In the shadow of COVID-19

When Prime Minister Robert Abela addressed the nation in the wake of a record 510-infection day, everyone knew that the alleged “victory over COVID” was never anywhere near. Indeed, it was just short of simply being a colossal fiasco. We were back to square one.

All those brave declarations that the ‘battle’ had been won and that we would be back to normality, had evaporated into thin air in record time.

Health minister Chris Fearne bragged about the rate of vaccination in Malta, or how efficient our health system was, and our standing when compared to other countries’ public health performance. Poor Charmaine Gauci had to go through her weekly choreographed ripostes, now having become, frankly, devoid of any real substance.

And yet those infection numbers had exploded, and mortalities increased. What has emerged now is that our response to COVID-19 has been stunted, and in some cases, ill-equipped to last. Instead, there has been, at certain points in the last year, a clear disregard of science.

Indeed, it is utter rubbish to say that science prevailed in the decisions on COVID. Had it been the case, we would have acted earlier on in January, when the threat of the UK variant was already known. We did not. Because a good part of the decision-making process has been purely political. And few civil servants are able to overcome obdurate politicians with so much power in their hands. Not even in a pandemic.

Today we have lost control over COVID. Even the mortalities have snaffled away younger people with apparently healthy histories. The suffering of hundreds who have lost their relatives to a cruel virus is leaving them speechless at not being able to be by the side of their loved ones.

Added to this is the economic disaster we are facing.

In the ongoing press coverage, the worst offender has to be One News, by always making it a point to emphasise the number of recoveries before announcing the infections and mortalities. It is a flawed statistic because the vast majority of those recovered cases have not had a COVID test to ensure that they are COVID-free. The number of recovered cases is simply the number of COVID patients who have carried out their 14 days in isolation.

I will refrain at this point to talk of my personal experience with COVID-19. It would be futile anyway. What is important to talk about is the strained response of the government to the increase in COVID cases and why it is on the verge of collapse.

In this pandemic we were forced to make sacrifices, big sacrifices. We were unable to be with loved ones, even at their deathbeds. We could not visit them. In the face of all these sacrifices, the imposition of necessary, and wider restrictions, at an earlier stage of the rise in COVID cases, was because of political obstinancy. Downright pig-headedness.

Indeed, one cannot but not ask: did Charmaine Gauci possess that zealous determination to tell it as it is to the health minister as she saw those rising numbers? Is there anybody in the pantheon of public health supremos slamming their hands on the table? Because at this rate, the only people we might have to thank at the end of the pandemic are the health frontliners who bore the sacrifice of taking care of COVID patients, and us... us who relied on our individual resilience, who still worked long hours, raised families, paid their taxes, and respected the law. Only to see politicians dilly-dallying over how unpopular they might be if they do not lay down the line.

It is about time that we said it as it is.

The week in court

In court this week, the sequence of events that led to the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia revealed the criminal intent of the ‘Maksar’ brothers and their associates. That they were not nailed earlier, to me sounds like a case of lethargy and reluctance from the police investigators. Indeed, these men had already been arrested in December 2017 along with the Degiorgios and Muscat. That they were not arrested for other crimes before Caruana Galizia was killed is surely the fault of the police too.

The ‘Maksar’ brothers are definitely not new to the police and politicians. The question would be: who did the police call in for questioning when all these gangland murders were taking place? How many times were these people called in for questioning? Why was nobody hauled in for questioning when Romeo Bone was bombed... a man already known to the police and suspected in connection with other murders? That’s a question for some of the same officers and investigators on the Caruana Galizia case.

One could surmise that the attitude of the police then was simple: what’s the problem if the bastards are killing each off?

Yet, failure to act then allowed these gangs to become the untouchables they are. The connections between many of the gangland murders with the same people brought on board to kill Caruana Galizia, shows the extent of the failure to bring to justice the people behind these crimes. It had to be half-baked evidence and some vivid storytelling from the likes of Melvin Theuma and Vincent Muscat, to finally force some arrests.

The onus is on the police and the political class entrusted to direct them, to explain how this level of criminality was seemingly allowed to fester. Let’s stop blaming one party over the other. The criminals behind bars have been cavorting with party big men, chauffering them and acting as their bodyguards in return for some lucrative trading licence, for decades.

How many times in the last years, did any Maltese prime minister call in the Commissioner of Police to declare a war on the gangs? Look at the same lawyers defending  them.. the same money trails, the same fraudsters and dubious characters.

Queasy as I feel now to say this... but it’s rather close to the truth when some former Austin Gatt lapdog like Manuel Delia and Repubblika call Malta a mafia state. If Malta has not yet reached that pit, it is only  because we have started to see some resolute action now under Robert Abela and the new police commissioner. But it cannot stop now. Not ever.