Repubblika Says Police Commissioner Reform Does Not Remove Prime Minister’s ‘Monarchic And Absolutist Power’
Prime Minister Robert Abela’s new reform to select a Police Commissioner has been rubbished by activist group Repubblika, saying that his changes “are solely cosmetic”.
“There is nothing in the changes announced by the Prime Minister that decreases, qualifies or in any way shares with other institutions the Prime Minister’s power to select, employ or remove the Police Commissioner,” the group said in a statement today.
Abela has proposed a new system that would see a new Commissioner approved by a Public Service Commission made up of two government and two opposition representatives. He did not propose having the new Commissioner subject to a two-thirds parliamentary approval, something which many activists have called for.
Repubblika called the Public Service Commission “an antiquated institution in our Constitution that actually preserves the unfettered powers of our Prime Minister”.
“The Public Service Commission is ‘appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Prime Minister in consultation with the Leader of the Opposition’,” the group said. “In effect, this means that the Prime Minister can actually appoint whoever s/he likes on the Commission even if the Opposition do not approve them.”
“Moreover, those who will be selecting the shortlist of candidates for Police Commissioner are not appointed on the basis of competence, merit or objectivity.”
Repubblika, which is made up of members from civil society and were central to organising various protests during the political crisis at the end of 2019, went on to say that the Police Commissioner will be selected “solely on the basis of the fact that the Prime Minister is happy to have them there”.
“These ceremonious procedures which pretend to create independence in the choice of a state official, but which in reality leave the choice to the Prime Minister’s monarchic and absolutist power, have already been applied by the Government in the so-called reform regarding the appointment of the judiciary,” Repubblika said.
They said that until a better system is proposed, the Commissioner would continue to be “a political puppet and who will allow criminal politicians to continue to do as they please”.
“This is why a change in Prime Ministers is not enough for us. After the injustice done to Daphne Caruana Galizia and the impunity of her murderers and of the corrupt persons she exposed, which until today, has not been stopped, we did not only want the Prime Minister to change. We want the powers that Joseph Muscat exploited, in order to allow this impunity to happen, to be curtailed,” they urged.
What do you think of Repubblika’s take on the Prime Minister’s proposals?
READ NEXT: How Malta May Have Been Used To Generate The Wealth Of Africa’s Richest Woman Through Alleged Corruption
