Editorial | Sunday, 05 April 2009

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A stronger presidency

For the first time in the Republic’s 35-year history, the government of the day has nominated for the Presidency a man from the opposing political party: and who, less than a year ago, was aspiring to become Leader of the Opposition.
In itself, this political milestone is a reckoning of how so much of our country’s potential has been subsumed under the weight of partisan rivalry and nepotism, and still smarts from the gaping political wounds of our recent past. Appointing George Abela as president, whether one agrees or not with his nomination, has turned out to be fairly representative of the nation’s desire not to see partisan patronage steal the show once again.
Despite his rather tranquil political career, George Abela was at one point a towering figure within the Labour Party. He was part of the leadership triumvirate that won the 1996 election: but at the same time, he managed to retain a fairly low profile, never holding public political office, and consequently never having made unpopular decisions on matters of public policy.
However, as Eddie Fenech Adami now vacates his post, there is a telling irony in this story; one that illustrates the fragility of the democracy that Abela will now be responsible to safeguard.
Just over 20 years ago, George Abela was one of the Labour party’s five representatives on the electoral commission which, in 1986, had to report on the apportionment in electoral districts. The crucial exercise should have served to redefine the gerrymandered districts that had enabled Labour to garner a majority of seats – the Constitutional requisite to form a government – in 1981. As it turned out, the PN won the popular vote but found itself in Opposition regardless, an anomaly that was later redressed before the 1987 general elections, by means of a Constitutional amendment that never quite addressed the root cause of the problem in the first place.
Prior to these elections, the Labour delegation on the electoral commission shot down a minority report by the PN representatives, calling for the revision of these boundaries. As it turned out, the electoral boundaries were left unchanged, and Labour once again won a majority of seats but a minority of votes, as had happened exactly in the 1981 election.
As Eddie Fenech Adami himself told journalists upon winning the elections, had it not been for the Constitutional amendment, the PN would have been consigned to the Opposition benches once again, despite its 5,000-vote majority.
Twenty years later, Fenech Adami hands over the baton to a former member of this much-maligned electoral commission. While this historical footnote will not cloud our judgement of the merits of Abela, it is an episode that serves as an important lesson as to how fragile a democracy can be, when political parties covet absolute power, and their partisan greed overshadows the common good.
The challenges to Malta’s political and social development are still evident today. To be sure, in this very ‘century of biology’, it has been the Maltese Constitution that became the focus of a renewed challenge to democracy, namely with regards to the entrenchment (or not) of abortion, and how far a pro-life charter could impinge upon bio-ethical considerations and the drafting of laws, such as that regulating in vitro fertilisation.
So what type of President will George Abela be? Will he be just a passive listener, restricting himself to the hackneyed symbol of imagined ‘national unity’? Or will he opt for a more active presidency, one that truly reflects its guardianship of the Constitution?
Can he be a catalyst for crucial democratic renewal, such as the reform of our electoral laws? Will he – formerly a lawyer who assisted migrants and asylum seekers – exhort our nation and its elected representatives to come to terms with the reality of migration and our human rights obligations?
Unlike Fenech Adami, whose presidency crowned his long premiership and the ultimate goal of Malta’s accession to the EU, Abela’s moment is now. While Fenech Adami spent these last five years proposing reflections on the Christian heritage of the Maltese nation, Abela must have the courage and intellectual rigour to represent our 21st century European aspirations – those of human rights, liberty and democracy under the banner of a secular republic, mindful of its religious heritage but not subservient to religious power-seekers.
It’s a tall order for the new president. But just as the Nationalist government turned a new page by appointing a Labourite head of state, so should Abela elevate the presidency to one that is truly a vigorous custodian of the values of the republic and its Constitution. The strengthening of the presidency will only be found within its holder.
We wish George Abela success in his appointment.

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