Parliament convened on Monday to discuss the proposed amendments to the Constitution, which would entrench within its folds the office of Ombudsman and raise the retirement age for magistrates and the Attorney General to 65.

Although both sides of the House have expressed themselves in favour of the bill, the session was taken up by political bickering, and members of parliament threw mud matured since 1976, when the Labour party had promised the creation of the office of Ombudsman in its election manifesto but, as Culture and Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech pointed out, had failed to bring it into being.

Parliamentary Secretary in the OPM Tony Abela opened the session by saying that elderly members of the judiciary are a treasure trove of wisdom and experience and the country should do all it could to retain their services. To prove his point, Dr Abela said that Judges Giovanni Bonello and Ina Cremona, who are in their 70s, are still giving Malta a good name by performing an impeccable service in different European courts.

Referring to the Ombudsman, Dr Abela said that citizens who have been slighted by the government need to be given redress after an objective study of their case. For that to happen, there must be a free political situation. During the Labour years preceding 1987, said the parliamentary secretary, when many people were hurt by government action, be it at work, through the administration of social services, or at the hands of the police or the army, the plight of such victims was aggravated because they had no one to whom to turn. Looking back at the justice commissions created by the nascent PN government, and by the MLP in its two-year stint in power, Dr Abela said that such commissions were good, but offered limited compensation, and hence the reason for the creation of the office of Ombudsman by a later Nationalist government. Dr Abela concluded his speech by praising the current Ombudsman, Chief Justice Emeritus Joseph Said Pullicino, for being yet another example of how members of the judiciary, who are past their retirement age, still have much to offer.

Opposition Leader Alfred Sant had good things to say about the extension of the working life of magistrates, but drew parliament’s attention to the injustice created with former magistrates Dennis Montebello and Joseph Cassar, who have recently retired after turning 60. The government knew that they were about to retire, said Dr Sant, and since this bill has been in the making for some time, it should have incorporated provisions to include both magistrates within its scope.

As for the Ombudsman amendment, Dr Sant said that the entrenchment has a symbolic value, more than anything, since there is already consensus in the country over the need to have and to support the office.

However, the man in the street still says that institutions are strong with the weak and weak with the strong, that politicians are close allies of bullies who live above the law, that money can buy rights and that the rich can influence institutional decisions. Moreover, said Dr Sant, there is a lack of respect for political minorities, which in Malta can amount to almost half of the electorate.

Therefore the Ombudsman needs to be bolstered, said the MLP leader. As it is, the office of the Ombudsman is weakened by the lack of protection of whistle blowers – people who publicly denounce abusive administrative decisions, and also by the lack of structures that guarantee freedom of inform-ation – the duty of the government to supply relevant information when people query its decisions.

Dr Sant praised Joe Sammut, the first Ombudsman, calling him “an excellent pioneer”. Mr Sammut was a man who said whatever he had to say, recalled Dr Sant, and then was attacked for it by the Nationalist government.

Minister Zammit Dimech rebutted Dr Sant’s claims and said that by entrenching the office of Ombudsman in the Constitution, the institution was protected from future governments who may wish to abolish it, by forcing them to seek a two-thirds majority.

The Ombudsman was pleased with the amendment, said Dr Zammit Dimech, seeing it as a commitment on the part of government to safeguard the rights of the citizens. Twelve thousand people have presented cases before the Ombudsman since the creation of the office, which Dr Zammit Dimech sees as the lynchpin of the country’s democratic infrastructure.

Criticising Dr Sant’s accusations that the government hides crucial information on contracts and over-spending, or obfuscates facts by supplying outright lies, Dr Zammit Dimech said that it was the Nationalist party in government that had introduced pluralism in broadcasting, created the office of Auditor General and set up the Public Accounts Committee, which is headed by a member of the opposition.

Labour spokesperson on public functions Helena Dalli censured Dr Zammit Dimech for spending all but two minutes of his speech on attacking the opposition.

Parliament was adjourned until yesterday’s session.