16 March 2021
The Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations
Block C, Beltissebħ
Valletta
Sent by email: vo@nullgov.mt
Sir,
We write further to our letter of 6 March and to comments as a reaction thereto you are quoted by a number of media outlets to have made and to our Judicial Protest some days later.
Your letter was not, as you implied to the press yesterday, limited to asking us to change some immaterial provisions of our Statute. Had this been the case, our reaction to it, directly and in public, would have been different.
Your letter has wrongly charged Repubblika with overspending and financial impropriety and, worst of all, with including in its committee members who have publicly expressed opinions you found incompatible with our status as a voluntary organisation which, in your view, renders Repubblika a political party or an organisation that is controlled by or acts in the interests of, a political party. We note that in your comments to the press you have dropped reference to any of these entirely false charges, of which you had already convicted us in your letter of 26 February.
You will recall that when we were founded, you vetted and approved our Statute. You confirmed to us it was compliant with the law. If you have changed your mind since then and as a result of a new interpretation of the law you now believe there need to be changes to some enabling provisions in our Statute, do feel free to let us know.
This having been stated, and for the avoidance of doubt, we maintain our position that we are compliant in all material respects with the law and remain insistent that you have produced no evidence whatsoever to support your unwarranted conclusions, both insofar as concerns our administration of our funds and our “political” (to use your own context) activity.
We remind you that in your ‘case’ against us you produced as evidence of our “political” activity the fact that we dared to make written submissions to the Daphne Caruana Galizia inquiry. In this light and in the light of your apparent eagerness to prevent us and our Board members and other persons connected with us from having and expressing our opinions, please be advised that we will only debate anything with you in a court unless you withdraw your unfounded conclusions without reservation.
We note that you point out in your remarks to the press that you have sent similar letters of default to several other NGOs. We do not know how other NGOs react to baseless accusations. We are convinced however that if you have also told other NGOs that they must shut down because they have expressed opinions that are critical of the government and they have complied and fallen into silence, the erosion of democracy in this country is far more advanced than was at first apparent from your gross attempt to silence us.
Finally, you assure us that you have acted independently of any intervention from the prime minister or the government. We do not understand quite why we’re expected to believe you when you refuse to allow for the possibility that we are also capable of acting without instructions from external political masters. Taken at face value, your statement tells us that you are solely and exclusively responsible for this outrage and we will hold you such if you do not withdraw your false accusations against us.
Consequently, we are constrained to reject your invitation to “discuss” our alleged “state of default” until such time as your baseless and illegal charges of improper administration of our funds and of being a political organisation that disqualifies us from the right to associate and organise ourselves as a voluntary organisation are withdrawn without reservation.
We will protect Repubblika, its members, and all activists in any and all civil society organisations from this blatant abuse and you may wish to take note of the position we have stated to the prime minister: Repubblika is here to stay.
Sincerely,
Robert Aquilina
President