Talk of a Second Republic ‘makes no sense’, constitutional experts insist

Constitutional experts have refuted the need for a completely new constitution, emphasising instead the need to revamp it and educate the people.

Constitutional lawyer Austin Bencini and former European Commissioner Tonio Borg said Malta’s constitution should be reinforced and reinvigorated, but not completely replaced.

The two also underlined the pressing need to change the way a president is appointed and removed.

From a simple parliamentary majority, the president should be appointed by two-thirds agreement.

They also rebutted the frequently made argument that such a requirement would lead to the two sides of parliament failing to see eye-to-eye on who to appoint as head of State.

Bencini and Borg were addressing activists during a discussion, moderated by Times of Malta journalist Keith Micallef, at a conference on the theme of Workers’ Day, on Friday, organised by the Union Haddiema Maghqudin.

Frequent constitutional changes show ‘uncertainty, instability’

Borg said he was against the creation of a Second Republic, which he said could be seen as an attempt to copy the Italian model, which eventually collapsed.

“The Constitution is at its basis good, but it needs to be serviced. However, it is not positive that we always want to amend the Constitution – it shows uncertainty and instability,” he noted.

Borg remarked that the United States constitution, which was ratified in 1788, has only been amended 26 times, 10 of which were to introduce human rights clauses.

“So, the US amended theirs only 26 times [in all these years], but we want to change Malta’s constitution every time we have a new idea.”
Bencini said he agreed that discussing a Second Republic “makes no sense”, saying the Constitution had matured over the years and shouldn’t be replaced completely.

“Since Independence, the Constitution which started out as a flower is now becoming a tree. Do we need to uproot the tree, or should we do what we need to strengthen it and make it more effective?” Bencini asked.

Both speakers stressed the need to address the way the Constitution stipulates a president should be elected and removed, with the latter pointing out the irony that a president can be appointed with the same simple majority in Parliament which is needed to change matters of much lesser importance, such as the law related to dogs.

“It shouldn’t be possible for a president to appointed and removed by a simple majority in Parliament. This means he or she can be removed with just a majority of those who happen to be in the House at the time,” Borg said. “The same majority needed to change the law on dogs in the same as that relating to the president’s appointment”.

He said that, if the law sets out that a two-thirds majority is required and provides for no “plan B”, then the government and Opposition will, eventually, agree on who to appoint.

“For every office, the two-thirds requirement was introduced, government and Opposition managed to agree, be it for the appointment of the Ombudsman, the Auditor General, and most recently, the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life,” Borg underscored.

Educate the people

Bencini said that, before the constitutional reform is put into place, the people should first be educated as to what the Constitution implies for them.

“We need a way of communicating what the Constitution is to the people, in a way they can understand,” he said. “I call for a national campaign, including in schools, for people to taught what our Constitution is, so when it comes to amend it, we will know where to start.”

In a similar vein, Borg said people had to be given the chance to understand what rights and obligation where given to them by the constitution.

“The way I like to explain the Constitution is that, like organisation have their statute, the statute of the state is the Constitution, and it is of interest not only to politicians, but to everyone. But for more people to be interested in it, we need to explain it better,” he said

“If we are not aware of what our rights and obligations are, how can we know if these are being breached?” Borg asked.