One of the things I have learned is not to tell people you are going to do something if you have no intention of doing it, or not to make a promise that you have no intention of keeping. These past 8 years we have seen countless broken and empty promises of how things were pledged to be done, not only did they not materialise but I believe there was never even the intention to try. Transparency was one of these broken promises!
Now, I am not only talking about the contracts, such as that of Vitals Global Health Care, and so many others that had more black marker than printed words when presented to Parliament. Allow me to remind you all that these contracts were all paid for by public finances, which in itself is mind-boggling, preposterous and completely unbelievable. In a normal country, where public finances are supposed to be accounted for and completely transparent, one can only imagine the intention behind it all. Consider what was redacted with “black marker”, such as the €100 million termination clause in the case of Vitals. There have been countless situations where we, the public, were treated as second class citizens and were kept in complete darkness, on a need-to-know basis. The Government took the decision for us that “we did not need to know”. This brings us to the situation we find ourselves in today.
As a politician, meeting with people and discussing current situations is a daily occurrence. The most common subject of discussion this past week after hitting another record number of infected is what comes next? What are we supposed to do? And how did we get here? This is something that is bothering people, all people! …and rightly so. Who can blame them if they are scared because they do not know the truth and worried about their loved ones, people want guarantees that things are happening the way they should and in an organised and transparent manner? They deserve reassurance that the situation is under control they deserve the truth…. This is not an issue that needs to be politized, COVID does not distinguish what political preference you have or if you even have one.
This week we have heard another set of measures, ironically, we find ourselves at the same place, we were last year. My heart goes out to every employee, employer and shop owner who was once again shut down because of this situation. Whoever cannot see the problem cannot defend against it, and that is exactly the situation we find ourselves in. The lack of transparency, the complete absence of the truth has brought us to our knee’s. The strategy adopted by the Government did not allow us to prepare for what was to come, we never had a chance! We need now more than ever to let people know what is happening, we need to ensure we are transparent and truthful we need to ensure that we not only listen to the people but act to their needs we need to ensure we allow medicine and professionals to lead the way out of the hole we are in. Considering what happened this week, after seeing the explosion of cases and listening to the Government’s press conference, I cannot blame people for worrying. COVID does not distinguish what political preference you have or if you even have one. During these past weeks, we have heard numerous stories of our elderly, who have not been sent an appointment for vaccination and felt completely lost, others who have received more than one appointment, extremely vulnerable persons who have till yet received anything.
People are losing hope; they see and feel that they are being denied the truth and that they are insignificant, that they don’t matter. They feel like this whole situation has become a vote catching exercise like so many other situations in the past. Being a new candidate, trying to meet as many people as safely as I can, this is what I hear from everyone, irrespective of their political beliefs. This is not and should not be a political issue, this is a medical issue, and in so should be handed over to professionals.
Let’s start to give people reassurance, encouragement and guarantees, reinstall their faith. Not with positive propaganda, but with transparency and truth. The Leader of the Opposition knows this is what is needed and that is why he has called to impose a Public Health Emergency, this will allow the medical experts to take control, give them more power than politicians. This call for action needs to be backed by all creating a situation where all sides are compiling with the medical decisions taken for us to move forward. The measures taken yesterday were needed but should have been taken earlier. Dr Bernard Grech explained the measures are just as important as the vaccination process and we have the obligation to be serious, truthful and correct with the Maltese public. The Leader of the Opposition is doing what the Government is not doing … leading! That is what people want, someone who tells them the truth.
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