Whoever came up with the idea of data protection deserves to rot in hell for the pain and anguish that he is causing to the Maltese families and the honest Maltese citizens. I know that data protection was meant for a good purpose, but unless the data protection commissioner has not noticed, it is serving mainly the underground.
We read that data protection is there to protect us all, so that Tom, Dick and Harry will not be able to know anything about us without our consent. But this is mere bluff because as we all know, our telephone conversations are not protected; our e-mails are not protected; anyone can get to read and hear what we write and say; and so I honestly ask: what is the purpose of data protection in this day and age?
When the law was introduced, they made us register with the Commissioner of Data Protection in order to ensure that we do not divulge the data that we have on our clients with anyone. They scared us into thinking that we would be breaking the law if we divulged any details about anybody without his or her consent, or without the court’s authorization. They rendered the law such that it has now become a convenient tool for those who those who defraud you because you cannot get any details about their whereabouts all because of data protection.
But the biggest disservice done by data protection is certainly to our families. We are known in this country for not practicing what we preach: on one hand we preach our love for the family and how husband and wife are one and on the other hand we provide tools and ammunition for one spouse to fight the other. Data protection is one of these tools and ammunition.
It is dividing our families and putting great pressure on them because spouses have to go through the ordeal of having to humiliate themselves and ask the court for authorization for the banks and financial institutions to provide them with information about the assets of the other spouse, when half of these assets belong to them already. It is so degrading to go to the bank and check about the bank accounts and the investments made by your wife or your husband during marriage and being told that you have no right to such information.
It is even more depressing when after obtaining the court authorization you discover that you are rich without knowing it, and relive those days when you and your children survived on bread and better because your husband told you that there is no cash. How can we continue to live this lie any longer? I appeal to Minister John Dalli to change the law so that spouses have the automatic right to know about each other’s assets.
This amendment in the law will also alleviate the workload in our Family Court, as the continuous flow of applications that are submitted in court precisely for this authorization is waste of precious time for our court. Not only that, but why does one have to file for separation in order to be able to obtain such information? Why is the system devised such that those who go for consensual separation can never know if they got a fair deal, because they can never know what assets form part of the community of acquests?
I for one would like to see data protection not applicable to spouses, and that all a spouse would have to do is produce a valid marriage certificate so the information about the other spouse can be given. I invite all those who have the family at heart to come to the Family Court and watch the pains of those families who live without water and electricity because their husband refuses to pay; those who have to tell their children to discontinue their university studies because their father does not want to give child support when they are of age; those who live on social assistance because the other party refuses to pay maintenance; those whose home is being sold by the bank because the house loan is not being paid when they know that all this could be avoided if they had the power to get hold of half of the investments and deposits that the other party has in his or her name.
Minister Dalli is a wise man and I am sure that he will amend the law so that social assistance will be automatically deducted from the other party’s bank account, and no longer from our taxes. We cannot continue to live in a situation where we take the side of those who flout the law and their responsibilities, because let us face it: in most cases the issue of social assistance is a certificate to those who do not want to pay child support to continue to shirk their responsibilities. People who afford boats and a Mercedes can afford to pay child support; and excuses such as that boats and the Mercedes are in a company’s name should no longer be tolerated.
Unless this is dealt with quickly, the man in the street out there continues to corrupt the officials in banks and in employment agencies and in vat departments and in tax department to get information about their spouses when they have an automatic right to such information in the first place.
I dare say that data protection is not being interpreted rightly by those who are summoned to give information in the other courts. In criminal cases, data protection is being invoked when our law says that this should not be the case. Strange but true: the police testify that they were not able to get information about the accused such as details about his present employment because of data protection. Obviously, this is causing a lot of unnecessary frustration in the injured parties because they are witnessing how this data protection tends to protect more the aggressors than the aggrieved.
Now that our law on data protection has been in force for a couple of years, isn’t it time for a revamp in the law so that it will be more family friendly? And unless this is done, I repeat: to hell with data protection!