The New Year has brought with it a now-familiar howl of pain from a man who has lost his wife, his home, his belongings and also his serenity. Carmel Pace has once again taken to Facebook to question the authorities on their desire to seek justice for Miriam Pace, who was killed under the rubble of her own home in March last year.

Back then, Prime Minister Robert Abela had promised justice would be delivered speedily. It appears, however, that while COVID restrictions set the brakes on a number of administrative and judicial functions, once the semi-lockdown was eased there was no attempt to dig deeper into this senseless death.

The family’s calls for justice, via social media, are yet another painful thorn in this saga which, 10 months after Miriam’s death, drags on without an end in sight. It is also telling how these repeated calls are being ignored by the authorities, most notably the prime minister himself, who may find himself in another awkward position.

While his antipathy for public inquiries is known, Abela cannot even hide behind the excuse of political mileage as he has done with the Caruana Galizia inquiry; the Pace family are seeking to know why their wife and mother was killed in that way and have no interest whatsoever in gaining the silent opposition any political points.

But Abela should be wary of trying to minimise the issue, seeing that the project’s developer is a now-suspended board member of the Malta Developers’  Association. Abela was one of those who had participated in the formulation of the statute for the development lobby and this puts him in a sticky situation.

Moreover, the clouds from the Caruana Galizia inquiry may also be the reason for which the prime minister continues to ignore calls for a public inquiry on Miriam Pace’s death, since it is through the former that many learnt of, or confirmed, the deep-seated ties between Sandro Chetcuti and the Labour Party, links from a previous administration which have come to haunt and embarrass Abela.

Serving justice to the Pace family not only means investigations, arraignments and court sentences. It also means putting a stop to similar accidents and similar deaths. The construction sector needs a profound reform in the way it is allowed to operate, with serious legislation and backstops introduced to regulate a lobby that loudly advocates self-regulation but drags its feet on reforming itself.

Over a year has passed since Robert Musumeci’s ill-fated construction reform, which introduced a series of measures that complicated things for some but failed to address the root cause of construction deaths and accidents; proof of this is the saddening tally of victims registered in 2020.

Abela should also be aware of the discomfort among the public at the influence of mega-developers on politicians as large projects continue to draw opposition from the citizenry in response to their disproportionateness, if not uselessness.

A serious reform of the construction industry should take the arduous path of eliminating the proximity between business and politics – that same proximity which was confirmed by the Caruana Galizia inquiry and which is not only a direct cause of construction-related deaths but also the gateway to corruption, undue influence, shoddy working practices and misdeeds in planning policies and their execution.

It is time for the prime minister to walk the talk; to be true to his promise. He must regulate, with authority, the construction industry while making sure that the family receives justice and closure for the loss of Miriam Pace.