maltese people understood their message.
By 2006 Emmy Bezzina showed lack of impetus in his political career as he was extremely busy exercising his legal profession. This led to a split in Alpha with John Zammit leaving the party to start up his new party which, in November of the same year, he would name: Alleanza Liberal-Demokratika Malta (ALDM). He started to rent a block of real estate, which included an office and a hall, situated in Strait Street, corner with Old Theatre Street, just fifty metres away from the House of Representatives in Valletta - Malta's capital.
Two gentlemen, Charles Aquilina and Jean-Pierre Sammut, soon joined forces and a steering committee was formed. Very soon Hans-Jorgen Gotsche, a Danish Liberal, would move from Denmark to Malta and join the ALDM too.
Up the glass mountain[edit]
In 2007 the hierarchy of the party was made official with John Zammit as Leader, Charles Aquilina as Deputy Leader, Jean-Pierre Sammut as Secretary General, Hans-Jorgen Gotsche as International Secretary, and Rita Sacco as Officer in charge of the Women's section.
In October of that same year the steering committee met the European Liberal Leader, Honourable Graham Watson, in Republic Street, Valletta. Zammit explained to Watson that the ALDM was being elbowed out from the local media and, since the Catholic Church is extremely powerful, Liberal ideas in Malta are seen as diabolical. Watson could not believe it.
Fully aware that it would be a long way uphill, the ALDM presidium moved on fearlessly and relentlessly, albeit having no sponsorship, no aids from the establishment and very little recognition from journalists. It was the great courage that came from within their hearts that made them survive and march on.
In 2008 ALDM started publishing a three-month-cycle magazine which would be distributed to all journalistic and political entities in Malta for free. Public meetings started to be held in ALDM's hall. A huge flag[3] was hung against the facade of the office facing Old Theatre Street: the street through which the Maltese MPs have to pass in order to reach the Parliament. Soon after, John Zammit would start receiving anonymous threats on a regular basis.
The Euro-elections in 2009[edit]
Every five years the EU holds elections for its Parliament [4]. This started in 1979 when Malta was not yet a member. Thirty years later, 2009, Alleanza Liberal-Demokratika Malta contested these elections under the name Alleanza Liberali. This name-change was a result of some journalists' insistance that the word "Liberal" in "Alleanza Liberal-Demokratika Malta" is not Maltese.
Technically they were wrong because the word "Liberal" is followed by a dash which connects it to the word "Demokratika" thus following a grammatical pattern of the Italian language (and which therefore should fit in the Maltese language without creating any linguistic anomaly). Furthermore, the pronunciation of the word "Liberal" should sound as if it were a French word, thus completely different from the way the same word sounds in English. Some other journalists even criticized the orthography of "Alleanza" by stating that it ought to be written "Allejanza", something like "Ewropeja" (Maltese for "european" in the feminine case). In this case too the journalists were technically mistaken.
Yet, in order not to waste precious energy in trivialities, the ALDM leadership decided to change the name to Alleanza Liberali, which, afterall, is easier to pronounce especially when inserted in long spoken sentences.
In spite of this change, the acronym would still be ALDM, not AL.
The first three letters of Alleanza (A-L-L) led John Zammit, ALDM's sole candidate, to appear on the very top of the electoral ticket. (Alpha Party starts with A-L-P, Alternattiva Demokratika starts with A-L-T and Azzjoni Nazzjonali starts with A-Z-Z).
ALDM's electoral campaign included video clips that were broadcast on the national state-owned TV station. In these clips John Zammit appeared attending ELDR's electoral campaign in Brussels.
Alleanza Liberali's 5-minute promo: [5]
Alleanza Liberali's 30-second promo: [6]
Political Manifesto[edit]
Alleanza Liberal's political manifesto is far form being a long epic-like never-ending set of nice-sounding yet silly-being promises. ALDM's main promises, or better, proposals, are the following:
- Divorce
- Same sex marriage
- Cannabis
- Nudist Camping Sites
The most hypocritical Christian democratic Partit Nazzjonalista condemns all four proposals, even though it has a gay Euro-MP in Brussels as well as MPs in Malta who are separated from their spouses and are sitting down with new partners, some of whom, incidentally, smoke hash too.
ALDM has secondary issues too, such as:
- the environmentalist cause, including the introduction of solar-panels
- educational reforms by which pupils and students would be less stressed.
- animal welfare and anti-devastation policies
- heritage revival
The Abortion Issue[edit]
Name abortion and you have named the Devil. Yet, far from what the Partit Nazzjonalista tries to make the people believe, quite a number of Maltese ladies travel each and every week to Sicily to have an abortion done there. The methods used by the Sicilians are completely unprofessional, and, thus, their "service" can lead to serious medical complications.
ALDM is clear on this subject. Abortion should be legalized, for if the act of terminating the life of a feotus is immoral, it is twice immoral to have it done plus having a lady undergo amateurish pseudo-surgery.
References: