A statue for Napoleon

I read Charles Xuereb’s latest anti-British diatribe with interest (March 30).

Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries, by Jacques-Louis David, 1812, French painting, oil on canvas. Photo: Shutterstock.com

Our status as a British colony is a matter of history and rather tedious debate but, perhaps, to keep Xuereb happy, we should replace the statue of Queen Victoria in Valletta with a statue of Xuereb’s great hero, Napoleon Bonaparte, whose troops brought so much wealth and joy to our islands.

Indeed, in these days when everyone seems so interested in micro-analysing the history of slavery, we could also dedicate this statue to the fact that this champion of liberté, égalité, fraternité reintroduced slavery and the slave trade in France and its colonies in 1802, an abomination which had been banned by the First French Republic in 1794 and which was only finally abolished by the Second French Republic in 1848.

Who knows, if we had not been taken over by those dastardly Brits, Boney might even have reintroduced slavery in Malta.

I’m certain that any campaign to raise funds for this noble project from an ever-grateful Maltese nation would be oversubscribed within a matter of hours.

Charles A. Gauci – Sannat

Rule of law

We refer to the editorial ‘Anti-corruption fight can wait’ (April 3). Contrary to the interpretation provided in the editorial, the government has always sought to strengthen all functions related to the rule of law, including implementing unprecedented constitutional and institutional reforms. We have seen this in how the judiciary and chief justice are appointed, by enhancing the offices of the attorney general and the state attorney, and, as seen for the first time a few days ago, with how the president is appointed.

Regarding recommendations from international institutions, the government is committed to continuing to work on more reforms. A statement by the ministry of justice confirmed the government welcomed the report by the Council of Europe’s Group of States Against Corruption, known as GRECO.

Malta has carried out, or is carrying out, most of the GRECO recommendations. Indeed, the GRECO report states Malta has implemented or is implementing 61 per cent of the recommendations. The report deals with the prevention of corruption and promotion of integrity in the execution of the highest executive functions of central governments and law enforcement agencies. GRECO’s evaluations are carried out regularly on all countries that are members of the Council of Europe and GRECO.

However, one should note that, contrary to what the editorial claimed, the Malta police force has implemented all the nine recommendations related to it, three fully and the other six executed while being monitored. Nowadays, the police force is successfully carrying out a strategic transformation that is bringing about more professionalism, integrity, discipline and better leadership functions. All this is translating in increased public trust as evidenced from the NSO survey published in 2023 and the Eurobarometer published in December 2023.

Brian Gatt, communications office, Ministry for Justice and Reform of the Construction Sector – Valletta