Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/893950
maltatoday SUNDAY 29 OCTOBER 2017 Interview 15 The murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruna Galizia shocked the country, and also exposed a level of criminality that was hitherto mostly invisible. Prof HENRY FRENDO, of the University of Malta's History Department, outlines why such events tend to underscore pivotal societal changes impunity cated equipment required. But of course, this is not unique to Mata: many murders don't get solved worldwide. Those involving explo- sives, in particular. But in the cases of Baldacchino in Valletta and Shaqaqi in Sliema... both were hit- and-run murders: at point-blank range, and with bulls-eye accuracy. These were the work of profes- sional killers. What does that say about Malta's police force? I think the police corps – if not the intel- ligence service - needs to be looked at very seriously... What about calls for the resignation of Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar? It's not just about persons, but persons matter as well. Quite frankly, I'm not very impressed with the current police commis- sioner... but I'm not impressed by the fact that police commissioners change every year, either. This is not serious... It is also a fact that similar calls for Constitutional reform have been made for years. Two areas that were specifically mentioned in the past have direct relevance to the issue of law enforcement. The fact that the AG doubles up as both counsellor to government, and also head of the prosecution office... That's bad. … and also the autonomy of the Police Force, in a country where police commissioners are appointed directly by the executive arm of the State. How would you propose addressing these shortcomings in practice? Unfortunately the police force in Malta has had some nasty hits in the past. We had one police com- missioner who was accused of murder, and landed in jail. I don't think it looks good at all, when a police commissioner doesn't last his term. We've had some who succeeded: Vivian De Gray, for ex- ample, who was highly respected within the corps. But that was in colonial times. Even John Rizzo, though, was there for some 12 years. He had a good stint running the corps. So I think that chang- ing police commissioners at a fast rate makes for instability and disorientation in the corps. I was hoping that Michael Cassar would be a good commissioner, but un- fortunately he resigned when he received the FIAU report... which apparently indicted a couple of bigwigs. So to what extent is the police force really 'autonomous'? If it is not autonomous, how does the police investigate and take action against Cabinet ministers, for in- stance? These are serious crimes that could land them in prison. It gets tricky. Unless there is a con- sensual arrangement at the selec- tion stage of police commissioners, or the heads of other authorities which are responsible for main- taining public order, we will be going round in circles. You change one, but what about the next one? But how can one possibly guarantee consensus? Is there a specific reform we can all agree upon, which could eliminate the government's prerogative to appoint police commissioners? If we're going to stick to just one office, the police commissioner... the suggestion on the table is that he or she should be at least selected by a consensual agreement among politicians. But if we're talking about Constitutional reform, one could think of other possibilities.... There could, however, be problems with the 'two-thirds majority' proposal for public appointments. It is already a requirement to remove a sitting judge... yet on two separate occasions, attempts were made to impeach sitting judges, and no consensus ever materialised. If the same thing happens with public appointments, we could end up without a Police Commissioner at all. Secondly, it doesn't address the autonomy issue. Why does an autonomous police force need Parliament to appoint its Commissioner? Who not appoint its own commissioner, through a system of internal promotions? I think a lot of civic and public space is taken up by politicians on this island. I don't think it's an ad- vantage at all. In fact, it's become boring. But what your question presumes is that there is suffi- cient maturity in society to allow for responsible decisions regard- ing public affairs. Politicians have some responsibility there as well, because they are still looked up to, by some people, as role models. Not by everyone anymore, howev- er. And maybe less and less so over time. But what do other countries do? Why does Scotland Yard, for instance, have such a good repu- tation? Or the FBI? Even in Italy there have some very courageous and impressive moves to clean up the police force... and also to re- strain the Mafia. There have been considerable successes in that re- gard... Speaking of which, Malta has also been described as a 'Mafia State'... I think it's a gross exaggeration. Apart from putting Malta in a bad light, I don't think it is fair to de- scribe Malta as a 'mafia state'. On the whole, we've had quite a solid judicial tradition in Malta: even in the worst of colonial times. We've had judges who rose to the occa- sion, and judged cases against the interest of the government. One example was the deportation order of 1942... That case goes back quite a long time, though. Would you say that our institutions – including the judiciary – are still as robust and autonomous today, as they were in those far-off days? I think [the judiciary] is prob- ably the last bastion of protection which the country feels it still has. I'm not very impressed by criti- cism of persons appointed to the bench because of earlier links to a political party. I think that, de- pending on the person, some of the judges and magistrates will rise to the occasion. I think they are already doing so. But of course, you cannot generalise. I have res- ervations about certain issues: like magistrates being picked up dead drunk in Paceville... or keeping the Caruana Galizia family waiting for hours. All this is disturbing. But I think it's unfair to tar them all with the same brush. On the whole, the judiciary has a history of rising to the occasion - especially when se- rious crimes occur – and also on independence and impartiality.