Letters to the editor - April 1, 2025

Breaches of standards

Separation of powers is the hallmark of a society governed by the rule of law. Yet, recent examples of subtle and legislative-enforced power grabbing by the government, as well as attacks on the very mechanisms and institutions that seek to hold government conduct to account, are putting this in jeopardy in our country.

This is exactly what has been happening in Malta with an elected government made up of politicians of factious tempers, of local prejudices and of sinister designs, who first obtained the suffrages and then betrayed the interests of the people.

Our constitution contains, in addition to the primary mechanisms of democratic accountability, a set of backup systems designed to limit the ability of bad rulers to do serious harm to the public good. One such backup system is precisely the separation of powers, in particular, an independent judiciary.

Take what has been happening in parliament.

There has been much talk of the diminishing role of parliament. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

There has been much talk of the diminishing role of parliament and the increased power of the executive in the current political approach. PM’s question time is inexistent, co-opted MPs seem to be the order of the day, and a Speaker chosen by a simple majority, who used to militate within the Labour Party and is perceived to side with the government’s approach most of the time, risks rendering the House of Representatives irrelevant.

To a greater degree, parliament is becoming the government majority, and the government majority of subservient MPs therein is a rubber stamp for the government. It is often felt that more than parliament controlling the executive, it is the other way around.

Horizontal accountability is continuously being eroded as the counterbalancing of state institutions like parliament, independent judiciary, and other constitutional watchdogs can no longer be discerned.

The government hardly heeds or implements the recommendations and findings of the ombudsman; the police commissioner is more of a government lackey, with the attorney general following suit and a state advocate subject to the prime minister’s whims. We have a standards commissioner in place who couldn’t be more lenient when sanctioning breaches of expected standards in public life and an auditor general whose highlighting of maladministration is mostly left by the wayside.

A government interested in power is apt to abuse it and to carry its authority as far as it will go. The end result will be that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Mark Said – Msida

Munich 1938, revisited?

Howdy Jay Dee! I pray thee tell me: “Where are we?”

“Are we in Act 1 of the play (on nations’ existence), entitled: ‘Trumperlain begs Putler for peace in his time’?  The following Act has Trumperlain charged with choosing dishonour and reaping a hot worldwide war.”

“Or are we in Act 4, entitled: ‘Trumpoosevelt high-handedly gives Putlin a chunk of Europe’?”

The final Act, yet to come, is entitled: ‘Trumpoosevelt is overwhelmed by the ghost of the True Man’

Peter Micallef-Eynaud – St Julian’s