The President's activity of L-Istrina is in full swing and I have no doubt about the generosity of the Maltese nation. Malta has matured and refuses to confuse legitimate criticism with ridiculous pleas for a boycott of this activity because of the President's commitment to multiculturalism.
Historically, L-Istrina stood for the money gifts given to children on New Year's Day. Giving gifts got entangled in Colonial politics. The Pro-British started giving presents on Christmas Day. Those who supported Italian Culture in Malta continued giving money gifts on New Year's Day. The elite amongst them opted to give their money gift on another day, exactly on 6th January, the day of the epiphany. These past practices are today fading away and L-Istrina is now associated with Boxing Day, that is, the day when the English elite put the Christmas decorations back into the boxes. In Malta, this day means being generous towards those who are disadvantaged in society.
However, there is another point, which I want to highlight in connection with this activity. It is a good thing that the current President followed the footsteps of her predecessor and wants to stay in full control of the money that is gathered from L-Istrina. In other words, the President is adamant to keep the right to choose the organizations that the Community Chest Fund supports.The selection by the President is done irrespective or not whether these organizations are registered with the Commissioner for Voluntary Organizations.
I am not saying this because those associations,which are not registered with the Commissioner of Voluntary Organizations,are mainly from the Catholic sphere. My plea goes beyond politics, religion and social considerations. I want the presidency to remain independent and not subjected to the whims of any commissioner or authority. The presidency is only responsible to the Constitution and ultimately to Parliament alone.Succumbing to the requests or the diktat of the Commissioner of Voluntary Organizations is in my opinion a sign of weakness. Moreover, I don't think that the past requests by the Commissioner of Voluntary Organizations were in the spirit of the law. The Commissioner of Voluntary Organizations only wants those organizations registered with his office to receive funds from the Community Chest Fund.
In other words, if the President were to submit to the Commissioner of Voluntary Organization's request, he or she would no longer be the President, that is the overarching authority in Malta. The power of the President would have been clipped. The President's fund raising activities will end up subjected to the scrutiny of another authority. These activities should only be subject to the scrutiny of the people because the money comes directly from the people.
The spirit of the law that the Commissioner of Voluntary Organizations is quoting is only applicable for money generated from public taxation. In other words, such a demand by the said Commissioner holds good for those organizations, which are receiving funds generated by the government or the EU from our taxes. If the money that the President is distributing is generated from direct or indirect taxation, then it makes sense that the organizations benefiting from such money should be registered with the Commissioner of Voluntary Organizations, as all citizens are obliged to pay taxes, whether or not they agree with them; but money here is collected from donations and no one is being forced to donate for charity.
The dynamics of donations are different from those of taxation. The money generated from donations is the result of a voluntary decision that each donor makes out of his free will after being convinced of the noble cause behind such a collection. Therefore, it is wrong for anyone to argue that there should be control over the institutions,to which the President chooses to donate the money lawfully collected through donations. The control here should rest squarely with the President. The President should be totally free to choose those institutions,which she or he would like to endow without any interference from pseudo-legal entanglements,as the money in question is collected through public donations and not taxation.
Once the people embrace the appeal of the President, they will be expressing their public consent to the President's aid preferences.By naming beforehand the institutions that will be benefiting from L-Istrina, the President assumes the collective voice of the people. Then, through their donations, they confirm the choices of the President. It should be remembered, that the prestige and authority of the President derives directly from the people. In turn, the presidency radiates the personality that the incumbent has built over the years. The President's power and moral authority wields out from this acquired prestige.
I am not saying this in disrespect to the office of the Commissioner of Voluntary Organizations. When I was responsible to a Foundation, which was set up within a Parish Church, I had no problem to register this Foundation with the office of the Commissioner of Voluntary Organizations.
Historically, the Community Chest Fund was not part of the machinery of the State. The idea of a Chest Fund goes back to the 19th Century when Imperial Britain embraced the liberal theories. Industrialisation and liberal economy created great hardships to society. The elite of the English society reacted by creating what they termed as the welfare society. Sarah Austin was one of the first persons to express her worries for the social hardship of the Maltese nation during the first decades of British rule. She was the wife of the British Royal Commissioner and Jurist John Austin. Together with George Cornewall Lewis, John Austin was sent to Malta to report to Westminster on the political affairs of Malta. In one of the letters that Sarah Austin wrote to a friend in 1836, she had this to say about Malta and its inhabitants.
"The Maltese are very docile, sharp and intelligent. How much there is to say about the little half Arab nation corrupted and degraded to the last degree by the worst government in the world, that of the Order [of the Knights of St. John]; neglected and despised by the English, ignorant, superstitious and devoured by every kind of prejudice! They must not be left in such a condition".
The British answer to Sarah's social plea was the setting up of a welfare society. The wife of the Governor was burdened with the responsibility of raising money to go to charitable aid. It was a time when the authorities did not believe in the welfare state and Imperial Britain perceived the question of welfare as a charitable activity to be left in the hands of women. The model was taken over by the Office of the President, when it was set up in 1974. Except for the period when Agatha Barbara was President, the charity activities related to Christmas fell squarely on the wife of the President. Our First Lady used to steal the show. The major change here was brought over during the presidency of George Abela.
Abela got rid of the famous company, which during the presidency of Edward Fenech Adami started to organize the money raising campaign for L-Istrina on behalf of the First Lady. This time, the President is a woman. Still Coleiro-Preca decided to continue in the footsteps of George Abela and assumed full responsibility for this event. By doing this, the President is affirming that she wants this event to remain a national one, away from state bureaucracy and regulations.
The Office of the Presidency should remain jealous of its independence and I am sure that this is one of the reasons, why the Maltese nation will continue to express its support for L-Istrina. The money collected will once again go for a noble cause. Thus, let's be generous towards our brothers and sisters who are less fortunate than us during this festive period.