Robert Musumeci has presented his discussion on constitutional reform with a number of very interesting questions that need to be thrashed out (‘The 2nd Republic Constitution: what’s it for?’ The Sunday Times of Malta, December 9).
What is certain is that constitutional reform is no easy task, nor one that should ever feature a little tweaking here and adjustment there. It is a very valid point to highlight, as Dr Musumeci does, that the world has moved on in the past few years, and our present reality is very different.
Take, for example, the separation of powers. This is of galactic importance in any constitution. In the past few years across the world we have seen this principle being very seriously eroded. Present reality shows that there are far more than three major powers, so how is this to be addressed?
Corporate power has grown and materialises in the form of massive lobbying power. Party funding has grown, making parties susceptible to arm twisting through funding. The intelligence community has grown, creating a new ‘sui generis’ executive power, that has the tools to function off the radar screen of constitutional watchdogs.
The Westminster model of government leaves very much to be desired with respect to separation of power between the Executive and Parliament. Likewise with the appointment of judges by the Executive. Then there is the media, the so-called fourth estate of government, which is largely in the hands of the two major political parties. Should we not be seeking to keep the fourth power also separate from the other three? What about the rights to privacy which are being threatened by modern technology? Technology has the ability today to track just about everything we do and say, from our credit card purchases to our e-mails, SMSs, brousing history, phone calls, our whereabouts by tracking our phones. Does privacy even exist anymore? What can the Constitution do to protect it?
What about the party system itself? Parties are ironically a product of a fundamental right to associate. Yet this right has in a sense perverted the cause of democracy, because the all-important democratic principle of parliamentary representation has been hijacked by a system of particracy, whereby our elected members are made to be subservient to the party mechanisms of their own parties, with a party whip put in place to ensure that our MPs follow not their own conscience and mind but the party line.
Dr Musumeci is right that a Constitution is a contract that binds citizens and the State. Another way of putting it is that it is the keystone of democracy whereby the citizens who in a democracy are supposed to hold the ultimate sovereign power, delegate to their delegates the mandate to rule.
Democracy in the world today is not working as it should, and if there is any hope of improving the mechanism that drives democracy, then that hope would lie in a proper and effective constitutional reform, which is no easy task, and which should not be carried out in haste or with political agendas.