Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/326223
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 8 JUNE 2014 Opinion 20 What happened to that judicial reform? S imon Busuttil believes that his party does not require another report on yet another heavy defeat at the polls. The PN leadership knows that several reports exist but again, it does not seem ready to learn from its mistakes. A full 10 years ago, following the debacle of the 2004 European Parliament elections, the PN commissioned a report on why it had lost 50,000 votes over a short period of one year. 10 years have passed and the PN leadership has failed to act on this request. One of the more important conclusions of this report puts the blame on the party for not reforming itself; for not portraying itself as a party for the masses and for protecting those who were responsible for mismanagement. "The long shadow of defeat for the PN in government had been visible for a long time, possibly years. Since the general election defeat one year earlier, the PN should have prepared for the MEP election by portraying itself as a vibrant party; an imaginative, courageous, capable and just party but it seems that this did not materialise. "The PN should have stated that it is on the side of the people, by not defending those persons that people associate with wasting public funds...." This was written in the report 10 years ago and the comment remains valid today. Furthermore, Simon Busuttil now refuses to call a vote of confidence because it would mean reopening the debate of resignation or otherwise. "It's not up for discussion" he was quoted as saying, even though he admits that his party is at its 'historic low'. The PN was wrong then and it is wrong now, simply because it has resisted significant change. The Opposition leader is content with the three seats that the PN managed to win in the European Parliament elections. He seems to overlook the difference of around 30,000 votes over 75% of the electorate, which proportionally would equate to a substantially greater majority than that obtained by the Labour party in the 2013 election. In traditional PN leadership style he remains defiant and he says: "The votes we got were disappointing … but it removes nothing from the importance of the six MEPs who were elected. Labour had four seats, now it has three; the PN had two seats, now it has two." The 10-year-old report clearly warned the PN that overall, the people had lost faith in it and that the Nationalist party had lost credibility as the party in government. The report adds, "the PN has been surrounded by the same people for too long" and "this gives the impression that its time has passed, that it is cut off from reality and that it is not understanding the real problems that the people face." The commission also criticized the PN of the time for basing its campaign on things other than those that had a personal impact on their way of life. Ten years later, Simon Busuttil conducted a negative campaign far removed from the real interests of the electorate. There are some new faces but the same old problems that were highlighted 10 years ago. In statements made after the MEP elections, Simon Busuttil has vehemently avoided accepting responsibility for the defeat at the polls. The leadership of the PN should come down from its perceived moral high ground and realise that it has lost all credibility with the people. It should heed the advice of the 2004 commission that "there is a feeling that the PN is surrounded by cliques of persons" and therefore it should renew itself, completely. The Maltese electorate is an intelligent one. It can evaluate the political issues raised during an election campaign. It wants to know what will be good for the country and will not accept negative campaigning. The Panini sticker episode backfired in the PN's face, as did a number of issues that drew negative criticism from the opposition. Simon Busuttil's attempt to urge people to give Prime Minister Joseph Muscat a 'yellow card' failed miserably. In all fairness, it was no contest and the election result speaks for itself. In its report, the 2004 commission clearly states that the defeat had been long coming. And it did, over and over again. Yet in Simon Busuttil's own words - "I didn't say that we would win by votes…" - he admits that the PN did little to try and reverse the deficit. It is like entering a race and aiming for the consolation prize. The writing was on the wall but the PN leadership refused to read the message. The PN has not changed. Simon Busuttil is still surrounded by the some of the same old faces with the same old problems. 10 years ago, the PN had the opportunity to start rebuilding itself. It had itself commissioned a report to see what was driving people away from the PN but its conclusions were never seriously considered. Now after yet another election defeat, it would do well to take the advice given a decade ago, unless it wants the results achieved by the PL in the 2013 and 2014 elections to be repeated. Evarist Bartolo is Minister for Education P erhaps I lean towards the impatient side of things, but… why, exactly, is the judicial reform process taking so long? Labour has been in power for 15 months now. All the spadework has already been done. The Justice Reform Commission has presented its proposals, which were accepted with much fanfare at what was evidently a JAPO ('Just Another Photo Opportunity') for the minister concerned. Yet all these months later I am unaware of a single change to the procedures in the justice system. The only changes I have discerned since then involve beefed-up security procedures upon entry to the law courts… and they only resulted in massive queues down Republic Street on certain days of the week, thus creating even more delays and frustration among the public at large. As for reforms which expedite justice, or which ensure a more rational, sane and above all consistent approach by the judiciary… absolutely zilch. Perhaps the progressive Labour government was too busy delivering on promises it never actually made – or which it made in secret, to the hunters' lobby, to the construction and development, and so on – to find time to concentrate on the single most paramount and fundamentally important pledge on its electoral manifesto. It seems, in a word, to have lost its mojo, on the single issue where mojo is most urgently required. As things stand, hardly a week goes by without multiple court cases graphically illustrating why this reform is so utterly urgent. But the most recent is perhaps also the most telling about what, exactly, needs to change. I imagine you are all familiar with the details so I'll make short shrift of them here. A man was unjustly imprisoned for allegedly sexually abusing his 14-year-old daughter. The accusation had been brought forward by the daughter herself and her mother (his wife)… but the daughter eventually confessed that the rape claim had been fabricated, and that she had lied about her father at her mother's instigation. It turned out that there was no legal mechanism to release a man from prison despite such dramatic proof of innocence. The Constitutional Court had to produce 'interim measures' to have him freed. Later still it transpired that the same daughter had separately filed 20 police reports against her mother, which were being investigated by the same police force concurrently with the mother's report against the father. Yet when questioned about this in court, investigating (and later prosecuting) officer Louise Calleja admitted she was entirely unaware of their existence. In a rather roundabout way, this grotesque and unsettling story places its finger squarely on several – though by no means all – of the myriad shortcomings of Malta's archaic legal and judicial set-up. People have rightly expressed shock and dismay upon discovering that a police investigation resulting in such a serious conviction had been conducted so blithely, so shabbily and so carelessly. There was consternation at the social implications, too: as though the case had rent a hole in the fabric of a society that still prides itself on its intrinsic family values… allowing us all a sneak peek at the sometimes hideous reality on the other side. But while all of this and more is very eminently the subject of intense debate, I myself was struck by a few of the seemingly minor details: none of which, as far as I can see, has been discussed yet. And the closer I look, the more connections I seem to find with other questionable aspects (not all necessarily applicable to this case) of the court system. It's a little like the classic domino effect. You A selfie for the PN Simon Busuttil is still surrounded by the some of the same old faces with the same old problems Raphael Vassallo Evarist Bartolo ad