Vandalism in broad daylight

While condemning the vandalistic attack on Portes des Bombes, it’s disgusting to get to know that, following an accident, the authorities failed to fix the rear camera on the building. Had the camera been replaced, the attack might have been spared.

The Times of Malta reports (October 18) on the incident and says: “Our country’s cultural heritage gives us an identity and it is precisely why this government remains committed to safeguarding it and protecting it.”

A vandalised Portes des Bombes. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

If this is true, why was the camera not fixed immediately once the repairs were carried out? We are told that the vandals acted at around 7.30am. One wonders how they were not caught red-handed when hundreds of cars frequent the area at all times, every day.

If Culture Minister Owen Bonnici is to be taken seriously, how come that his colleague minister, Anton Refalo still boasts of the historic milestone, which can still be found at his residence after all these months? Is Refalo considered to be above the law? Is he untouchable? One wonders.

Why did Prime Minister Robert Abela allow this to happen on his watch? Why did he not order that the milestone be returned immediately to its rightful place? It belongs to the people and Refalo has no right to make it his own.

Where is the police commissioner who is duty-bound to see that law and order prevail in the country? How come some people feel they are more equal than others?

Emily Barbaro-Sant – Mosta

Justice: thinking outside of the box

Every law-abiding citizen in our republic should be very worried about the erudite chief justice’s picture of the state that the operations on this country’s courts system, as presented at the commencement of the Forensic Year, are presently in.

Also praiseworthy is his implied stance that everyone should come forward with ideas as to how some of this immense load can be gnawed into to, hopefully, all of us working together towards a situation where justice is delivered, correctly and in a timely manner to all.

With such a humble approach guiding me, might I suggest that our seemingly national obsession with the legal profession’s prowess and “unique” qualities could be part (but certainly not the totality) of the problem… and the solution?

When our national administrative law structure gave full judicial status to many tribunals existing in terms of the laws as they then stood, certainly, in at least that part of the present courts’ structures, the weight was less and justice was being imparted in a much quicker and more efficient fashion, at least in those areas and remits of the then existing tribunals. 

Appeals from these tribunals’ decisions were few and nearly always sanctioned fully the prior decisions of such tribunals.

The question indeed begs itself: was the present administrative justice law created as a strongly lobbied-for creation by the legal profession itself?

In many countries, it is not only persons from the legal profession (warranted lawyers and such) who sit in judicial positions. Perhaps the justice minister might do well to engage in an in-depth study of the justices of the peace systems as existing in several countries. 

Our obsession that, in Malta, it is only lawyers and notaries who study and know the law in depth could be holding us from resorting to solutions that can, in some way, help our presently heavily overburdened law courts.

It is certainly time for thinking outside of the box... otherwise, as the chief justice clearly implied, the whole system/service to the nation strongly risks sinking.

Clear, innovative and brave new thinking has now become an absolute necessity.

John Consiglio – Birkirkara