The lack of progress in constitutional reform was “worrying”, President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca said yesterday, as she questioned whether the President’s role should be merely limited to “rubber-stamping”.
Marking her first anniversary as head of state by laying a wreath of flowers at the foot of the monument in Birkirkara dedicated to Malta’s first president, Sir Anthony Mamo, Ms Coleiro Preca said the President’s role needed to be better defined and modernised to meet today’s needs.
She questioned how the Commission for the Administration of Justice could offer effective redress to citizens if it was composed solely of lawyers and judges.
“We need to rethink the type of presidency we wish to have. I’m not referring to an executive presidency – a non-executive presidency has a lot of advantages. If all the structures in our country leant towards votes, we would lose out on the moral force the presidency can offer.
“We should ask whether the Commission should continue to be chaired by the President, whether it should retain the same composition and whether it should be a more effective entity for those citizens who feel they are not given a fair run by the courts”.
Should the President merely rubber-stamp documents? Shouldn’t there be the opportunity for the President to sound his or her voice?
The President signs petitions and land expropriation documents but in the consultation period leading to the signing, the President would lack a voice to express his or her recommendations, Ms Coleiro Preca pointed out.
“Should the President merely be there to rubber-stamp documents? Shouldn’t there be the opportunity for the President to sound his or her voice, if he or she believes that things could be done better or differently?”
Referring to the controversy sparked after the Prime Minister announced the spring hunting referendum date in January, which the Opposition said should be the President’s decision, Ms Coleiro Preca said that such equivocality should be ironed out.
“The Constitution states one thing while the law states another. Obviously, the Constitution prevails. But the issue wasn’t clear – or else questions wouldn’t have risen. We should not be equivocal on such matters.”
During the past 12 months, the President held and attended 2,441 meetings, averaging 6.7 a day.
Structures were being set up to modernise the Malta Community Chest Fund, which is set to become a foundation with better accountability and good governance. She said the MCCF would no longer merely remain a reactive body which helped people in need but would also become proactive.
The President’s Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society, set up in June, was working on various projects which affected society, including research on the relationship between teachers and pupils in Malta.
Teachers have acquired new responsibilities almost akin to raising children, she said. Attention was also focused on setting up the President’s Trust, which will aim to help children and, in particular, youths, by providing them with a personalised plan that would help them become employable, escape the poverty cycle and live a life of dignity.
The trust will work closely with the Prince’s Trust in the UK. An initiative exploring Malta’s national identity would also be unveiled in the near future, she added.