Following the heinous murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, people here in Malta started speaking about law and order more than any other point in recent history.

All of a sudden, law and order became an important issue and families started speaking about it at home.

The news that our forces of law, aided and assisted by foreign experts, arrested and subsequently arraigned people charging them with the homicide of Daphne Caruana Galizia was met with a positive feeling of satisfaction by the public at large.  My position as Justice Minister precludes me from commenting too much on the actual case, given how important the principle of presumption of innocence is and the fact that committal proceedings are still yet to start.  However, I am allowed to say two words: Thank you.

Thank you to the Police, to the Armed Forces of Malta, to the Security Service, to the Office of the Attorney General and to all international organisations and entities who helped Malta in the past weeks.

Our authorities rose to the occasion, despite the strong and sometimes personal criticism that was continuously being aired against various representatives of the disciplined forces in Malta, particularly with regards to Dr Peter Grech and Mr Lawrence Cutajar.  They and their teams managed to keep their focus and concentration focused 100% on the job and they did it perfectly well.

Once again, thank you.

 

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I remember the feeling that overtook our country some months ago when a car bomb took place in a busy part of Msida.  It was a very ugly feeling, a feeling that criminal gangs, apart from killing each other or doing their best to do so, had also instilled terror in the hearts and minds of innocent people who were busy commuting in their everyday life.

It does not take much time after being given the responsibility of the Justice portfolio to realise that there are criminals - hardened criminals - in our country.  I am not referring to the everyday person who has done something stupid in one part of his or her life, or that citizen who loses it and breaks the law.  I am referring to people who have a direct intent to cause harm, to kill, to hurt people.  Of Maltese people, like you and me, who don't give a toss on the harm and terror they cause to the way of life of the Maltese.

I know various stories of people in uniform who do their best to combat organised crime in our country, of Judges, Magistrates and public prosecutors who show no fear in the face of criminality.  Most of the time those stories pass by unreported by the press and, more often than not, people in authority hit the headlines in case they most unfortunately slip or do some mistake or other.  

Last time I was invited to a dinner and I was seated next to the wife of a retired Judge who used to preside over trials by jury.  She told me, very politely, that till this very day her heart skips a beat when she hears the sound of a car stopping abruptly in front of their home.

"You never know who hates us," the elderly woman told me.

This is what honest people who do their job properly pass through, even after their professional life is over.

 

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Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting five Justice Ministers from Central Asian countries.  I was part of a group of EU Justice Ministers and high officials, headed by the current Justice Council Chair Minister Urmas Reinsalu.

The discussions centred about rule of law and enhanced cooperation and the sharing of best practices.

I asked my team to prepare for me a list of the main reforms we have undertaken to enhance the justice system in Malta so that I would be in a position to share my experiences with my fellow counterparts.

The list was endless and contained pages and pages of reforms and changes which we have undertaken. The people attending the event, all versed in law and jurisprudence, appreciated the sharing of our best practices and stories of reform.

 The challenge is how to keep explaining what we have done and what we are doing in simple language and in a language which keeps the man or woman in the street - as opposed to stakeholders or experts -  interested.

This week, for instance, we discussed during Committee Stage a whole list of changes to our Code of Organisation and Civil Procedure which, amongst other things, will create a new Superior Court for Gozo (presided by a Judge) at par with Malta and a new section of our First Hall in charge of company law matters.

My hope is that people will experience the benefits once the changes are set in place.  That hits home more strongly than the best-funded marketing campaign.