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The call made by the President of Malta to update the Constitution should not fall on deaf ears. The political class and civil society should seriously consider taking up the suggestion. Forty years since independence and thirty since our country became a republic have paved the way for the country to consider its next constitutional landmark: the creation of the second republic.
This should be marked by a change in the Constitution to reflect today’s realities.
Among the constitutional provisions that need adjournment are the neutrality and non alignment clauses that still speak of reality in terms of the two super powers even if only one still survives and Malta is now part of the European Union.
The new constitution must reflect European values and embrace the growing liberal and secular influences in our society. Accordingly the increased separation of state and church powers, the values of tolerance, diversity, accountability, transparency, open government, party financing must all be entrenched and enshrined in the highest law of the land.
The scenes witnessed on Monday whereby the two major parties engaged in a media circus to collect donations, were pathetic and very un-European. It was shameful to see ministers and parliamentary secretaries dish out swaths of cash as donations for their party. To start with nobody knows who donated that money and secondly it jarred completely with the hard measures dished out in the budget three weeks earlier. Party financing must be regulated in a transparent manner and enshrined in the Constitution.
If Parliament is truly to be reflective of the people, electoral reform must be tackled as a matter of urgency and not haphazardly on the eve of a general election. The choice facing the electorate must be truly free, unshackled by the fear of non-representation because of unrealistic electoral thresholds. This improvement in the system can only materialize if the number of parliamentary seats obtained by each political party is a proportional reflection of the number of votes obtained in the first count. To ensure governability, a minimum national threshold can also be introduced.
The composition of the Broadcasting Authority also needs constitutional updating. Political parties must not be allowed to nominate their representatives on the BA. This practise has led the authority to be more concerned with protecting the interests of the parties rather than the overwhelming interests of the viewer. Ideally the BA should be composed of independent minded persons who are also capable of ensuring that each media, even if party-owned is impartial.
Without gravitating towards an American-style presidential system, even the powers of the President and the method of his election could be re-evaluated. The President could be given wider powers to select the members of national institutions thus ensuring they remain above partisan politics.
An updated constitution should also give recognition to new social realities in our society including the widening definition of the family. Such a definition would be necessary in order to enact legislation that affords legal protection for spouses in non-conventional families.
The changes, which would usher in a new era in this country’s short independent history, should be the remit of a national commission representing the three political parties and representatives of civil society.
At the height of the festive season it may be presumptuous to talk of such radical changes to the highest form of legal contract that binds government and national institutions with the people they represent. But as time passes it becomes more of a necessity to re-think our national institutions to make them truly reflective of the society we are living in and responsive to the aspirations of a new Malta that has now entered a family of European nation states.
A second republic could reignite the people’s waning belief in national institutions.
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