Getting back to life
As Sir Alex Ferguson put it in one of his autobiographies, youngsters think they have all the time in the world.
Owen Bonnici is the Minister for Justice, Culture and Local Government he reason is simple: if you are a boy who has just celebrated his tenth birthday, your next one seems an eternity away. That’s because the single year that stretches ahead amounts to 10 per cent of the time you have been on earth. It’s a different sensation when you turn 50, because the distance to your 51st birthday amounts to just two per cent of the time you have been alive.
In politics time has a completely different dimension. You quickly realise that you work and live – at least politically - within a finite period, particulary when you are in government. A five-year legislature has only 1825 days. True, on paper a legislature can stretch to a bit more but we all know that legislatures tend to end a couple of weeks or months before the fifth anniversary. In 2017, the election was called almost a full year in advance. So the term 1825 days is never exact, but you get the gist of the argument.
In our job, time is of the essence.
A stark realisation stares you in the face as soon as you are sworn into office: there is simply no time to lose; you have to deliver, and fast. I occasionally read opinion columns in the papers by people who follow politics trying to analyse the secret behind Labour’s success under Joseph Muscat.
I find what I read very shallow, particularly when some of them try to boil it down to a mass exercise in granting of favours to anything that moves under the sun.
No party would win with a 40,000 majority simply by basing itself on an exercise of granting of favours to the electorate. And as any experienced politician will tell you, the demand in this field always eclipses the supply by great measure.
In order to attract the trust of a majority of votes in this country, a party must offer a vision and implement that vision.
In order to win with such a great margin, a party must not only offer a vision and implement it, but has to master to the degree of excellence in a number of crucial factors: setting standards, leading, communicating, self-analysis, discipline, work rate, drive, conviction, teambuilding and, perhaps most importantly, mastering time. I feel very privileged that, in the areas of justice and culture, the 1825 days of governance trusted to me in the first legislature have been “refreshed” following the last general election. This provides a splendid opportunity to reap first hand the results of what was patiently being build in the previous legislature and implement reforms which, for some reason or other, were not managed to fruition previously. Not many politicians, past or present, have had that opportunity.
I intend to make absolutely the most out of this. When I became parliamentary secretary for justice back in 2013, I quickly realised that Europe looks at the justice sector from three perspectives: the quantitative (the time it takes for a case to be decided), the qualitative (the quality of justice that is being served) and the independence of the judiciary. I immediately adopted the same model and anything that we did or implemented fell under one of the these three categorisations. The benefits were immediately evident: through this alignment we quickly started gaining ground in the justice scoreboard and in the dialogue with the European Commission and Council of Europe’s CEPEJ we came across as structured in our thinking and implementation.
I assembled a group of young civil servants and conglomerated them into a newly-formed justice department. I assigned this department a number of tasks: one of them included the constant analysis and reporting of the situation of our justice system according to these parameters using variables which are found in both the justice scoreboard and CEPEJ.
Now we could study and analyse the situation of our justice system according to a scientific exercise based on European best practice.
It is my sincere wish that the main stakeholders, the press and the general public look at the justice sector from this perspective as I trust that it would help immensely towards a constructive debate. As I mentioned in my opinion piece last week, I intend to share with you an objective analysis of those three categorisations, one by one. Next week I will start with the quantitative aspect. Now, let me turn to culture and, in particular, Valletta 2018.
Valletta has, in the past few years, been transformed and brought back to life.
The title of Capital of Culture in 2018 has undoubtedly been the single largest catalyst for this transformation to happen.
In many more ways than one, Valletta 2018 is already a success story – and it has not yet even started!
When I was a kid, I used to attend music lessons in Valletta in the evening. After 5pm it was pitch-black and a complete desert and I used to absolutely hate walking all the way from Bakery Street to the Valletta terminus to catch the bus.
Now, Valletta at night is even more beautiful than in the day.
I am myself a Valletta resident (I live in Old Mint Street, almost corner with Teatru Manoel). Every morning I walk to my office and in those early minutes I can notice the radical transformation that has taken place and is taking place as we speak. Take Strada Teatro and the whereabouts. It is now full of high-end restaurants and catering establishments. Strada Stretta has taken a life of its own with some amazing investment being undertaken throughout the whole stretch.
I usually leave parliament at 9pm in the evening and, again, I go home on foot. Again, Valletta is always bursting with life and full of youth and energy.
All this did not happen out of thin air or by accident.
I feel that the whole government did an amazing job to reinvigorate Valletta. Take the tourism sector – the numbers of boutique hotels in the capital city are mushrooming by the minute. They offer a beautiful experience which is second to none. Or take the sterling work done by GRHC. Impeccable.
We gave our 200% and I have to thank all the entities in my ministry for doing their utmost. Take the restoration works, for instance. I am so happy with how much the Restoration Directorate and Teatru Manoel have achieved and done. All the major buildings and bastions have been restored to perfection and we have already everything prepared for post-Valletta 2018 so that the momentum lives on. Our Teatru Manoel has been reinvigorated: what we did there is incredible and we are keen to keep doing more.
During 2018, in staggered periods, we will be unveiling various infrastructural projects as part of the celebrations. It is a conscious decision we took so that the people in the street can savour an on-going positive effect in their capital city.
In particular MUZA will be a major highlight. Heritage Malta has done an amazing work on this project and I am sure it will create a positive new vibe in the cultural and artistic field.
We have also other surprises in the pipeline but I do not want to throw away the secrets.
The next 365 days will be a festa and more. I thank Jason Micallef, Catherine Tabone and all the people at Valletta2018 Foundation for the wonderful work they have done for us. They are incredible people.
I really look forward to the big event on the 20th of this month and beyond.