The concept of a public inquiry is, now, not a new one for Malta.  After many, many months of campaigning, a public inquiry was appointed to look into the circumstances which led to the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

There was plenty of resistance from the government for the appointment of such a public inquiry, with the crux of many arguments being that it could prejudice the ongoing criminal cases connected to the murder.

Yet it didn’t, and the State was found to have been responsible for creating an environment which enabled Caruana Galizia’s assassination to happen.  The public inquiry board issued a number of recommendations in order to rectify the shortcomings and in order to offer ideas for reforms for the media sector.

Today we are being faced with further calls for a public inquiry, this time into the death of JeanPaul Sofia.

Sofia was just 20 years old when he was killed last December after a three-storey building at the Corradino industrial estate collapsed while he was in it.  Five others were hospitalised as a result, but survived.

Questions have since been raised over the practices used in the construction of the building, particularly after CCTV footage showed the building collapsing like a house of cards.  Nobody has been charged in connection with the incident thus far.

Like in Daphne’s case, Sofia’s family are insisting that a public inquiry be launched into the young man’s death.  Like in Daphne’s case, the government is thus far resisting these calls, with the PL instead deciding to criticise the Nationalist Party for backing such a call, saying that in doing so the Opposition leader Bernard Grech is “more interested in political stunts than in real justice.”

The PL argued that there is a magisterial inquiry which is investigating the case, and that Grech should appeal – like Abela did – for this to be completed in serenity but quickly so that those who are responsible should face justice.

This, however, is a short-sighted viewpoint.  Yes, justice must be done and those responsible for Sofia’s death must face the necessary consequences – but this is more so about understanding why this incident took place.

The public inquiry into Daphne’s death had a specific terms of reference which didn’t look into who committed the murder but which looked into what enabled the murder to take place, and who was responsible for creating the environment which allowed the murder to take place.

Likewise in this case, a public inquiry should not look at who specifically was responsible for Sofia’s death – that is the police’s job, and one hopes that now that four months have passed they are at the very least close to charging those responsible – but it should look at the environment which allowed it to happen.

Let us not forget: this is not the first death related to collapses in the construction industry.  This past week was the third anniversary since Miriam Pace was killed when her home collapsed into an adjacent construction site.

Others in two separate cases in Guardamangia and in a case in Mellieha were left homeless but counting their lucky stars that they hadn’t met the same fate when their homes collapsed into adjacent construction sites.

Legislative reforms to the industry followed since those incidents, and yet Sofia died in another building collapse.

It’s time that the construction industry gets the legal scrutiny that it deserves.  Too many times have there been incidents related to the industry for this to be allowed to continue. 

The people need to find out what is happening, and need to understand how and why it seems like the industry is allowed to keep operating on a business-as-usual basis despite fatal incidents like these.

The argument that a public inquiry could impinge upon or prejudice an ongoing criminal investigation or magisterial inquiry holds no water as long as the terms of reference are set out correctly: the public inquiry into Daphne Caruana Galizia’s death proved that.

Not appointing a public inquiry to look into the environment which is responsible for JeanPaul Sofia’s death would be a disservice to the public, and it would be another free pass for the cowboys in the construction industry to keep doing as they please – irrelevant of whether they put people’s lives in danger or not.