The Malta Independent on Sunday
President’s public consultation ‘ill-timed and not the right way forward’, PD warns
● ‘There is no Plan B for Malta’s Constitution’
Partit Demokratiku yesterday expressed its conviction that the approach taken by President George Vella in calling for a public consultation on Constitutional Reform “is ill-timed and not the right way forward”.
The cart has been put before the horse, PD stated, in that the public consultation should have been carried out only after the Constitutional Convention was formed.
“This reform has already fallen victim to a number of false starts,” PD said, expressing hope that “we get this re-start right”.
PD leader Godfrey Farrugia explains, “The process of public consultation risks being a pseudo-one as the established Steering Committee’s commitment to this reform is shady and stinks of a backroom deal imposed by the government.
“Moreover, this same Committee cannot be trusted with any of the submissions made by the public, and receiving them is not within its remit.”
PD also noted that that the “timeframe given for the collection of submissions from the public is very limited and there is no proper and real community outreach”.
PD’s Marcus Lauri adds, “We have a government whose sense of entitlement on this reform is wrong. This belongs to the people and not to politicians.
“Terms of reference and remits for the Convention should have been established and announced long ago, and an ongoing educational campaign initiated so that people from all walks of life actively participate.”
PD stressed always been in favour of Constitutional Reform, “which is backed by a roadmap that stems from an effective bottom-up approach planned by the Constitutional Convention”.
PD recalled that it has already forwarded two documents to the President’s office this year and “will continue to spell out what the two major parties leave out because the changes would not suit them”.
Deputy Leader Timothy Alden added, “The country’s executive has already dictated the parliamentary agenda by tabling four bills that touch upon separation of powers, and is bulldozing its way through down a different path than that kick-started by the President’s Office.”