Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1068299
16 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 6 JANUARY 2019 INTERVIEW Madam President, throughout your presidency, the social sector was amongst the areas you devoted most attention to - in a way, this was almost as an extension of your previous role as social policy minister. What do you feel has been your biggest achievement in the last four and a half years? I'd like to clarify the miscon- ception that my presidency was an extension of my role as a minister. The presidency is completely different from any executive role. A minister has an executive role, while a Presi- dent doesn't. The presidency is more focused on advocacy, so to speak. It requires an effort to try to have an influence on cer- tain matters. This is the forma mentis I had as President. … I've always been people- centred. When it comes to the people, I feel that the quality of their lives doesn't only depend on the money they have, but on all those things which can in any way affect their wellbeing. This was what I focused on in my presidency. I was also very interested – be- cause I am a people's president – in understanding the compo- sition of our society. Therefore, for instance, I dedicated a lot of time on creating what I call 'safe places', which are spaces where people feel they can speak comfortably. Thousands of people have come to the Pal- ace to speak to us, enabling us to understand what their social aspirations are. I would say that it is the fact that the work we did during my time as President has led to a change in the language of [so- cial] discourse in the country. One of the things you had a more direct role in is the raising of funds for charity. But you received some criticism here, from those who said you focused too much on charity, and less on other constitutional matters. How do you respond to this criticism? I think this is another miscon- ception. One of the things I've noticed in the past five years is that raising money for charity is a sensational talking point in the local media, while other things such as our research weren't given much attention. We have around drawn up around 22 research reports, which could fill up volumes of pages in the media. The raising of funds by the Malta Commu- nity Chest Fund Foundation constitutes only 5% of all the work I have done during my tenure… But we wouldn't be fair if we said that the work of this office was only collecting donations for charity. We set up the ongoing inter- faith dialogue, where, for the first time, an Imam and rabbi held a [public] discussion [in Malta]. These are things which didn't receive the bulk of the media's attention, but they are very important for our society, and we worked from the outset to create them. Malta is changing every day. Unfortunately, some Maltese still don't understand that we are now a country which offers a choice of all faith traditions. For example, we have 17 dif- ferent Christian communities. There is more than one Muslim community, there are Jewish people, we have Maltese pagans and atheists too. Had we not brought people around the table to discuss, we wouldn't have known all this about religion in our country. And what about your constitutional role… To give a tangible example, let's take the presidential par- don, where a convicted person petitions the President [to be absolved of guilt]… I would have to pass on this petition to the justice minister, who would in turn pass it on to the Attor- ney General and Police Com- missioner. These would formulate their recommendations on the re- quest, which would constitute their decision on the matter. That decision would then be signed by the President… This clearly illustrates the need for our people to understand and be informed on what the presi- dency is in Malta. What is the role of Malta's head of state, exactly? You think there is a lack of understanding on your role? I was perhaps the first person to be President during the time when Facebook reached its peak. I could see from the com- ments on this platform that there is a lack of understanding about the President's role. Let me refer to something trivial. San Anton Palace in- cludes within it the palace proper, and a garden surround- ing it. But there is then the pub- lic San Anton Gardens which doesn't fall under the remit of San Anton Palace. I can't count the number of times that people have com- mented on Facebook about, for example, on birds at the Gardens which need to be given water to drink, asking how come the President wasn't dealing with this matter. We've come to this. Even if the Gardens were in- deed part of the Palace, I don't think the President, the head of state, should be charged with ensuring the birds have water to drink. If I happen to be walk- ing through there and see that the birds need water, I would draw attention to this… but it surely isn't the President's job to take care of this. You have now taken charge of a steering committee on Constitutional reform… I might be saying this for the first time: a few months after I started my tenure in 2013, I had enquired about the constitu- tional reform. I did this because we had two main parties which had both promised such a re- form in their electoral mani- festo. Everybody knew that this wasn't the competence of the President, and a chairman had been appointed for the purpos- es of this reform. Had I stuck my nose in, I'd have been doing the wrong thing, because, at the end of the day, a decision had already be taken on this subject. In the meantime, I still used to make reference to the reform however, such as in my Repub- lic Day speeches, where I would encourage our politicians to do something about the Constitu- tion, because we need it to be relevant to the 21st century. The Constitution has served us well, but, like any other tool, it has to be kept relevant. As from the last election, I restarted a discussion with our politicians – the leaders of the political parties – and we have started our work on a reform of the Constitution. It is important that we make ourselves well understood on this reform, because God forbid such a historical and important process for our country is taint- ed by misconceptions. We need this reform exercise to belong to all the people, and not to a few individuals. The parties represented in Parliament, the government and Opposition, have nomi- nated four representatives each in what we are referring to as a steering committee, which will lay out the way forward. God willing, at the start of 2019 we will be holding a sub- stantial number of consultation meetings, because we want to invite all the people to partici- pate, in some way or another, if possible. It's also important that this is an educational exercise which helps us understand that the Constitution is our highest le- gal instrument… This is why it's important that everyone understands what we are dis- cussing, and that people's as- pirations are brought forward [to be considered during the reform], so that this new Con- stitution will truly be "owned" by the people… making them Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca says her presidency has been crucial in bringing the highest office of the State closer to the people and learning from them more about the changing face of Malta Massimo Costa mcosta@mediatoday.com.mt President of the people