Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1226904
2 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR Matthew Vella MANAGING EDITOR Saviour Balzan Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 29 MARCH 2020 Leaders must be on the same page Editorial ARE Malta's Prime Minister Robert Abela and his deputy, and health minister Chris Fearne, on the same footing in the fight against COVID-19? We hope so. On Thursday, Fearne issued clear, strict direc- tives that elderly citizens aged over 65 were to go in lockdown. The rationale was clearly understandable. These people, especially those with underlying ail- ments and so called comoborbidities, are the most susceptible to the coronavirus. The virulent strain of this virus attacks their lungs and wreaks havoc in the weakened body of the elderly pa- tient. A surge in elderly patients, requiring intensive medical care due to the aggressiveness of the coronavirus, would bring about a huge stress on our health services, currently preparing for the worst. The have been told to stay inside, so as to ensure the maximum of protection for them, a more reg- imented isolation for those who live with them, and to prevent the more devastating spread of the fast coronavirus contagion. Indeed, with the mortality rate for the over-75s at some 20%, it made all the more sense for a lockdown for elderly citizens to be put in place with the necessary safeguards. Among the elderly, the virus develops fast. Yet on Friday, Robert Abela appeared to be singing from a different hymn sheet. Hot on the heels of a series of exemptions, the tone of Fearne's and Prof. Charmaine Agius's previous implorations for a lock- down were changed. This time, Abela was announc- ing, on primetime TVM, that the lockdown was not the 'house arrest' it originally implied; exemptions for relatives living with them, for shopping chores and medical visits, even walks outside, were allowed. The lockdown was over merely 24 hours after it was announced. Understandably, the government is under pressure. It faces the challenge of how it will deal with the eco- nomic ramifications of the coronavirus shutdown of Malta's multitude of small businesses. Industry wants it to spend more and avoid the brusque wrath of re- cession once the COVID-19 pandemic subsides. This newspaper has clearly gone on record supporting the extension of wage subsidies that keeps people on companies' and firms' books and assist businesses to re-enter the cycle and be ready to bounce back after the lockdown. It is also facing a crucial task of enforcing the con- tinued running of government services and rule of law in an unprecedented scenario of remote-control decision-making. On Saturday, the Planning Author- ity announced it will carry out issuing development permits, via video-conferencing. How the rowdy public meetings of Malta's most contentious of regu- lators will pan out is yet to be seen, given the financial impact of such decisions and the importance of civil society activists in tempering this process. In a move which many will see as an appeasement to Malta's construction lobby, the PA will also be extending development permits by three years. Sup- porters will claim it prevents Malta from turning further into a construction site than it already is, by granting the construction industry that 2020 permits that have not yet seen ground-breaking activity will still be valid in the years to come. Objectors will once again see Labour's marriage to the developers' lobby as part of the last- ing legacy of this administration. And earlier in the week, another influential lobby of sorts, the hunt- ers and trappers of Malta, requested that the government bypasses the Ornis Committee, a stakeholders' consultative committee made of government ornithologists, hunters and conservationists, to derogate from the EU's ban on spring hunt- ing and opening the season in April. It is not so much about whether one has an opinion on hunting or not. What we see here are self-interest groups who despite the strain of the COVID-19 pandemic on our health and financial resources, are seeking con- cessions that fly in the face of decency. They seek to short-circuit the panic with which our legislators are caught up in, to obtain concessions that allow them to profit, if not now, later; and in the context of our rule of law situation, with enforcement efforts cur- rently occupied with the COVID-19 pandemic, it is with concern that one hears of BirdLife Malta's warn- ings of the abuse of law inside Malta's countryside by poachers and trappers. It is this kind of mentality that endangers a country that is at war with an invisible enemy. While our health services are in battle against a destructive virus that will kill people we all know, and while small businesses struggle to keep families earn- ing or give workers peace of mind that they will not be unemployed… self-interest groups want conces- sions that undermine the logic of a lockdown. Do Malta's leaders recognise that the economy is indeed on a war footing, and that minds have to be focused on the COVID-19 effort? Unless Abela and Fearne are on the same page, we fear conflicting mes- sages will undermine the national effort required by citizens to toe the line for all of us to stay safe, and indoors. Are we going to realise the severity of COVID-19 to our country's health and serenity only once people around us start to die? Stop the piecemeal tactics. Get on the same page. Stay focused. The health effort is the main front right now. 27 March 2010 Parties in secret negotiations to cancel election libel suits The Nationalist Party and the Labour Party have been engaged in secret talks over the past few weeks in a bid to obtain what has been described to MaltaToday as a "blanket agreement" to can- cel pending libel suits filed during the 2008 gen- eral elections and the 2009 European Parliament election campaigns. The libel suits under review are estimated to total almost €1 million in potential legal costs and damages: a figure which both parties cannot afford to pay up with mounting debts forcing them to retrench. While both PN and PL secretary-generals declined to comment on the secret talks when approached by MaltaToday, senior party sources from both parties revealed that the talks have reached an advanced stage, and presiding mag- istrates are said to have already been receiving formal notes from MPs' lawyers that declare the cases were either resolved or in the process of being resolved. The PN is being represented by secretary-gen- eral Paul Borg Olivier and party lawyer Joseph Zammit Maempel, while Labour is represented by acting secretary-general Stefan Zrinzo Azz- opardi, and lawyers Paul Lia and Aaron Mifsud Bonnici. The notes, many of which were filed before magistrates Silvio Meli, Joseph Apap Bologna and Consuelo Scerri-Herrera, state that an "amicable" agreement has been reached between the sides. MaltaToday is informed that 58 libel suits filed in the run-up to the 2008 general election, and another 19 filed during the 2009 campaign for the European Parliament elections are under "review" by PN and PL lawyers. The libel suits are a major financial concern for both political parties, as they struggle to keep up with their structural losses. But they also rep- resent a time-consuming exercise for the poli- ticians and ministers involved, who for months and years will be summoned to court to give evidence and follow up their cases. In 2008, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi filed a number of libel suits against former Labour leader Alfred Sant for calling him a "liar" during public speeches, while the entire Cabinet sued Sant over "corruption" remarks he had made... Quote of the Week "It is absurd that at this delicate moment the government even considers to open a spring hunting season for this year." BirdLife CEO Mark Sultana on hunter's demands to open spring hunting season MaltaToday 10 years ago Are we going to realise the severity of COVID-19 to our country's health and serenity only once people around us start to die?