Errol Cutajar, Nationalist Party candidate

Today, more than two weeks after the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the wise words of Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri at the opening of the Forensic Year on October 2 make more sense and are still echoing in my mind.

The rule of law should be inherent in all organs that constitute the State. The State is larger than the sum of all the parts that constitute it. The State is bigger than the judiciary, the government, Parliament and the fourth estate as represented by the media in general.

The Chief Justice departed from the yearly tradition of speaking about the accomplishments made during the previous year and about what issues are still in need of addressing in the years to come, about statistics, the number of judgments delivered, the need of more funding and so on and so forth. Instead, he chose to speak about the rule of law.

In my opinion, the Chief Justice wanted simply to underline the fact that, as things stand, the day-to-day running of the courts has been rendered practically irrelevant because we need to focus on the more important issues that we take for granted.

With the benefit of hindsight, it sounded like a warning for what was to come.

This stance by the Chief Justice reminds me also of the one adopted by the leader of the Opposition, Adrian Delia, who, in the face of such a tragedy that shocked practically every one of us, opted also to depart from the annual tradition of replying to the Budget speech on October 17. Budgetary measures, statistics, price hikes, cost of living adjustments and a surplus are, today, also practically irrelevant.

What intentionally happened on October 16 in Bidnija was only a reflection of an already collapsed system

According to the Chief Justice, over the past years, certain fundamental principles required elaboration because they are so basic and elementary to a modern democratic society. According to him, we should go back to basics, never to forget what a democratic society requires, to always bear in mind why the judiciary exists and what motivates it; the answer to all that is the rule of law.

The judiciary’s raison d’être is the safeguarding of the rule of law. According to the Chief Justice, the rule of law is not an abstract concept for lawyers to debate. Every citizen will suffer the consequences when the rule of law is lacking, such as the inconvenience pedestrians have to experience when pavements are obstructed by tables and chairs, or when cars are parked illegally causing more traffic congestions, or the problems caused by illegal building, or bays occupied by deckchairs.

Such mundane violations had already raised the alarm and the whole institutional system began showing signs of deterioration, with the imminent danger of collapse. What intentionally happened on October 16 in Bidnija was only a reflection of an already collapsed system.

As we all watch, follow and debate the latest events, highlighted in both the local and foreign media, as a consequence of the horrifying situation we have been put into, I still can hear the Chief Justice’s words echoing in my mind: “In a few words which everyone can understand, the rule of law (is-saltna tad-dritt) is the opposite of the ‘rule of what is wrongful’ (is-saltna tal-imgħawweġ). A law which does not respect the principles to which I have referred is a law not in conformity with the rule of law but contributes towards the rule of what is wrongful.”

Words similar to those uttered by the leader of the Opposition when he referred to a rule of the jungle (Is-saltna tal-ġungla), rather than the rule of law.

I believe, that, unknowingly, we have been lately crawling out of democracy.

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